Clifton CC Discussion Board

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by Rob Mon Mar 19, 2018 11:17 am
A tough weekend to be a cyclist.
Just myself and AndyG took on the Sunday ride. Steen rightly steered us away from the Hambleton banks, but we took the cross bikes out across the arctic tundra to the south of Heslington and through Stamford bridge to Millington. A bit like an "arctic dirty clubrun". The back via Huggate and Thix. The snow and ice weren't really an issue, just the bone chilling wind. No other cyclists on the roads, but also few cars. Great to be out, fantastic vistas.

Steen's rescheduling B'stard Banks for next Sunday.
by craigdabrown Mon Mar 19, 2018 11:33 am
The good thing about living close to the City Centre is that you can postpone making a decision about riding until the last minute. From the inside looking out, things didn’t look great on Saturday but I thought I’d give it a go and was extremely pleased to discover that 5 other (fool)hardy Clitftonites (ClaireG, JohnB, PeteS, GrahamT and RichC) were of similar mind.

We decided to head East, into the strong headwind, the rationale being that Millington would be a decent ride but if conditions got too bad then we could safely head for home. As has been the case for a lot of the colder rides this winter, the roads were actually really dry and felt much safer than the wet conditions and flooding we’d experienced the previous weekend.

Standard route out through Bossall to Leavening, we climbed straight out the top and onto Thixendale where the wind direction meant it was an effort to achieve 10mph on the descent but an easier job than normal to climb out. Claire had a puncture just before the junction with the A166 but we were soon on the road again and facing the fiercest wind-chill factor of the day before reaching the sanctuary of the turn at Huggate. Rich was temporarily relieved of his duties on the front at this point and set free to have a blast through Millington Pastures.

The Rambler’s Rest cafe, and its open fires, was more welcoming than ever with scrambled egg on toast all round. We actually timed things really well as the heaviest flurries occurred, literally, while we were inside the cafe with the snow blowing in through the velux windows in the roof and landing on our table. This provided an excuse to eat cake and, rather bizarrely, put the world to rights with a discussion re. the merits of a dishwasher.

A tailwind all the way home, the only distraction coming when John picked up a thorn and our second puncture of the day. But this was dealt with in Formula1-esque style.

At 55 miles, one of the shorter but definitely one of the most rewarding rides of the winter. Once again, a big thank you to everyone involved. Claire did particularly well, getting her fitness back and sticking with the faster pace. John still wasn’t feeling 100% but looked after the group and Pete and Graham rode as strongly and consistently as ever. Special mention to Rich though. He was at the front for the whole day, went back down the climb at Leavening to check John was ok, changed both punctures, in truly arctic conditions, with his bare hands, climbed out of Thixendale twice and kept the pace up but the group together all day.

All good prep. for the Spirograph next week.
by ClaireG Mon Mar 19, 2018 9:10 pm
Yes, thanks to the A riders for a good adventure out into the Beast on Sat am.

I was particularly grateful for the regroups at the top of the climbs and the thoughtful placing of myself in the group out of the cross winds - it made a big difference to me feeling comfortable rather than grovelling to keep up.

What would we do without our awesome Millington Cafe!
Thanks for the miles and company.

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