Clifton CC

I went down on Friday night to see some old friends in Chesterfield. As I took my Brompton fold-up bike, I thought I might as well get off the train at Wakefield on the way back on Saturday.
On Saturday I arrived at Wakefield station just before 11am with my Brompton and a full medium sized rucksack. My initial plan was to ride south of Wakefield, before heading east and then riding on smaller roads back to York.
Having ridden to Newmillerdam and then Walton, I decided I was thoroughly sick of fast cars, rain puddles and Wakefield traffic planners so got onto the Sunstrans Route to Leeds. Even though a lot of this route is off road and would be slower I thought in the rain it would be nice to have some direction signs!
Getting round Wakefield did seem to take a lot of time though. At Mickletown I then forked of towards Tadcaster via Garforth. I should probably have caught the train at Garforth back to York as I was getting cold and my feet were blocks of ice (I just had trainers on, which were now soaking). I did however buy a cold pastie at Tesco’s. The bit between Garforth and Aberford is quite nice and has a strange muddy tunnel at Parlington where you can barely see a thing whilst ridding through thick mud. From here you skirt the A1, before joining minor roads to Tadcaster (where I lost my rear light). I must say by this stage my bottom was rebelling against the Brompton seat and my back was aching from the rucksack. The rain was not helping either. The only word I can use to describe the last miles was grim. I think I did about 50 miles but it felt much longer!


"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

I joined Rob’s Sunday Rides of Praise today due to other commitments on Saturday. A bit of a culture shock getting to the Square an hour earlier at 9.00am, found 5 others raring to go. Rob, Andrew, Ian H, Dave C, Tony G and myself were the attendees, all up for some Sunday clubbing.

Despite the Easterly being icy cold, we had a much better day than our sodden Saturday colleagues. We were hit by 2 or 3 snow showers during the day but the dry snow flakes literally just bounced off us. If it had been warmer, we would have been soaked by rain showers, so in many ways we were lucky it was so cold.

Langdale End was the destination, what a fantastic part of the world! We slogged into an icy headwind all the way out through Castle Howard and Amotherby, lunching early in Thornton Le Dale. We then continued North up Dalby Forest Drive, where the Mountain Bikers were out in force in t-shirts and shorts, once again proving their craziness. The sun appeared for the next bit as we rode past the Moorcock Inn near Langdale End….

[The next section is left intentionally blank to protect Yorkshire’s best-kept secret!]

…We then found ourselves in the shop at Snainton - after Rob had almost set his saddle on fire churning out a cadence of 5,896 revs/min riding his fixey down the hill! Rob was amazing today, grinding up the steep hills on the cog, and mostly the first to summit! We finally had earned the huge tailwind which carried us home via Settrington Bank in a rush, arriving back in York at about 3:30pm. I’d happily cleared the ton by the time I got home, just in time to welcome the M-in-law for dinner on Mothers Day!

This was a great ride. The group was well balanced in terms of fitness, we seemed to hurtle our way around the loop as a tight group. A great ride and a very nice group to do it with.

D.

This Sunday saw Dalby Forest hold a cross-country MTB race as part of the “Nutcracker XC race” series.
The results are out and two younger Clifton riders did especially well:

Nathan Smith 7th out of 15. Juvenile male category.
Scott Wooley 3rd out of 17! Youth male cat.
They beat some tough XC racers: a mix of sponsored riders and regular club cyclists.

Also well done to John Savage, Chris Cuckson, Steve Roebuck and Stephen Smith for flying the Clifton flag.
All of our riders finished roughly in the top half of their race category!

(why so excited about finishing top half of a category? Having personally only ever scraped halfway finishes in the Dalby Simba XC series in '01-'04, the effort it takes isn’t to be underestimated!).

I also did the nutcracker.my 1st ever mtb event.shame my clifton shirt hasn't come yet or Iwould also have been flying the clifton flag.

I know you wouldn't believe it looking out the window, but you can tell spring is on the way because of the sudden variety in weekend activity. There's a TT discussed on the racing thread, training continues, XC above.... I love hearing about it all and its good to show-case it on here - great advert to potential members and reminds the rest of us that we have all this to chose from.....

Anyone out on Saturday deserves a medal - rain/2°C/wind has got to be the worst possible combination. Did the much heralded 0850 ride get out? I heard Kevin fell off (his bike apparently suffered more than Kevin) and the great Howard was seen in the bunch.

Steen and Ian were down to ride a 200k Audax - any news?

Back to Sunday clubrun - conditions were described by Andrew as "gnarly", so gnarly in fact that even TonyG joined us in the cafe. Indeed, this great adjective could equally describe the ride as a whole and I for one have been a little fragile today.

Am not out next week. Suggest Cockayne or Osmortherly. Have fun.

Early out on a solo Sunday ride as had to be back midday. I would struggle to call it a training ride as it was one of those weekends when just maintaining forward momentum was the order of the day. But as Rob said Sunday was still the better weekend options. But I reckon it was the hardest mornings riding this winters campaign I've had and even though I was wearing more than any previous Sunday, wasnt exactly over dressed! Ground my way into the wind round Warthill and Sand Hutton to Bossall and Howsham. Leavening up the brow and down Birdsall to Malton and onto Amotherby. Waved at Rob and the Sunday punters in tight formation coming the other way on my way to Coneysthorpe. I thought they seemed a bit behind schedule and had wimped out and were just going to Thornton Le Dale but I shouldnt have worried! Onto Terrington and Dalby ( the one with the maze not the Forest). I love that road and I reckon its the hardest climb round here? Carried on to the end and turned left down through Snargate farm and Farlington. Wound it up a bit coming into Haxby but first race is still a long way off. Most previous years I would have had a race this weekend - bloody glad I didnt this year!

