Clifton CC

Thought I’d kick off the Easter Roundup early so that everyone can post their weekend frivolities as they happen!

It was a grand day out on the Good Friday club ride today. Rode out of my driveway in bright sunshine! – freaky I know. Was still cold enough to freeze the Niagara’s off a brass monkey though. A Quality Street Group turned up to the Square (…see what I did there), including Rob, Andy G, Ian H, Dave C, Shaun W, Tony G, Dr Joe and Yours Truly. A Wolds Easter Festival run to Driffield was the order of the day.

Rob threw in a navigational twist by taking an anti-clockwise route – didn’t have a clue where I was all day! From Stamford Bridge we headed South-East through Pocklington all the way to Market Weighton before heading back up through Middleton and Tibthorpe to Driffield. We’d had a bad run with punctures, including Andy emerging from the café to another flat before we’d even had the chance to warm up! Rode the tail wind North along the valley to Cowlam and West Lutton before taking a left and heading back to York via Duggleby, Langton and Buttercrambe.

Poor ol’ Dr Joe's knee injury meant his knee was as useless as a chocolate teapot (sorry, was dying to use that cliche somewhere). We did consider putting the screen up and doing the humane thing. At Upper Helmsley, about 20 buzzards settled in a tree above the point where Joe had stopped. The birds weren’t even wasting energy on circling, they’d pencilled in a dead cert feast for the next week! Turned out he just had a puncture. Seriously, a massive well done to Joe for grunting through the pain of injury to get home, hope it gets better soon!

Lanes were relatively empty all day, but A & B roads we crossed were packed with holidaymakers, the A64 was a car park. The temperature dropped heaps in the final miles, I arrived home with 99 miles on the clock, CBA’d doing the extra mile. Thanks to everyone for a sensational Easter day out!

Best of luck to those doing Steen’s Banksy ride on Sunday, very sorry I can’t be there, should be a belter!!

D.

A ride went to Osmotherley via the clockwise route for a change. Dave C, Finn, Jenny, John C, Shaun, Paul S, Greg, Neil, Dave B and Tony set out. Dave B punctured nr Beningborough and split off c Tony after Cundall. The remainder enjoyed a rapid blast out to Northallerton in the cold but sunny conditions. At Northallerton we turned into a stiffish easterly which tested the legs and the group struggled to keep together on the undulating run across to Osmotherley.
A spendid lunch at the cafe was enjoyed before the roller-coaster that is the Hawnby road was undertaken. Although the scenery is a delight I always find this road a bit of a pig with no flat sections at all and today was no exception going the 'wrong way round'. By Helmsley I was starting to feel the effects of the pace and my lack of miles. Shaun was also expressing the view that he had had stronger days on the bike, and Finn & Jenny elected to make their own way back citing not dissimilar reasons.
Paul S was still going strong however and set a good pace on the front with the rest gritting their teeth to hold the wheel as we headed for Slingsby and the Foston route back. The climb up from Slingsby proved the catalyst for the group to scatter with myself, Shaun and Neil making hard work of the run along the Castle Howard straight with the others seeming to be cruising as they eased into the distance
Fortunately we regrouped before the descent and once on the flatlands the wind finally was behind us and the last few miles to York passed without crisis. 91.5 miles for me at 16.2 which sounds more tame than it felt!
Long time since I've needed 2 gels to get home - must get the miles in as today really found me out - endurance is sorely lacking (blimey I'm typing in Broomwagon mode now )
Thanks to all for the company - much appreciated.

That was a good, tough ride with the inters today; I don't do nearly enough of these things. Sorry for dropping you when we did, Dave. The only annoying thing was that the weather got colder rather than warmer in the afternoon, so my legs were a little chilly by the end. It seems that my plan of daring the weather to warm up by wearing summer kit didn't work. I'm now going to recover by spending tomorrow afternoon watching the Tour of Flanders and drinking Hoegaarden

This all came after yesterday when Will, Jess and I were all down to do the Good Friday 10 on the V718. Tragically, a Brough CC rider got hit by a passing caravan and is now dead. From what people were saying, it wasn't just a case of the driver not seeing him but I probably shouldn't go into more details here yet. Still, rest in peace.

