Topic Title

How fast are the Saturday training rides (not the newcomers ride) - slower than 20mph - about 20mph - or faster than 20mph (are we talking 2nd Cat chaingang sort of pace)?

And is there usually a goodish turn out and do they start at 10.00am and last about 4 hours?

I can't do Sunday club rides, much as I would like to, as it doesn't seem fair to leave the wife to look after my 1 and 3 three year old as I dissappear off to do the club run, but Saturdays might be possible for me sometimes.

The Saturday training rides do indeed start at 10am from Exhibition Square. In terms of how long / how fast, there's usually some variety; it depends pretty much on who shows up, whether people are racing on the following day, and so on. Over the past couple of months there has generally been some combination of two out of three of the following:-

York - Malton - Terrington - York; a rolling and brisk two and a half hours
York - turn right off the Malton road and up onto the Wolds - York; three hours or more with more hills
York - Kirkham - Sherrif Hutton - York; two hours for those wanting a slightly easier ride

The pace on the longer two seems to work out around 17.5-18mph average overall, so it's not gutbusting but on a windy day, with some efforts up the hills and some paceline work on the return leg, it keeps most people happy. Those who want to work sit on the front, those who are racing the next day sit at the back. Numbers have been on the up recently - there have generally been over a dozen setting out every week, though this will often split into a faster and slower group at some point.

See you out there? (but probably not today as I'm racing tomorrow and it's persisting down outside)