Clifton CC

It feels good to be able to contribute to these again after a break.

Today 14 MTBers headed to Grassington for a ride around the SE Dales/Mastiles Lane area. Great to see so many new faces too in such snowy, wet and cold weather, including 2 young lads (age 13 & 15). Full points to them for getting round in such tough conditions without a murmur.

Thanks to Debs for putting the route together and leading us round.

On the Saturday club ride with Howard there were 9 of us in total,with a following tail wind the pace was quite brisk, the climb up Setterington bank took it out of me a bit it, I suppose last night's drinking at the club dinner had something to do with it, the ride did get harder further on as we turned into the wind, by the time we arrived at the Cafe at Millington I was ready for the break, unfortunately all the Saturday Clifton riders arrived at about the same time so there was quite a wait to eat but well worth waiting for.

A couple of miles before Stamford Bridge I started to slow down and told the others not to wait for me I then realised my front tyre was getting softer and softer, yes the P*******e fairy had paid me a visit so I stopped in Stamford Bridge to change the tube, glancing up the road I kept seeing Kevin and all his group heading towards the viaduct.

It was another good club ride with the usual good company, and it was good to see Willy arrive with all his group to join us at Millington.

Went to do the Lanequest on Saturday. Unfortunately my front rim broke and the innertube exploded 15 minutes after I started. Luckly I was not going fast at the time. I was an impressive bang though!

Heading west toward Haxby I was greeted by the Sunday speedsters heading east, I assume towards Warthill "pimple" and beyond to the Wolds. Would have turned and joined in but had a job to finish off. I then continued in a westerly manner around Scotton, Knaresborough and Wetherby with a nice tail wind home.

The Saturday A group were this week treated to a special guest appearance by Paul M. Paul and Chris C gave a splendid demonstration of how to climb Settrington Bank at seemingly Warp Factor 9 whilst the rest of us struggled in their wake!

After a fantastic descent, we endured a long slog, uphill and into wind, for about 3 miles prior to dropping into Millington Pastures. A wonderfully testing route devised by, of course, Kevin.

I didn't mind at all the long wait for food at Millington; it was great to catch up with "Kevin's clientele" and to rest my v. weary legs.

Special mention to Virginie who joined our group from Millington to York; she gritted her teeth and hung on in there, displaying almost British levels of pluck and determination! – chapeau!

And glad to read above that you got back safely Ian H. I did get a message relayed to me that it was OK to carry on without you, honestly!


Here’s my Garmin’s log of the day:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1851032

Here are my garmin details for Saturdays ride its a bit out with the average speed as Howard told me it,s best to stop it at the cafe as it can keep recording due to poor satelite signals in some areas, its interesting when you click on player then go to toggle to open up the full screen, then click on play as I have just found out.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1843411

Typical, the one Saturday I miss and we're visited by Royalty

Instead I spent the best part of 6 hours standing around watching my son playing in a rugby competition - and they didn't even have the consideration to win it!!

Sounds like I missed a good ride - hopefully I'll be back for my weekly kicking next Saturday.

EDIT

Rather than A & B rides - with the associated hierarchical connotations, shouldn't it be 'K' & 'H' rides , with the occasional 'B' rides for when El Presidente leads a 'middle group'?

Bernard led the Sunday group consisting of me, Virginie and Al out East (where we spotted Mal) through Pock & Mkt Weighton to the cafe at Little Weighton...

...Except it had vanished, so after fixing my puncture we took another route to Mkt Weightin for lunch at the garden centre - very welcome bacon sarnie after 54 miles.

We took a fairly direct route home through Stamford Bridge with 80-ish on the clock? (not certain as I've got no technology on my Ribble!).

Thanks to Bernard for a great, rolling route and a few new roads.

A bit solitary, but at least I got away from the turbo... ...three hours on Saturday morning under blue-ish skies and without hypothermia; not bad for this winter. Did an hour of sprint drills (this is a regime I got from the LVRC magazine - this week it's 15sec sprint/30sec recover/repeat) followed by a two hour brisk ride. Physiological effect of this arrangement was that the ride felt really easy, but when I got off the bike I nearly required a stairlift to get me into the house!