It seems almost trite to say it now but well done to Will on his PB of 21:58. Jess and I didn't get to ride as the race was obviously abandoned after the guy got hit.

Innerleithen enduro cancelled due to being under a foot+ of snow so spending the weekend enjoying the many pubs etc of Edinburgh instead. Back to the bike tues

Opted for the fountains abbey alternative ride organised by Bernard. Conditions much better than last Sunday. Above freezing, less wind and nice sunshine. 15 riders stayed together well all day despite the undulations after lunch. We stopped at the spa gardens in ripon rather than the Ripley tea rooms guessing it would be rather busy on a Bank holiday weekend. It was a good decision.

Bernard also chose to tweak the route coming back through Knaresborough rather than back over Aldwark bridge as we didn't need to go back via Wiggington. Didn't effect he distance in fact added a couple of milesI think once back in York.

Sounds like it was a good ride to osmotherly for the inters and have a little regret not joining you. But I was glad of a more relaxed ride

But will be back with you next time I think .

Jon

I opted for Steen's Blummin banks Challenge but unfortunately could not muster the will/energy to blummin finish it. However, with it being 50 miles to the cafe stop and a good 1600m of climbing under the belt, I do feel that I have had a decent outing. All in all 80miles d2d with 2050m of upwards for me today.
I reckon that the lads who went the whole hog will have 115miles and 3000m in the bag, a snaffle more than Steen anticipated.

A good, friendly group to ride with and many thanks to Steen for organising the day.

Allan wrote:I opted for Steen's Blummin banks Challenge but unfortunately could not muster the will/energy to blummin finish it. However, with it being 50 miles to the cafe stop and a good 1600m of climbing under the belt, I do feel that I have had a decent outing. All in all 80miles d2d with 2050m of upwards for me today.
I reckon that the lads who went the whole hog will have 115miles and 3000m in the bag, a snaffle more than Steen anticipated.

A good, friendly group to ride with and many thanks to Steen for organising the day.

Sounds like it was a tough day out. Looking forward to some ride reports.

Jon

Well, the inaugural short Saturday morning ride got off to a start (of sorts).

I met up with the training ride folk in the square, but when they left at 9.00 I was on my tod. After waiting a while no one showed up, so I set off for a long-distance TT on the 42 mile route I'd planned.

It was great to be out on dry, very quiet, roads in the sunshine. I'd popped out for a fairly fast 40 miles on Friday, so felt the slopes into the steady headwind between Tadcaster and Aldwark Bridge, but managed 16Mph average.

Back at the square by quarter to twelve. 15 new Strava segments and a 4th on the Bishopthorpe to Tadcaster leaderboard (turns out it's not a popular route).

Next week a similar length route is planned , but with some not-insignificant hills. 9.00 a.m. start, and back in York around midday.

Sunday saw Steen B’s “Blummin’ Banks Challenge ride”, as part of the road section’s Challenge ride series.
Imagine a route with the most climbing in the fewest miles possible in the south west part of the Moors, and you have “Blummin’ Banks”- 8 big climbs in quick succession:
1. White Horse Bank climb- a stream at the bottom and a gliding club at the top says it all,
2. Boltby Bank- the hardest type; a straight road of 25% gradient with no easy sections,
3. Hawnby Bank- a mini Boltby,
4. Scawton Bank- draggy with turns, so you thankfully couldn’t see how much of the climb remained,
(Halfway round we had a café stop at Sutton Bank visitor’s centre- a good place).
5. Wass Bank- 200 metres of climbing through a forest which nicely disguised any idea of altitude gained,
6. Ampleforth- a pleasant 7% you could settle into a rhythm on,
7. Hambleton and 8. Yearsley- too tired so I can’t remember these. The oxygen mask obscured visibility too.

