Eight of us gathered in the square at 7am, myself, Ian H, Rich, Graham, Ben, Jai, Craig and John B. We worked well together as a group with everyone taking their turn on the front as we battled a stiffening headwind up to our first café stop of the day at the Posthorn in Leyburn.
Suitably refreshed we continued west along Wensleydale towards Hawes. The weather at this point was doing us no favours with the headwind continuing and a light drizzle starting to fall. The hills to the south of us were shrouded in low cloud and the temperature was dropping noticeably. Obviously what we needed was a bit of hill to warm us up! Fleet Moss provided us with the respite we desired and, for the first time all day the group split as we all made our way to the top at our own speed.
It wasn't long before we regrouped and were rewarded with a glorious descent down into upper Wharfedale, although care was needed on the still damp surface. This is surely one of the most beautiful parts of our county and the descent to Kettlewell was one of the highlights of the day. As an added bonus the temperature increased markedly the further we descended and the sun put its first appearance since we left York several hours earlier.
The cycling gods, by now, were smiling at us and, as we turned sharp left in Kettlewell, avoiding the hoards who were there for the scarecrow festival, we picked up a strong tailwind which assisted us as we made our way up Park Rash and, once again, stopped to regroup at the top and take a few photos.
The descent off Park Rash and the subsequent ride along Coverdale really does remind you, if indeed you needed reminding, why it is you ride a bike. Frankly, if you don't enjoy cycling on roads like that and in such glorious countryside then you need to have a long, hard word with yourself.
We were, by now, all looking forward to our second café stop of the day at Johnny Baghdad's, but not before tackling Stark Bank in order to collect our 3 points and following Dr Dave's advice!
Congratulations must go to the 2 Daves for devising such a challenging ride in the first place. If the the 3 main climbs don't get you then the multitude of short punchy ones on the back roads after Masham surely will. We left the café knowing we had a short climb up to Grewelthorpe, but safe in the knowledge that it was all downhill from there on. How wrong we were! I have to admit that I've never come that way back from Masham and had no idea where the hell we were most of the time but it certainly is a challenging route, especially when you've over 100 miles in your legs! Personally, if I were one of the Daves, I wouldn't be frequenting any dark alleys any time soon as there are 8 guys who might want a 'friendly' word with you after that!
In spite of the tired limbs and the groans - I lost count of the number of times I heard ' I thought you said it was all flat from now on', or words to that effect - we all got back to York in one piece after a truly exhilarating ride. Many thanks to everyone who turned out and made it such a great day on the bike!
I was home just after 6.30pm with 147 miles and just under 8500 feet at 16.1 mph average.
Happy cycling!
