The Otley One – Reliability Ride 2023 (Updated – open for Online Entry)
‘The Otley One’, our 2023 Reliability Ride Sunday, 5th February 2023 Every year the Otley Cycle Club arranges a Reliability Ride in early February to test a rider’s winter training and to blow the cobwebs from their legs and bikes.…
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‘The Otley One’, our 2023 Reliability Ride
Sunday, 5th February 2023
Every year the Otley Cycle Club arranges a Reliability Ride in early February to test a rider’s winter training and to blow the cobwebs from their legs and bikes. If you remember last year’s ride, you’ll know it was held in brutal wind, sleet and rain. Still, 65 hardy souls completed the ride. This year we are hoping for more pleasant, dare I say balmy, weather conditions, with up to 200 riders taking part in a traditional ride which finishes at the Club House with a well-earned cuppa and a fantastic spread of home-made cakes and sandwiches. Are you up for The Otley One? if so, please put the date in your diary.
The Reliability Ride Series
The Otley ride is the fourth of a series of 10 early season rides across Yorkshire and has been held for more than 20 years. A Reliability ride is all about participants demonstrating that they are a ‘reliable rider’, by completing a ride within a reasonable, specified time. Details of all 10 rides can be found at
https://ridethestruggle.com/blogs/struggle/yorkshire-reliability-rides-2023
Groups of cyclists work together to ensure that they get around the course safely and in time. All riders are required to be self-sufficient. They need to fix their own bikes and take any food or personal medication with them on the ride.
Reliability Rides are simple and cheap to enter because there are no paper maps, no chip timing, only limited signage on route and no feed stations or other support. The event takes place on the open roads so the rules of the Highway Code apply and the wearing of a suitable cycle helmet is mandatory.
The Otley Ride
Otley Cycle Club’s Sunday morning event has two routes:
A longer, 90 kms ride to Kettlewell and back; and
A shorter, 50 kms ride to the Strid Wood Tea Rooms (just before Barden Tower) and return.
Route Details
The original longer ride to Kettlewell has had to be shortened by 10 kms due to a road closure, now turning left in Conistone instead of going on to Kettlewell. The revised 80 kms route should be completed in 3.5 hours and starts at 09.30am from the Buttercross (market place) Otley and follows the A65 to Ilkley, Addingham, Bolton Abbey, Barden Tower, Appletreewick and Grassington, turning left in Conistone, to join the A6160 on the return through Threshfield, Burnsall, Barden, Bolton Bridge, Addingham, Ilkley, Askwith to finish at Chevin Cycles in Otley.
Route for download (80k):
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41816135
The shorter 50 km route should be completed in 3 hours and starts at 9.45 am. As above to the Strid Wood Tea Rooms, turn and return via Bolton Abbey, Ilkley, Askwith to finish at Chevin Cycles in Otley. This route is a little shorter than in previous years due to a landslip between Barden Bridge and Cavendish Pavilion preventing return by the back road (Storiths Lane).
Route for download (50K):
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38354249
Registration
The cost to enter the ride is £5 per person, which includes British Cycling’s £1 online booking fee. Nearly £2 per rider goes to British Cycling to provide insurance for the event. We would prefer online registration through British Cycling but you can sign-on on the day at the Buttercross in Otley. Registration will open on the day from 08:45 am, pre-registered riders will be asked to quickly confirm their entry on the day.
Toilets and cafes in Otley
The Town Centre toilets in Orchard Gate will be open Free of Charge to cyclists from 08:00 to 10:00 am. Cafes such as Costa Coffee (Kirkgate), Joys Coffee House (Market Street) and Leeds House Cafe (next to the Buttercross) may also be open.
Leaving Otley
Groups will be set off from the Boroughgate side of the Buttercross at 1 or 2-minute intervals from 09.30 am. Look after one another on the road – have a safe ride and remember this is not a race!!
Returning to Otley
Riders should sign-in in the car park of Chevin Cycles on their return and then come and enjoy cakes and sandwiches at the Club House, down the cobbled lane to the side of Chevin Cycles.
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