Clifton CC

Thought I would beat Darren N too it, and start the round up this week

I was out on the training ride Saturday morning at 9am. 10 or 12 riders in the square for a sprint around the westerly route through Bramham, Scholes etc. Group worked well together through the flatlands to Tadaster, but as we reached the lumpier parts the group split. Darren joined the group in Sherburn for some pace-line action into the headwinds towards Cawood, before turning for home due to racing commitments today - how'd you get on Darren? 6 riders made it back through Naburn before I cut the corner for a quicker route home over the cycle track to Bishopthorpe. 62 miles door to door in 3 hours 15 mins.. the middle section with the group showed 21.2mph average on my Garmin. Thanks all for a good ride!

Today I went on the Sunday club run to a sunny Bridlington. The ride out to the sea-side had us ticking over at 22-23mph in places thanks too a very strong tailwind. Fish and chips all round (except for my scampi and chips!) at the cafe stop, followed by the inevitable run back into a block headwind all the way back to York. Great ride, and 116 miles door to door for me left my legs tired and had me ready for a good sit down! All in all, it was a long 10 hour weekend for me on my new toy! Thanks everyone for a great ride today!

Andy

Andy, you’re putting in more miles than your lookalike, Andy Schleck – sounds like you’re riding as strongly as him too!

A big ride on Saturday! The Intermediate Crazy-head A-Teamers targeted butt-kicker territory around Dalby Forest Drive to inflict the damage this week. A decent turn out in the Square, a dozen combatants included Tony G, Shaun W, John C, Ian H, Jon G, Dan C, Stu, Young Dan, Karl, Alastair, Nigel and myself. Every incline or descent turned into an open warfare session – it’s doing wonders for my leg strength!

We headed out into the breeze via Settrington Bank. Half way out, we almost cleaned up an oncoming Rob as he flew around the corner from the opposite direction, obviously on a short one due to other commitments. In the section between Rillington and Ebberston, Tony G and Shaun W put in a superlative performance towing the group into a strong Nor-Westerly. The group had gone quiet and when I strayed from the race line into the breeze, I realised how tough it was: definitely ‘Play of the day’ for me, especially knowing what was coming ahead.

North of Ebberston above the A170, we climbed upwards forever into the teeth of a hefty headwind, my Garmin showing a 700 foot climb, just under double the climbing height of Settrington Bank! Then followed a full on race descent around Dalby Forest Drive to the Visitor Centre before climbing out and away to Thornton Le Dale for lunch. Everyone had thrown everything but the kitchen sink at each other by then. (Note to Kevin: DFD has been re-laid and those dangerous speed humps seem to have been removed.)

The trip back to York via Amotherby and Castle Howard was marginally easier with the wind thankfully behind us. We didn’t make a great decision to go straight on down Strensall Road after Flaxton and Strensall Common, rather than taking a right towards Haxby. We were going flat out in a pack of a dozen, the road was full of holes and furniture and the traffic was typically far too busy, one idiot driver almost bringing the lot of us down to avoid a head-on. I think in the future we should return to the usual plan of turning right after the Common to take the Haxby route home.

A great day, plenty of miles, lots of banter, many prepared to dish out the attacks and the legs feeling it today. Until the next battle…

D.

I had a wedding to attend on Saturday, so I left the All-Intermediate A-Stars to their own device and instead headed out with Andy and the Butt-Kickers as far as Bramham, where I hung a right and headed back under my own steam. Regular readers of this forum will be pleased to learn that my ride passed without mishap, misadventure, navigational error or anything else worth reporting. I was quite relieved by this, as it meant that not only did I get to the wedding on time, but I avoided the need to sponsor a new club award: the Calamity Greg Trophy for Most Ridiculous Blunder on a Bike.


...then again, if someone beats me at this year's '12' I may have to institute that trophy anyway, just to give myself something to win.

Having not been out with the "Intermediate" group for a while (other than meeting some on the Wiggington 100 audax race last weekend) I found that either I've got a lot worse in taking time out or you boys have got a lot faster. Perhaps both.

Anyway thanks to all of you for towing/encouraging/cajoling/waiting/taking it easy etc so that we could do the majority of the Dalby ride as a peloton with me skulking at the back.

Now I know that it's best not to over exert oneself whilst unwell but having had a MOAC (Mother of all colds) for the past 10 days I rashly decided that I needed to get out on the bike again. I felt less than great on the ride in but pitched up at the square at 10 on Saturday thinking to 'see how it goes'.

Had a good banter with some of 'the lads' and set off c Bernard and 6 others but quickly realised that I was only going to do myself more harm than good and so decided to curtail things and head back from Aldwark bridge. As luck would have it as we crossed the bridge we came up behind some form of building digger and as it accelerated from the bridge I tagged on behind in its wake and had an excellent tow at minimal exertion almost all the way to Whixley at 24mph!

After that it was a case of gentle spinning back home. Lesson hopefully learned - I'll take it easy all week and hopefully try and make it out properly next w/e.

alistairs wrote:Having not been out with the "Intermediate" group for a while (other than meeting some on the Wiggington 100 audax race last weekend) I found that either I've got a lot worse in taking time out or you boys have got a lot faster. Perhaps both.

Anyway thanks to all of you for towing/encouraging/cajoling/waiting/taking it easy etc so that we could do the majority of the Dalby ride as a peloton with me skulking at the back.

You can sleep easy Alistair, I would say that the rides never get any faster than that ( well I bl****y hope not anyway ) . It was like setting up Cavendish for the final sprint. I even asked who won the sprint infront of the Minister

Good workout nonetheless and yes thanks to Tony and Shaun for pushing that wind after Settrington Bank.

And Top stuff Andy some miliage over the weekend bearing in mind the average speeds involved I you sure your not rellated to the Schlecks

Jon

I think the flag dropped for the Saturday sprint just before Kirkham Abbey, was a good spirited ride