Clifton CC

Another sensational day out with the Inters on Saturday - these rides seem to get better and better! 11 joined in the fun: Fin, Jen, Stu, John C, Tony G, Karl, Dan, Andrew, 2 Daves and myself. Some great comedy value too, not sure I stopped laughing all day! The group’s in a good place with fitness too, which helps a lot with the fun factor.

Thornton Le Dale was the destination. We almost cleaned up Broomwagon coming the other way in the Howsham area just after 11:00, obviously returning after a couple of hours over a big English breakfast in a Malton café! On the way out to Settrington Bank, poor ol’ Andrew conducted his own personal puncture-fest, managing the hat-trick before Malton, forcing him to exit stage left and return his vintage tyre to the British Cycling Museum. Andrew had been cycling strongly and we hope he’s back out with us again soon. We had three other punctures on the day as well, the cycling Gods not looking after us at all, the last one when we were humming along on the approach to Strensall at the end, which wasn’t fair at all!

The official Intermediate Village Sign Sprint Series continued too. This is undertaken purely on an opt-in basis and has an expanding crowd joining in. Without having official stats, not sure whether Stu or Fin won the green jersey on the day, with a smattering of wins also by a few others. Other awards on the day included Jen and Fin sharing the honours in the Settrington Bank Challenge Shield, Jen kicked the blokes’ collective butts to win the Amotherby Hill Climb Vase and the legendary John C showed his class on the last climb to win the annual Sheriff Hutton Valentine’s Trophy.

Karl won the Helpful Mechanic of the Day Award, thanks Karl! Play of the Day went to Tony for recommending a fantastic improvement to the route from the top of Settrington Bank going straight on to West Lutton and then first left through Wintringham and straight over the A64 – a better road and a more picturesque route. I’m still awaiting the judges’ verdict on who won the long sprint from the top of Settrington Bank down into West Lutton.

All this sprinting had knackered us by the end. The sprint for the Haxby sign with 80-odd miles in the legs was a slow motion slugfest! We were also running very late due to all the puncture delays. I rolled into my driveway at 6.00pm in near-darkness, luckily I had a full set of lights with me. I had 95 miles on the clock and the knowledge that I’d had a grand day out with a great group.

D.

Many thanks to all those whose patience I must surely have been testing by the time I got to puncture #3. Though that wasn't the last one!

With the tyre boot firmly in place, I descended into Malton and it wasn't long before I discovered Ralph Yates Cycles. In there I got myself a brand new tyre and replaced my stock of inner tube spares, which the previous hour had reduced down to zero. Across the road from the shop, I fitted the new tyre - retired the old tyre to a skip - and set off. 20 yards later: BANG! Tube blown again. I really didn't understand what was going wrong at this point. It made no sense - it was the busted sidewall on the old tyre that caused punctures 1-3, and now I had a new tyre. Somewhat mystified I summoned up the enthusiasm to take the back wheel off for the fifth time of asking, and stuck a new tube in. Finally this seemed to do the trick. Not totally convinced, I spent the next 15 minutes riding around the streets of Malton, just making sure there were going to be no more explosions, and keeping myself within walking distance of Malton station. All was good, so tentatively I rode out of town.

If it hadn't been such a great sunny day I would probably have just got on the first train back to York. In the end I had a fine ride back to York via Coneysthorpe, Terrington, Brandsby and Crayke. All being well, should be out next Saturday.

Good to hear you’re ok Andrew. Yesterday you won the Classiest Bike award with your steel Pinarrello. Sweet.
If others have read Darren’s great write-up and thought “how come those Intermediates have so much fun?”, here's a rough guide to how they do it:

1. If you’re feeling strong: race anyone who is willing to a village sign, drop them on a climb or distance them on a descent. But always with safety first. If you’re not feeling strong, stay in the pack and watch. If a seasoned club rider joins you and describes this 'group cycling with freedom for self-expression' as “you guys are riding like idiots”, you’re doing it right.

2. Have a slightly hopeless-but-well-intentioned mechanic with you. Especially one whose motto is “How can I improve at bicycle repair if you won’t let me practice on your puncture?”

3. Have everyone in the group not taking themselves too seriously. Very important.

4. Have some weird stuff in the news that week to talk about. Like the world’s most famous disabled athlete suddenly retiring from the 400 metres and taking up 10m pistol shooting instead (Oscar Pistorius).
Or Froom beating Contador to finally win a Tour.

5. Finally, have a funny guy like our Stu to ride with…

One of us- “Nice thing about these £400 carbon handlebars is that the flattened top part is really comfortable to hold”
Stu- “That’s good. So on a climb when you’re gripping onto the tops, your legs might be screaming in agony but at least your hands are nice and comfy.”

Reading these I'm disappointed I couldn't make it this week but will def try to be out next time!

A great ride out on Saturday with the inters as already well described by Darren and Karl. The longest ride for me for some time but didn't feel too bad once I got home, my hands weren't aching anyway

Thanks to all for an entertaining ride, still chuckling at "just seating the bead"

First there was Greg's Guide to Time Trialling: ride 8 miles into a '10, spot a marshal and imagine that they're telling you to turn right instead of going straight on, turn off the perfectly good out'n'back course and don't stop until you're four miles up a hill.

Now in an exciting new addition to the Greg's Guides (TM) compendium, we bring you Greg's Guide to Bunch Racing.

1) Get your bike down from the loft the day before.
2) Check the gears - they seem okay.
3) Ride to the start, thinking WOOHOO THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN MY WINTER BIKE!
4) Start the race, and then start fiddling with the front gears on the first lap.
5) Oh no! You've unshipped your chain!
6) Try to pedal your chain back on
7) Jam your chain good'n'proper, shout "Stopping!" and trundle over to the side of the track
8.) Get off and try to sort out your chain, but discover that the rear mech hanger is bent, and so are some of the chain links themselves. Your race is over after a quarter of a mile: at least your racing career can only get better!
9) Try (and fail) to blag a refund on your entry fee
10)Remove the offending links in your chain
11) Limp home, to order a new chain, chain catcher and mech hanger.


At least the day looked up from there, when I bumped into the K ride in a cafe in Thirsk. Carol and I then took the quick route home as we both needed to be back for the evening, but Carol's luck wasn't in: two punctures made for slow progress. As she'd previously given a tube to Steph, I make that a grand total of 7 recorded punctures this week. Would anyone like to add to the tally?

Took full advantage of the great weather on Sunday. Met my friend Ian in Snape. With a VC167 200km Audax route sheet we cycled North to Aldbrough st John near Scotch Corner back south to Thirsk for an early lunch. Malton via Hovingham down the Gally Gap and into York. Another brew and a cake then North though B-bridge Ripon and back to Snape. We kept the wheels turning for 135 miles with little issues apart from crap getting trapped between my mudguard and tyre. Found some wonderful new roads to me north of Thirsk which I shall return to when the evenings get lighter.
Bit of a bonkers distance for this time of year but the great weather made it possible. Looking forward to a normal club run next Sunday.

Steen