After the emotional highs of the Royal Wedding, the theme continued in the inaugural Royal Pocklington Pedal Challenge around The Wolds. I gained a Royal Invitation to the 100-mile celebration, there were many on the shorter 60 mile party as well.
Many Cliftonite dignitaries attended this Royal event, in fact far too many to mention. I decided to join Lord Broomwagon of Broomshire, Sir Allan, Queen Virginie of France and her swashbuckling man servant Phil, Princess Stephanie – Supreme Commander of all MTB lands, and King Jon G of Selby Castle. It was also great to see Sir Peter T in full colours of the Welsh Guards throwing himself into the fray. Although the sun was out, the blustery Easterly made it a tough day for big wedding hats.
After Lord Like-My-Bike delivered the Royal Decrees in the pre-ride address, we were led to the starting line by the official Town Crier in full regalia, no less!…seriously! The pace was on from the start and I tracked Sir Allan in pursuit of Lord Broomy who was on some sort of secret Royal mission. After about 5 miles, including a big long climb at full pace, I was still 100 metres off His Broomship and there was no-one behind me. I quickly decided I did not want a tongues out, frantic sort of day, so I parked up and waited for Princess Stephanie’s carriages to come thundering through. I then spent the rest of a hugely enjoyable day at a fast but manageable pace with the Princess, Queen Virginie, manservant Phil and King Jon G.
Commemorative notes to log for the Royal Souvenir Supplement included:
· I falsely built Princess Stephanie’s expectations early on by stating that there’d be pieces of Royal Wedding Cake at the first feed station…there was much disappointment when the Royal Platter only contained sports bars, gels and fig roles
(We made up for it later by stopping at the Royal Cakery in Stamford Bridge before the feed station
)
· The signage around the course was fantastic! We had a minor blip after emerging from Thixendale the second time and arrived at a T-intersection where there was no arrow. Much deliberation by 10-15 riders eventually had us going the wrong way, turning right to the top of Acklam to descend into the valley rather than going via Kirby Underdale and Bugthorpe. Reviewing the route again this morning, the map on the website still conflicts with the map distributed on the day at this point. Not to worry, we only did a couple of extra miles. We’re convinced that Lord Broomy was the culprit in terms of the missing sign, trying to put us off the trail after his chain incident
· At the point of becoming navigationally bewildered above, we ran into the Grand Duke of Stamford Bridge, ie. Mal! I’ve been navigationally challenged twice in the past year on Audaxes and both times I’ve run into the Grand Duke! I don’t think he’ll be putting me in charge of leading his armies across Europe to expand his empire any time soon
· It was a fantastic route taking in the best parts of The Wolds. Some of the flying descents in big blustery winds made things ‘interesting’
I’m not convinced that visiting the same place twice from two directions is a good thing, such as Thixendale and Millington. On a tough windy day, having ‘ground hog day’ moments can be traumatising
Maybe the route can be tweaked a bit for future years. BTW, after passing a ‘2 miles from Pock’ sign near the end, the diversion up the hill into a headwind through Kilnwick Percy and Millington was just cruel
Generally though, it was superb!
· I agree with Lord Broomwagon of Broomshire when he said it was a tough day in the Royal Grounds. The combination of hills and block headwinds really took it out of everyone. His Broomship and Sir Allan deservedly won the invitations to Buckingham Palace for afternoon tea with the Queen after superb rides. Oh, and Princess Stephanie won the blind date with Prince Harry! Queen Virginie and her swashbuckling manservant Phil won the souvenir coffee mugs for the toughest rider awards.
Huge thanks to Lord Like-My-Bike, Grand Poobah Tullio and all their families and friends who helped out on the day. It was very well organised and I’ll certainly be back.
As for me, no awards. I’ll just have to watch the highlights of the Royal event on TV.
D.
) when Alan came belting around the corner who of course had a chain splitter (this was before Alan had decided 100 undulating miles into a stiff head wind just wasn't taxing enough and took a lot of detours to add 10 or 20 miles to the ride). Surprisingly little messing about and I was on the road again. Just shows that being a member of a club that seems to have a plethora of well sorted club mates is always a good idea.
