I hope I look like this when I'm 37!

Today was a tougher day than yesterday and the fact that we had to climb Hardknott Pass was in the back of everybody's mind all day.  For that reason we decided to take the start of the day easy and just rolled along as a group for a couple of hours.  The first major climb of the day came just before the rest stop and me and another lad decided to hammer it up, crossing the top together.  We rode as a group all the way to the bottom of Hardknott Pass, had a café stop and then attacked the climb.  I had attempted this climb at my first race last year but only made it 2/3 of the way up before having to get off so this year I was determined to make it up, which I did without too much problem and I was also first up :) (Pic below).  Descending was a little scary because it's so steep that you are an your brakes all the time (I'm sure I could smell burning rubber by the bottom).

Immediately after Hardknott comes Wrynose Pass, not quite as hard but still a challenge.  It's a gradual climb at first then really kicks up at the end (~25%).  I started riding hard quite early on, dropped everybody and went over the top on my own.

The rest of the ride home was fairly easy and we just took it easy.  A great weekend and I met some fantastic people.  As far as I know everybody completed the day, which is fantastic given some members of the group had only been cycling since the start of the year.  Just goes to show what you can do if you really want to.