Clifton CC

Did no one else make it out at the weekend?
Five of us ventured forth on Sunday - nothing too adventurous but a gentle meander to Hutton Le Hole - out via Bossall, Leavening, Malton, Eden Camp, Marton & Keldholme. When we got there we couldn't decide if they were still damping down their bonfire from a Guy Fawkes celebration or they'd burnt a whicker man - you never know in these rural areas?
After a good if chilly cafe we headed home via Surprise View, Fadmoor (plenty of water in the Hodge Beck ford but I stayed upright), Nunnington, Coulton, Farlington. Home for three o'clock. Definately didn't need the thermal gear I had on. Who said sunday rides were hard? No Garmin stats but it was 75 milesish at 15 miles an hourish.

Well done to our riders who tackled the Lightwater Laikes MTB Race at the weekend. The results I'm aware of is Peter Hook, continuing his late season burst, with 4th place in the Juvenile Cat and Sean Robinson improving on his last performance with 22nd in the Vets (he swears it was his new Club shirt that made the difference).

Full results here http://lightwaterlaike.co.uk/2009results.asp.

Anyone who attended might want to add comment on how the new format worked with TT in the morning and race in the afternoon?

I rode the Yorkshire Cyclocross vets race at Temple Newsome Leeds on Sunday.

About 70 riders were in my group about 50 metres after the start they was quite a crash and several riders went down, luckily the ground was very soft going after all the rain we have had latley so I hope nobody was injured.

The course went up and down a few hills in the several woodland sections which I found very tricky to stay upright in the soft mud, still I am hoping this is improving my off road bike handling skills.

Finished about halfway down in the results and going by how tired I again was at the end I am satisfied with that.

Ian H

Well, I was out, but not with the club. Mum's birthday in Nottingham and I manufactured a riding opportunity by being in the saddle at 7am for the ride down.

Have done it many times before and its a bit of a utility ride. The A614 from Snaith through Thorne and on down to Bawtry is nothing to write home about. But then you swing off towards Retford and things improve markedly with a ride through Clumber Park and Sherwood Forest. Clipstone's not overly special but the Pit Stocks remain and are quite impressive. Then its the memorably named Blidworth Bottoms and the final run in through the cycling lanes of my youth. 85 miles in well under 5 hours - that's "cracking on" for me these days.

I was out too, but also in my traditional winter Billy-No-Mates mode. I'm very much in steady distance mode at the moment and rounded off a couple of weekday four-hour rides with another early on Saturday, which I made use of to scout a couple of potential circuits for next year's vets race. It seems to have been the week where it tipped from autumn into early winter; although the sun struggled through eventually it was cold and misty heading out on the Buttercramb road. Bike has now got its winter protective coat of brown stuff - bring on the salted roads!

Well I finally got round to sorting route sharing from Nokia Sports Tracker so we do have stats from Sundays gentle meander ride. You'll have to do the metric - imperial conversion though......and it seems we covered 0.3 miles whilst just sat in the cafe, excellent! Good ride, company and some quality cafe chat. Cheers.

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/work ... id=1780919

A late post for the Saturday Intermediates ride…………

Approx 18 of us left the square just after 10am and set off destination Millington, following a gloriously fractal Kevin-route, which took in Claxton and Bossall prior to swinging back to Buttercrambe (!), then off via Bugthorpe, Kirkby Underdale, Painsthorpe, Thixendale, Burdale, Fimber, Wetwang and Huggate.

Thinking of the café size, we split the group at Huggate with John Clarke leading a group via Warter and Nunburnholme to Pocklington café and the other half of us taking in Millington Pastures to the café there.

Having made good time, we realised we didn’t have to head straight for home, so dropped down to Pocklington, picked up the other group and made our way home via Allerthorpe – Wheldrake – Escrick.

75 mile ride – Thanks for the company.
See again Saturday
Claire

Whizzo - finally managed to hook up with a Sat. intermediate ride having ridden in to York via Sutton, Wheldrake, Escrick. Bit of a chase from the Square to catch up but good to be riding in company again, even though majority of bunch kept disappearing into the distance as either somebody else or I had a "mechanical", bits fell off some bike or other or the road went up. Appreciation to Claire who mustered troops with aplomb and 'Ginie for numerous pacings back to catch up when I was left behind. Turned for home from Wetwang but managed to run up about 70 miles all in.
Footnote - did I spy ex-cap'n Rob striding the colonnades of Sainsbury's on Thursday PM wearing a suit?