Sure enough as the day lengthened and gravity took its toll, any bump steeper than 15% had us comically calling out to Steen “Does this climb count as one of the 8?!” “… No”.
Talking of which, the riders themselves were impressive:
Steen B- found leading the ride to be too easy, so decided to dunk himself into a ford of freezing cold water.
John S and Steve R- pulled us through much of the return leg’s flatlands into York.
Ian H and Dave C- they’d already done one or two big rides this long weekend. See above!
Mark D- for hauling a 6’2” solid frame up the climbs.
Jeff B- one of the faster climbers, despite his bike’s reluctance to shift out of the big ring. Perhaps that is why he was so quick.
(Thanks everyone for waiting at the top of the last two climbs. I was really struggling).

Steen guided his flock round a great ride. We had good chuckles (not having the energy to laugh) and enjoyed what will hopefully become a classic Challenge route.
Rob O (and Bernard) is the backbone behind these Challenge rides, so it was good to see one of his Sunday regulars add another to the series.

‘Blummin Banks’ – blummin heck more like. I’ve done harder rides but boy that was a tough one. Still, epic scenery and had it been five degrees warmer it certainly would have been one to be remembered for a long time. The suffering was certainly eased by riding with such a good natured bunch, the witty banter coming all day, a nicer bunch of people it would be hard to find. Also Steen seems to have been well trained by Rob, spending most of the time at the front to keep the wind off other riders but always being able to slip back and assist anyone if they slipped off the back. As to his powers of patience - A+, it must have been six hours into the ride after asking if every small rise counted as one of the eight that he finally told me to f*** off.

Sorry about my minor mechanicals, first time the summer bike has been used in anger for some time and sorry about not finishing with the team at the end. My idea was to try and help a bit into the wind having had every one wait for me on all the climbs but once John got up to speed there was no holding him – so it’s his fault (and John, it might have looked worse from where we were, but if your missis saw you overtaking that Mondeo on white horse bank like that, she’d hide your bike from now on).

Not much to add to our challenge outing on Sunday after Karl and Broom Wagon. The full roll of honor was JeffB TonyG Allan Another Rob Sam Karl
MarkD JohnS IanH DaveC Broom Wagon Karl and Mr Potty Mouth.
The groups vast experience made leading them a bit more relaxed than it could have been and lots of fun.

Sam Allan Tony and Rob made for the exit just after lunch for differing reasons ''had enough fun'' probably covers it. All earned at least a point as most of the days work had been done at that point.

We covered 94 miles from the center of York. Not sure on the amount of climbing if anyone has that stat would like to know sometime. An extra couple of tough bits out of Rievaulx and after the ford before Old Byland. No extra charge its on the house.

Thanks for turning out all of you. and to Rob for the loan of the Club Run for a day.
Steen

Remember those rides tail end of the season at Burton Fleming? Friends and family sat out in front of the hall enjoying late summer sunshine. Riders flashing past with plenty of miles in their legs, mild westerly to assist the tough final mile. Everyone happy to sit around at finish to cheer each other on before leisurely ride back. Well Saturday was nothing like that. Jason and i only Clifton representatives.

Topped off with miserable few hours today alternating between twiddling and griding along. Met Pete Skelton and found couldn't communicate because faces frozen. Word to the wise: Dutch House cafe open Weds-Sun so just a banana and bottle of freezing water. Talking of which thought old man had snapped off when got home. Frantic root around in chamois. Took warm shower before beast coaxed out of its hiding place.

That's interesting Mark, I thought that yesterday had the nicest weather of the weekend!

In case anyone's interested, a guy called Chris Hopkinson* started a Land's End - John O'Groats - Land's End record attempt today. He's got a GPS tracker here and in order to break the record, he needs to be back at Land's End by 7 o'clock Sunday morning.



*12 hour folk will have seen him, he was the one with the "kiss my ass" disc wheel and the pink/blue hair.