Topic Title

How was it for all of you then?
Was anybody racing?
How did the MBO event go on Saturday?
How was the saturday social run?
How did the various training rides go?

Only 3 takers for the clubrun today. When the second blizzard struck somewhere near N Duffield I was contemplating looping round for an early bath, but Willy and Ian Hagyard encouraged us on. Glad they did as it turned out to be a fine ride with lots of new lanes. Just shy of 80 miles in just under 5 hours riding; not too shabby on a day like this.

The MTBO went well. The weather at the start was fairly mild and clear and I counted about 50 riders.

Andy S and I were flying the club's colours.

Andy broke a chain in the closing minutes and finished on foot, but still smiling.

I nearly broke my neck when a rather innocent looking puddle of mud turned out to be hub deep and I saw my pedals rotate above me as my map board buried itself in the mud.

It was good to see such a broad age range doing it. The youngest I saw was a boy no more than 5 hopping with joy that he'd found a control all by himself and got 10 points!

The Sunday training ride also comprised of 3 - myself, Matt S & Iain M. We made good progress in a cross tailwind to Castle Howard / Amotherby / A loop into the vale of Pickering then past Eden camp and into Malton. Out over the climb out of Malton we use on the Reliability and then turned left for North Grimston. Matt took us up a new climb for me out of N Grimston which is hard right on the T jnc just before the village - a steep gravelly climb made tougher by the crosswind. We came back via Wharram Percy, Thixendale, Bugthorpe (parted company with Matt at Buttercrambe) and Stockton on Forest. 4 hrs. An exfoliating experience in the hail.

I was racing again on Sunday, a Cycling Development North West league event at Saighton near Chester for E/1/2/3. We rolled out in a flurry of hailstones but the sun came out shortly after so it was just the strong and gusty wind with which we had to contend.
I tried the same tactic as last week - early break of 6, joined after a couple of laps by 3 other riders. We 9 made good progress until the penultimate lap, when Pete Williams and Neil Swithenbank attacked over the rise at the finish. I managed to go with them, along with Pete's Kinesis teammate James Sampson and one other. The 5 of us worked well together until, on the final lap, James and Pete took it in turns to attack as the rest of us were forced to chase. In the end the 2 Kinesis riders got away along with Neil Swithenbank. Pete won, Neil 2nd, James 3rd and I outsprinted the remaining breakaway rider for another 4th place.
So a very good showing by the York based riders (Pete and James!) and another not-quite-there-at-the-finish for me.

I was racing again on Sunday, a Cycling Development North West league event at Saighton near Chester for E/1/2/3. We rolled out in a flurry of hailstones but the sun came out shortly after so it was just the strong and gusty wind with which we had to contend.
I tried the same tactic as last week - early break of 6, joined after a couple of laps by 3 other riders. We 9 made good progress until the penultimate lap, when Pete Williams and Neil Swithenbank attacked over the rise at the finish. I managed to go with them, along with Pete's Kinesis teammate James Sampson and one other. The 5 of us worked well together until, on the final lap, James and Pete took it in turns to attack as the rest of us were forced to chase. In the end the 2 Kinesis riders got away along with Neil Swithenbank. Pete won, Neil 2nd, James 3rd and I outsprinted the remaining breakaway rider for another 4th place.
So a very good showing by the York based riders (Pete and James!) and another not-quite-there-at-the-finish for me.

Wehey!!