Clifton CC

I'll kick off what I suspect will be a very full weekend's ride reports! Excellent training ride this morning, eight of us out under blue skies, with a westerly breeze and temperatures very definitely in "knees out" territory. The countryside looked fantastic with everything now in bright green leaf and draped in white blossom.

We headed out on the westerly route via Bramham, Thorner, Aberford and Sherburn. Steady on the way out, cranking up a little over the hills of the middle bit, and then rolling out into lovely fast tailwind-assisted paceline for the run from Sherburn around Bishopwood. Just under three hours overall, with the "out of town" middle 2½ hours at just over 220W and 20-point-something mph. Very tidy riding which meant collectively we rarely exceeded the footprint of a Volvo. Well ridden, everyone.

Hope all the Scottoners have a wonderful ride tomorrow, and good luck to the race crew at Wetwang. Go Clifton!

Had to miss the club rides this week due to work so made do with a solo 3 hour ride around local lanes. Will probably be out again on Sunday for something similar as I'm not in the Scotton but good luck to everyone entered. At least a shorter ride leaves time for other things like watching Man Utd get beat in the FA cup (by the way I support Leeds)

Jon

Great weather today and a really good route for the K-riders.

I confess to running out of steam before the cafe but somehow found a second wind on the return leg. The healing qualities of baked beans and cake (not together) shouldn't be under estimated!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/79513503

Many thanks to K for leading us out and to all the others for the company.

Regards to all

Pete

Jon G wrote: At least a shorter ride leaves time for other things like watching Man Utd get beat in the FA cup (by the way I support Leeds)

Jon

Ditto, Leeds, Leeds, Leeds.

Good luck to all who are doing Scotton tomorrow I will be there cheering you on.

Ian H

Did a 10 mile TT at Brotherton on Saturday, messed up at one of the roundabouts, thought I had gone the wrong way but I hadn't, but lost 30 sec going round a roundabout (thought a marshall was shouting wrong way!). It was uphill most of the way to the turnaround. Did a 26:14 which should have been 25:44, still live and learn.

Joined a strong Clifton presence at the Scotton 100 on Sunday. Great weather and great organisation, route, food, photos.

Set off with the 1st group and lasted untill about a mile into 1st rough bit and crashed, got going again (had to stop twice to straighten/adjust deraillier) and rode for 10 miles solo the got assistance from a guy from Scotland (he was on the training ride on Saturday with Phil ) which lasted until Asenby when he got a puncture. I came across Heather who had been riding solo as Shaun had punctured and rode from Topcliffe along with one or 2 others all the way to the finish. Really enjoyed the day and thanks to all who helped on the event..

Dave

Scotton 100 for me - didn't go to plan. I was riding for a time, as I could do it in a bit over 4 hours on the lump of iron that was my previous MTB, I was keen to see what I could do on my nice new Boardman. Of course this would mean a lot of wheel sucking. No-one else to blame but me for following wheels, but as the wheels I was sat on started heading into Boroughbridge at velocity, I started to think this wasn't the right way. Oh yes it is they insisted they'd ridden the route last week and this was definitely the way. By the time we were heading South on the A168 out of Boroughbridge I turned around and left them to it - time to retrace right back to Marton Le Moor. Any chance of doing a time was out the window but worse it mean't I was no billy no mates for the rest of the ride.

Slightly peeved now. I could have had ridden it with Bernard, Ginie and Phil, had a nice sociable ride, got chance to look up from back wheels now and again (perhaps), enjoyed the countryside on such a lovely day, picked up some useful MTB tips and still done it in a quicker time - oh well.

Thanks to another Paul for telling me what suspension does.

And a big thanks to Dave and the team for putting on the Scotton.

Fantastic ride again, loved it.
Could I just say though, riders should really stop for red traffic lights. Through the centre of Ripon, riders were not being very sensible and putting themselves in danger aswel as giving us lycra clad riders a bad name.
This is not a race!

Did the same 10 as Dave, just rode on my old road bike again so wasn't expecting anything special, did a 23 something so was ok with that. Didn't like the course, too many roundabouts, but it was only 10 minutes down the road for me.
I might invest in a TT bike with disc wheel and a silly helmet, if the road racing doesn't go to plan.

Today I rode the GHS 100 mile reliability from Lotherton Hall, I don't think the speed went below 20mph all day in our group, and the last 15 miles there was 3 of us left, and we must have been doing 25 mph plus all the way from Ricall to Lotherton.
All great training miles for my first race in a couple of weeks.

Bring on the pain.

Celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first time I finished in fifth place in the Wetwang spring RR, by finishing fifth in the Wetwang Spring RR. What can I say - it was a celebration of economy of effort. Thankfully the potholes had been filled in - not the best job I've ever seen but good enough. I'd be the first to admit I've not been going that well. Got round ok in the Brid CC event last week but that was all. Planned a fairly easy week this week, stuck to the plan. Left nothing to chance leading up to actually getting to the event in enough time to ride the full circuit as a warm up. After 2 laps the full field of 60ish riders was down to about 25. I just hung on each time up the long climb to the finish watching the laps tick by. The guy who won was away for most of the day although I think he really was a class apart. Another guy was in between. I was glad the penultimate lap was just that - the last but one time up the climb and I really was hanging on. So the bunch of by the last lap maybe 15 was sprinting for third. Its one of those sprints where you think the line is never coming. I got as far as Ewen Sewells back wheel and no further and someone else crept past on my right approaching the line. To say I'm pleased to come away with any sort of result is an understatement and anything else this year is a bonus now. No fiver though but I did get 2 medals - 5th and best old fart. I really wanted to ride Scotton today and this is the only event I would have missed it for. Home in time to watch the end of Amstell Gold Race and if Bolton had beaten bloody Stoke it would have been a perfect day!

