Weekend Roundup, 23/24 June

[Rob]

Lots going on at the weekend (Mountain Mayhem, York Rally, National RR, Ron Kit, clubrides, Vets Racing....) would be good to hear some tales...

Lincs Riviera for me. A damp start for the 5 of us (DarrenN, AndyG, SeanW, Steen and self) but we decaped at Market Weighton and stayed dry from their. Once across the Humber Bridge we were into new lanes for me. Nice riding, very quiet just onto the edge of the Lincs Wolds, before we swung E again towards Cleethorpes. Here the sun glinted off an azure blue sea amid the rows of moored yachts. The beautiful people of Yorkshire sat in the up-market restaurants watching the world go by...... Ok, we had a tasteless greasy bag of fish and chips sat next to the mudflats, just up from Pleasure Island.

To get back to the Humber bridge we had the small problem of Grimsby in the way. The place had a strange gravitational field presumeably caused by a secret neutron star in the rather fallorn suburbs... we couldn't get away. Round in circles, up miscellaneous back streets, always back to the same roundabout. We were still there at 4pm.

Eventually free, Sean and Andy decided to take the ride by the scruff of the neck and drive the train into the headwind at a steady 33+kph. Before we knew it, we were drinking coffee in the Humber Bridge cafe. The Andy/Sean 2-up then continued most of the way back - not the most sociable way of doing things, but it got the job done! And we were back in plenty of time for the footie (shame England didn't put the same amount of effort in!)

The ride made a change, but not one for a quick return! Some scope for some riding inland from the coast though as *very* quiet. Another day.

In some ways that was the hardest ride of the year. 155 miles door to door for me at 28.5kph, despite a lot of stops for map study. Am rather fragile today.

Back to some more sensible rides now for a few weeks.

[Darren N]

Thought I’d also reiterate some of our experiences from the clip clop to Cleethorpes.

As Rob mentioned, the first couple of hours were run off in fine drizzle. Andy had his now traditional puncture in the Wolds and without a team car or neutral service vehicle in sight, he was forced to fix it himself. The café at the garden centre in Swanland for elevenses came at a nice time as the sun finally came out and warmed us up.

I think the pace ramped up a bit after that. We leapt over the Humber Bridge and launched ourselves at the rolling hills of the Lincs Wolds. At this point, we did a big loop Southwards and I’m sure I saw a sign to Stansted Airport! After doing what I thought was a couple of laps of the Norfolk Broads, we finally headed North again back up to Cleethorpes where we had our first taste of the headwind which would plague us all the way back.

Fish ‘n’ chips between Pleasure Island, Leisure Land and Fantasy World in Cleethorpes wasn’t up to our usual café standards but there wasn’t a lot of choice. Then began our Tour of Grimsby. As Rob mentioned, Grimsby’s gravitational pull locked us into its back street estates for a while and when Steen dropped his chain and my seat suddenly dropped into a wonky position, I thought we were being sucked into a black hole forever. We were forced to unleash the raw power of Shaun the Merciless to pull us free, at which point the secondary thrusters of Andy forged a path through the block headwind to get us back into earth’s orbit at the Humber Bridge for a quick refuelling.

Rob was right about the hard yards ploughing back to York. Andy in particular did a great job to maintain a decent pace into the headwind. I don’t know the collective noun for a group of knackered cyclists but whatever it is, we were it. We each tried to take a turn on the front in the final miles as token support for Andy, but I imagine it was like being at a spin class, lots of pedal turning but not getting very far. When we hit a red light at the Hull roundabout over the A64, we synchronised our slumping over the handlebars.

12 and ¾ hours after I rolled out of my driveway in the morning, I’d chalked up 170 miles. Like Rob, I also fell in through my back door feeling a lot worse than I did after the Wiggy 300. Big thanks to Rob for an epic day and to Andy, Shaun and Steen for contributing to a great ride, …and of course helping me to escape Grimsby.

D.

PS. Well done to Heather in the Nationals!!

[paulM]

A great weekend of cycling for me - I never turned a pedal - but it was a great weekend!
No opportunity for a ride Saturday and it was Kevins birthday bash Saturday night. Keep it quiet but the great man is now 50. I couldnt quite get into heavy drinking mode - I had an early appointment in Ampleforth the following morning and needed a fairly clear head. I was marshalling the turn in Ampleforth for both womens & mens events. When I say marshall it was more a public liason / traffic management kind of role. This will read like something off a cv but I think I can safely say I worked on my own initiative with the minimum of support or supervision! We did have a few traffic issues especially towards the end of the womens race but luckily the guys I was with handled it pretty well and we did our own thing for the mens event which worked better.

Enough of that what can I say about the racing. I know there is another post relating to Heathers efforts but I'm putting my bit here. Picture the scene. You are riding your second ever road race. You turn left in Ampleforth, the flag drops and you race for 5 minutes and then try smashing it up a 5 minute climb with world class riders? I'm not sure many could do that? But Heather isnt like the rest of us. Every time she came through Ampleforth she was on the front of the group she was in - riders with far more racing experience & sponsored riders who couldnt or wouldnt do any work. A great shame the group was pulled out with 2 laps to go. But I've seen Heather tonight and she enjoyed the experience and it has raised the bar for the rest of us. There were a couple of shots of her on ITV4 on the highlights program tonight. Personally I thought the womens circuit too tough and too short - 3 laps of the big circuit would have been better and they might have got away without the time cutoff? I reckon 1 more lap of the womens circuit and we'd have been stuffed in Ampleforth as we hadnt got rid of the cars from the last lap - there's a bit to much riding on good luck in these events sometimes for my liking! The mens event looked pretty grippy and Ian Stannard did a top ride. He looks like someone with a classic win in him for the future?

[Jon G]

Not so much a weekend round up but a 2 weekly round up in my case. Been away from a computer for a couple of weeks down in the Haute Provence region of France. Sounds like I've missed some good cycling up here however. Before I forget well done to Heather in the nationals, have just watched the highlights good to see the Clifton colours on the tv albeit briefly.

Some excellent cycling in France in wonderful weather (sorry everyone ). Got to ride up Ventoux again and many other challenging climbs in abeautiful area around Orange. Got back on Monday and was disappointed to miss the cleethorpes ride and some challenge points.

Whilst going up ventoux it was in the middle of a sportive that 2000 or so 'Belgiums' were taking part in called the cannibal after eddy Merckx. The long route included climbing the 3 routes up I think which ment some linking up in between. It looked tough as even i sailed past some feeling the effects of heat and the climbing.

It was worth the effort for the views alone though and the descent of course.

Hope to back to some club rides shortly with the aim to do the roses ride in July but sadly the effect of my altitude training will of worn off by then

Jon