Weekend Round-up 30th/1st

[Dr Dave]

8:45 ride for me this week. Only 4 riders out - Tony G (with wrist support as he has a chipped bone in his R wrist), Howard, Dr Joe and yours truly. A sensible pace out towards Thirsk via Coxwold, looping across the A19 just south of Thirsk under blue skies with a slight NW wind. Then over to the A168, down this to Walshford and home via Tockwith. With only 4 riders this was actually harder than the stats - 64 miles at 18.2 - would suggest. Riding 2 abreast we had lots of genial chat and all took turns (some slightly longer than others ). About 2/3rd of the way round the talk got to winter bikes, culminating in Dr Joe and I swapping bikes for the last few miles from Askham Richard back to York as he tried out my winter steed. How the **** he rides with the nose of his saddle pointing towards his front brake I cannot fathom Thanks to all for a fantastic morning!

P.S. Discussing things with Tony it appears that most of the fair-weather ( ) riders who populated this ride in the summer have hibernated. As a concession to the early mornings and possible road ice it was suggested that the 8:45 ride be moved to 9 am for the next few weeks for safety reasons and also:

A. If hardly anyone turns up, riders can join the training ride instead
B. An extra 15 mins in bed is a weekend luxury to be savoured!

Hope this isn't contentious - if riders do turn up at 8:45 and wish to set off before 9 they can of course do so.

[Neil.S]

10am A ride for me this Saturday. 9 riders headed out for Masham. Stu set off like a rocket then realised that he had not actually recovered form his cold and pealed off at Aldawark bridge. It was a beautiful ride to Masham in the sunshine with a well matched and friendly group and everyone taking turns. It clouded over for the return leg but with a bit of a tail wind we made good pace back and were treated to a fantastic sunset arriving back in York at around 4pm. 78 miles at 16mph average.

[Jon G]

'A' ride for me after a week off. Last week I was down at wembley watching England lose against New Zealand. Glad they lost yesterday though. Just shows they didn't deserve to be there. 9 out including myself, Fiona, sue, graham, Kevin 2, John B, Neil, Karl, and stu. Stu was only out for and hour or so and turned back at great ouseburn. Steady pace out through cop grove, staveley, marking ton, fountains abbey, winksley and Grewelthorpe. Found myself on the front a few times early on but my presence in front of someone doesn't reduce the drag by much . Even so the group stayed together well through out. Some quiet lanes in nice weather once the wind had dropped. Refuel in the cafe at masham. Before we headed back upto Grewelthorpe and headed towards ripon and borouroughbridge and back over Aldwark bridge and back into York for about 1600hrs. Just before darknes. I had to dispense with sunglasses for ride home though .

Good ride and great to be out at this time of year. I did more miles on Saturday than in the whole of December last year

However it might be my last club run for 2013 as I have some other things on upto Christmas now. So if I'm not out than see you all in 2014.

Jon

[PhilBixby]

A weekend off the bike for me. Partly due to getting a stinking cold last week - which I'm hoping will be my "one per winter" ration for 2013/4 - which resulted in a very messy session on the turbo this morning. The second reason had more planning behind it - a trip up to Scotland to take daughter Hannah (currently on a student placement in Edinburgh) to the second round of the Revolution track race series at the Glasgow Velodrome.

A really good evening - fewer big names than the opening Manchester round but still some great racing. Brilliant atmosphere too - loads of noise, and an amazing mix of people in the audience; quite a few "three-generations" families. I'd booked within minutes of the tickets coming available so we were on the front row right by the finish and the gust of wind whenever riders came past close really brought home the speed of it all. Thoroughly recommended!

[Rob]

Great Sunday clubrun. 9 in the Square and as it was a tad frosty we dropped onto the A166 to Stammy Bridge. Rewarded with a fabulous view across the slightly lower ground to the south with the tops of tress poking through the fog in the sunshine. Onwards to Pock and M. Weighton whence Bernard peeled off to do his own thing. Then at Cliffe Andy M, PeteN, AndyG and TonyG turned for lunchtime rendez-vous in York. This left 4 gnarly roadmen (mussy, IanK, Broomy and self to head on into a perfect Woldian morning.

Very quiet initially and some of the lanes made a pleasant change to those more frequently travelled. Garden Centre café at Swanland for a breath of bacon, before back through Welton and onto the flatlands at Broomfleet where we were the first cyclists this century. I swear, it's so flat there you can see the curvature of the earth...

Broomy headed home from Howden which left the last three of us to tackle the Barmby Barage Rough-Stuff crossing and home through Skipwith Common and Naburn. We broke the 10m contour for the first time in 40 miles at the A64 fly-over and to be honest we were wilting. 95miles door to door - great day.

Osmotherly, by popular demand next week (well, Muzzy suggested it)
Scarborough for Xmas dinner the week after.
Then Tan Hill, sssshhhh....!