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I still can't find the result of last week's Coalville Wh 25 or the City RC 3-up from Saturday which also had Clifton interest - report anyone? Kit, I see, took 44th in the Eddie Soens and I feel there must be a story..... And what about Andy and co at the Chapter's Hcap RR yesterday?

The Sat cafe run was split into two groups with Howard taking half a dozen or so around the Wolds to Millington. Claire and I got the tandem out for the first time in a while and joined Kevin's half a dozen solos for a fractal route to Malton. The group kept together well and enjoyed a good feed in The Yorkshire Tea Rooms. There was a spill on the way back following a touch of wheels as rides swerved to avoid, wait for it, a carrot! Only pride was dented (and the carrot is making a good recovery).

Just Arthur, Paul and me for the training ride on Sunday. The wind wasn't half as bad as it sounded at 7am. The route was out to malton again then along the ridge through Terrington all the way to easingwold before heading back in. 65 miles in 3 and a half hours. Bernard, Dave C and Ian H were heading off for Cockayne, intending to "see how it goes". How did it go?

Like Rob has already said the wind at 7am was not as bad later, setting off with it at our backs Dave C, Bernard and I set off towards Strensall and was joined by Nick (the American guy) who often turns up for the odd ride with a training group, heading out through Castle Howard, Slingsby to Welburn where Nick set of back to York, Bernard who had not been on his bike for a couple of weeks suggested to us that we could go on to Hutton le Hole via Gillamoor while he went direct to meet up there for a cafe stop.

After the cafe we headed towards Malton going through some lovely countryside before heading on through through Marton to Malton where we crossed the river Derwent over a narrow footbridge near Low Hutton then Home via Kirkham Abbey, Bossall and Sand Hutton.

Due to Bernards excellent route planning we seemed to have the wind at our back then sides just about all the way to Kirkham Abbey and by the time we faced the headwind it had dropped quite a lot from earlier.

My mileage for the day was 76.

Paul and Seb were meeting friends at Dalby so I had an impulsive decision to ride over and spend the afternoon at Dalby with Jodie and get a few extra miles in.
Left in such a hurry in order to get there on time that I set off without food/energy and left my map on the kitchen table. Fortunately I knew the way to Castle Howard and hauled Ian down, who was flying the opposite way, for directions (thank you!). I got to Amotherby then could not remember the next bit of directions so called Paul and Seb. Whilst getting the next instalment of directions I crashed into the hedgerow (ouch!). Got to Pickering saw a sign post to Dalby so followed it- this route seemed to be a never ending detour!!!
Eventually got to Dalby 45 miles later. Could of been worse as I read Kev was in the vicinity...what a lecture I would have got if I bumped into him!

For the !st time, I had the opportunity to go on the Sunday cafe run aswell as the Saturday race, sorry social ride with Howard. As outlined already by Rob and Ian, 2 very enjoyable rides with 2 great routes, thanks Howard/Kevin and Bernard. Total 158 miles for the 2 days.

The Chapters Road Race at Stokesley was a rather interesting affair, with some of the worst riding I have ever seen in my life. There wasnt any crashes that I saw, god only knows how they were avoided.
I set off in the second group out of five, and quickly realised that out of the forty or so of us only five were willing to work together, we were caught on lap four of six by the 2nd/3rd cats and a lap later by the elites and 1st cats. I hung in there until there was half a lap left to go when the decisive attack came from Dean Downing, this split the field in two with the fast boys up front and us mere mortals at the back, I'd pretty much had enough of a kicking at this point and decided to take an early shower. The course was great, undulating with hardly any flat, wish I was riding the Neil White memorial there next weekend.

For the !st time, I had the opportunity to go on the Sunday cafe run aswell as the Saturday race, sorry social ride with Howard. As outlined already by Rob and Ian, 2 very enjoyable rides with 2 great routes, thanks Howard/Kevin and Bernard. Total 158 miles for the 2 days.

Glad I'm not the only rider to have experienced the Saturday ride as being a little more 'intense' than usual. Of course it was the wind and hills rather than the pace set by our leader . Funny that no-one seemed to say anything at the time - pride is a powerful thing! Seriously though an excellent route selected by Kevin and admirably lead by Howard. One side-benefit of a slightly faster pace is more time in the cafe to 'chew the cud' - even if you don't have any spare breath to chat on the way round!

Now back to the turbo to get some intervals done before next weekend

Hmmm... ...so as membership sec am I still safe telling newcomers they won't get dropped on the social ride, or should I be recommending sprint intervals and EPO before they give it a try?

Phil, the Saturday social ride now comprises of up to three discrete groups. This Saturday there were two groups; I led one group at a reasonably spirited pace whilst Kevin led the others along a, as Rob delightfully terms it above, fractal route to Malton at a rather more genteel rate.

I really enjoyed the day; well done to Chris C for showing us all a clean pair of heels up Acklam and many thanks to Bernard C for helping me out navigation-wise in the vicinity of North Grimston and, er, in Wetwang too! I can’t wait for my sat. nav. with Head Up Display to arrive!

Apologies to Piers, who I inadvertently somehow managed to lose. If it’s any comfort to Piers (which I realize it may not be) on the first ride I led we ended up with riders scattered all over North Yorkshire…

A flat, windy but unexpectedly dry weekend of racing in the North-West saw me running in the 9.30 at Aintree on the Saturday and the Fylde RR on the Sunday.
The Soens was very fast except for the back straight which saw speeds drop to around 30kph into the headwind. Elsewhere my maximum speed was 64kph on the pan-flat circuit! None of the attacks tried by me or anyone else were allowed to stay away and it was won in a bunch sprint by Tony Gibb. The massive field + cross-winds led to plenty of locked brakes and near misses - I saw one crash at over 55kph which must have caused serious skin loss. My average HR was 179 and I hope to never ever ride there again.

Sunday was equally flat and windy. The Kinesis team took it in turns to attack, and finally two of my team mates successfully got away with a small group. I sat in and chased counter-attacks, they stayed away and on the last lap James Sampson escaped from the break. A long solo effort was unfortunately caught by James Williamson who duly won with Kinesis 2nd and 4th. I finished 12th, unremarkable other than that I beat Tom Barras in the sprint (though he had been working hard to try to pull back the break while I'd spent most of the time hiding at the back, using my team-mates up the road as a - legitimate - excuse).