The grooved valleys, sinuous rivers and panoramic passes make the verdant Yorkshire Dales one of Britain's showcase cycling regions. No wonder the 2014 Tour de France kicked off with its screenfilling scenery. (They enjoyed closed roads, but the cycle.travel website offers a very close alternative route on some of the Dales' many quiet, picturesque back lanes.) Rugged farms, robust market towns, and cyclist-friendly fireside pubs and cafes help, too.
There are at least three dozen named dales in this imposing north-western chunk of Yorkshire, just about every one a cycling joy. Candidates for the grandest include Swaledale (fjord-like in its upper reaches between Keld and Muker); Wharfedale (most cinematic, with film-set Kettlewell, Grassington, and Bolton Abbey); and Wensleydale (broad and lush, with vivacious market town Hawes, and All Creatures Great and Small's Askrigg). You'll likely have the off-radar ones to yourself: quiet Coverdale; Kingsdale with its secret caves; or Littondale and its wonderfully remote pub.
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Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...
The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.
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