"Good" weekend for me. Out for the training ride on Saturday and was mighty glad of the full mudguards for a change. Summer bike which had a brief flurry last weekend, firmly back and shackled to the turbo!

I knew I was riding the first round of the Nutcracker on Sunday and common sense dictated a steady easy ride to shake out the legs. So I joined the training ride! doh! Actually I really enjoyed it, despite the weather. Knowing I was racing on Sunday, I mentally had the excuse of trying to take it easy, so when Andy, Cam et al went at Terrington I was happy to sit with Marty and Andy and contributed very little.

Dalby, however, was an eye opener. Bright but cold meant lots of layers (I certainly wasn't in shorts and T-shirt!). I thought I had some decent form for the time of year and the training rides had been going well. The race started with a long sprint up a tarmac road until we hit the course proper. I immediately regretted my macho approach on Saturday as the legs died half way up and I started to lose ground. Not part of the plan! The rest of the race was just a grind, uphill, across thick peaty boggy tracks and then a practically unrideable downhill! Not a bad course and the location by the visitors centre was great for spectators, but I think the World Cup course is much better!

Finished a little deflated and probably a couple of minutes a lap down on where I wanted to be. 28th in the Vets, but b****r some of those old boys are fast.

Give myself a "D", with room for improvement.

We'll see how Round 2 goes in April.

How did everyone else find it?

Back to the turbo in the meantime!

John

I saw you on the start line john.I wouldn't say I'm a mtb'er but altho I had you in my sights up the tarmac start.I was on the wrong side of the road to the off road section so got held up a bit.that downhill peaty bit was scary on the 1st lap but just unclipped 1 foot and let the bike go where it wanted.gruelling course but good fun.

Not sure how you do that cut and paste on this thing

Anyway Rob I did get a 200km Audax done on Saturday. Ian went to see the Rugby then flew of to Switzerland to do a drug deal.

Everyone knows how great the weather was on Saturday I did the same route about a month ago in glorious sunshine. It was down the A1 from Scotch Corner along the A64 to Malton back along the 64 to York. Back up the A1 via a quick control in Ripon. You time trial guys would have loved it.
Also our Audax brothers and sisters know exactly where they stand on mudguards.

Osmotherly or Cockayne Sunday should be along for that.

Steen

Steen Berg wrote:It was down the A1 from Scotch Corner along the A64 to Malton back along the 64 to York. Back up the A1 via a quick control in Ripon.

Come again? Is this some strange Thirskish joke?

Yes John I was a little surprised at your 28th place. Upon riding it in the morning, I thought the course was made for you. I was looking forward to you getting a high finish.

I was a bit disappointed at my 17th place in the fun category too, reaching the top of the road section on the first lap I’d have sworn there was at most six ahead of me and then I’d have sworn no more than another 4 came past during the race. I’m sure my result is right though, I suppose in all the excitement you don’t keep an accurate track of your place. I think I need a D for effort too, it was my first time off road for six months and it was a case of getting my mind around it again and I don’t think I worked much harder than I would on a club run and that’s not right, you should finish a race feeling absolutely battered and destroyed.

Fun category was a bit odd too, with riders ranging from owd blokes (well my sort of age anyway) four stone overweight and on bikes not really fit to cycle to the shops on to lads in their twenties on 3K bikes looking like they were 4% body fat. I’d felt rather a fraud entering the fun category (because I'm not really a novice cyclist) but after a few of the owd blokes on shopping bikes had passed me I felt ok and besides some of the chaps in the fun category would have been good contenders in whichever category they rode in.

I liked the course (not particularly technical) and had it not been so muddy it would have been just my thing.

I’m very much looking forward to the next one and who knows if I get my mind around really giving it some proper effort so I finish with blurred vision, my heart trying to bang it’s way out of my pigeon chest and my lungs feeling like they’ve been through a combined harvester I might finish as high as 16th.

I had plotted a 50ish mile route taking in Millington, Wetwang, Thixendale and Howsham and set off at 9am calculating that I would miss the forecasted snow. As usual my calculations were wrong and I hit the snow with the bitter headwind that was carrying it whilst slogging up through Milly pastures. The snow was dry and mostly blown off the roads on the tops but became more wet as I climbed the long road out of thixendale. By the time I came through Galley Gap my hands and feet were so cold and wet that you would not wish it on your worst enemy. The last 16 miles were a true test of my ability to not cry/blubber but at least the wind was on my back for this last leg. I think that this one can go down as a character building ride. Hope to soon regain the confidence to get out with the inters once in a while, however next saturday will be another 50-60 mile non stopper starting at 9am and some company would be great!

Modesty obviously has prevented them from posting the results of last week’s World Club Track Championships at the Minster track where Clifton members, Phil B, Dave C and Ian H dominated the podium places in the Individual Pursuit. Here’s a photo of Phil B and Dave C racing off for gold in the decider:

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/1026942 ... ycle_race/