The fact that Stoke beat Bolton (hammered?), absoloutely made my day! Come on you Potters!

Saturday I had a steady ride from Port de Pollença to Sineu in Mallorca. 70 miles covered at an average speed of 17.5mph. Fairly flat with a few small bumps. 

I had a long mountainous ride on Sunday. From Port de Pollença we cycled up through the Serra de Tramuntana mountains climbing upto about 1000mtrs before a 16km decent into Sóller. From there we climbed out to 500mtrs before decending into Bunyola then again another climb to Orient at about 800mtrs before decending into Alaró for lunch. A nice steady ride back to Pollença in the afternoon with a few small climbs but mainly flat. In total 90 miles and about 2500mtrs of climbing.

Had an enjoyable week cycling in the sun at a training camp. Cycled just over 400 miles in the week and met some good people from Richardson Cycle Club in Scarborough and Malton Wheelers, small world!

I had a pretty scary weekend in Hungary at the MTBO world cup. I chickened out of the world cup races as I kept getting lost at the training camp, so opted for the open elite races instead for more practice first. Exactly the same courses and everything but without the pressure of all the crowds (different start times). Everyone said I was mad because there was no difference, but to me not having everyone watching was all the difference until I gain a bit more confidence! It turned out that most of the people in open elite were world cup people anyway. And the finishing times were no different either!

First up was a very intense urban sprint around a disused army base, I did well in that one, 11th of 21 so half way up the field. I actually enjoyed the race too - a first for MTBO! Next day was a middle race, that involved more pedal power and nav. I made a couple of mistakes but didn't get lost so pleased with that. My route took me over the edge of a cliff, where I got cut and bruised sliding down, and also over a massive rubbish dump with glass everywhere which wasn't too pleasant!

Cracked fork, pringled wheel, bent bars, dinged frame, six stitches and a graze - can anyone recommend me a new bike?

A change of plan meant I couldn't do my planned Paris-Brest-Paris qualifiers in May, so I dropped out of the Scotton and caught the train to Eastbourne to visit friends and rellies and do an alternative 300km qualifier. I got round that comfortably in 14:35. Then the day turned sour.

Riding back to Eastbourne station on the A259, some prat coming the other way decided to turn right. Next thing I knew I was executing a somersault in the air and landing ungracefully on the road in true nul-points faceplant style. After a brief period lying on the road with lots of people running round like headless chickens and the driver staring at me saying "Sorry, I just didn't see you", I was carted off to A+E. I've come out of it with no broken bones (just a(nother) scar on my face) but the bike's totalled. I'm glad it's that and not the other way round!

Anyway, I've now completed my 200km and 300km qualifers and pre-registered and paid on the PBP site, now there's just the 400km, 600km and the ride itself to do. This sh*t just got real!

Sunday was my annual pilgrimage to Hebden Bridge to do the, aptly named, 'Spring into the Dales' Audax. 110k and 2,000m climbing from Hebden, through Bronte Country as far north as Grassington before heading clockwise South again.

It's about the 6th or 7th time I've done this ride and I never get bored of the fabulous climbs, views, quiet lanes and friendly group who organise it - all for the princely sum of £4! The spread of food and drinks at the end is always something to look forward to.

This year I teamed up with Al and his European work colleague, Maurice, for the day. Sadly Maurice was not from the hilly corner of Europe but the not so hilly parts known as the Netherlands - so Yorkshire's finest climbs and descents proved a bit of a shock to him.

Passed through some of the riders doing the Skipton Tri and kept one eye out for Jess to cheer her on but clearly she had long since passed.

Impressively wide range of action this weekend! Just another mundane race report from me. Sunday was glorious and as Paul mentioned, the craters at Wetwang had been filled just in time. I only had to dodge a bad smash on the a166 to get there.


Plan was to stay near the front and keep out of trouble, however various shennanigans on the neutralised section left me close to the back. Attacks started early but the bunch pace was tolerable so I started to get comfortable at the back - which was a mistake. Each time we climbed Life hill a chunk of the pack was discarded near the top, and you had to sprint through them to stay in the race. I survived two of these 'selections' but the effort of getting back in the race told, so third time round I landed on the discard pile. I stuck the course and passed or worked with a few stragglers but finished on my own. For the first time the whole family had turned out to give me a shout, but they didn't seem too upset I was out of the bunch (I think getting round in one piece was enough!).


Last year I was trapped behind a crash and dropped from the chasing group on the second lap. This time I made it a lap further, which is progress, but I left feeling I wasn't tired enough and I should just have worked harder earlier and stuck it out. Hoping for a chance to improve at Warter in two weeks time.


Congratulations to Paul on a great result, and G, hope you're well + back riding soon.