Clifton CC

7 Inters this week. Blustery ride out to Gillamore then 5 chose the drag up the ridge whilst Eric and I tootled up Farndale before tackling Blakey Bank for the first time this year. A rendezvous at the top, then round to the Rosedale cafe.
During lunch the weather went pear shaped and a cold wind with snow and/or freezing rain greeted us for the slog home via Great Barugh, Coneysthorpe and Foston.
Needing to be back, I pressed on after Castle Howard but warp drive was off line by now and I limped home on Impulse engines with 95 heavy miles on the clock Thanks to all for a decent ride. Pateley Bridge and film stardom beckon next week.
I wonder if a trip to the coast for fish 'n chips is due soon too?

"Blustery" is the least you could say about the Bolsover & District 10 on Hatfield Woodhouse today -"Strong winds with intermittent freezing rain" might cover it better. In other words, March was out with a vengeance. Fi and I were both riding, with Rich playing the role of supportive fiancee after his recent intimate experience with a car had put him out of the race itself. Whatever he did, he did a good job of it: Fi managed to get first lady. I managed to win my category, which was some sort of handicap thingy, so I also walk away with a fat tenner in my pocket. It should tell you what sort of day it was that I did this despite being over a minute down on PB. Both of us were pretty blue and shivery by the end of it though: Fi's comment was "coldest I've been in a while" and I can only agree - all the more so since I'd managed to leave my warm clothes at home and was riding in summer kit!

This was B&DCC's first ever TT promotion and they did a really good job of it, with flawless organisation and lots of cake at the end. They're doing another on June 28th so give it a go - it should be warmer by then!

Grand 3 Peaks Hostel weekend for 11 of us (Kev, Ginie, Steph, Mike H, Jez, Lisa, Steve, Dave I'A, Paul S and Karl all take a bow).

I'll let someone more eloquent provide a write up so I'll just provide some pics.

I awoke Sat morning to the weather forecaster telling me that 'Spring was on hold for the weekend' which kind of sums it up.

A range of abilities, ages and technology was on display but the best piece of equipment was the one that cost nothing provided by the cafe in Kettlewell, modelled by Paul, to keep the cold out on Saturday.



Ginie looking particularly keen to take on those snow covered hills



You could tell which roads the Tour will be using, smooth as a baby's...



but some still needed some work, but didn't stop Steph on her new Giant Envie



or Dave I'Anson...who seemed quite happy getting in some last minute training for the Scotton



but despite the extremes of weather we experienced it was all about the riding and the scenery




and what a great Hostel. Lovely building, beautiful setting and good food. The more health conscious ones amongst us even did some post dinner exercise involving circuits up and down the moor (well 1) and some arm exercises whilst rehydrating some more.


Great group, stuck together through all the bad weather and helped eachother out. 11 set off together and 11 finished together. Well done all.

Did the Harrogate Nova 24tt on Saturday which was a Clifton open round. Just in time for the warm up it started raining and rained till halfway through. I was freezing with numb hands (as usual in the cold) so struggled.

Because of some roadworks on the original course they used a back up course which included 2 miles of A19 dual carriageway. I gave up doing dual carriageways 3 years ago and was disappointed that an open round ended up using them. I lost time on the motorway! as I kept in the gutter with the grates and holes but didn't want to risk being on the main carriageway. Anyway still here.

Apart from that enjoyed the challenge.

Cheers

Dave

Great photos Paul. The Hostellers were the topic of discussion several times on our ride today. We guessed it would have been a hard ride on Saturday.....

Great Sunday clubrun for us. Spring-like, tail-wind assisted morning ride. Mussy and Tony turned back at Millington, which left Andy, Nigel, Steen, Darren and me to ride on over the rolling Wolds - heard my first skylarks of the spring (maybe I hadn't noticed before). Turned south just after Kirkburn and on down some tiny, but newly surfaced lanes through Cherry Burton and on to Skidby and the garden centre at Swanland, about 55 miles. Fantastic banoffee pie, photographed for Cliftonite.

The afternoon turned back into winter. Hailstones and headwinds. I'd spotted a little white road on the map that would avoid the urban jungle of Swanland and Welton. It turned into a very slimy muddy track, ideal Scotton training and about the limit of ride-ability on 23mm road tyres. Several stops to clear brakes. Still, it brought us out nicely at the top of Spout Hill. From there onto the wild lands at Broomfleet. Picked up the Sustrans route to Blacktoft, unsurfaced for a stretch, but no problem this time. That said the atmosphere was quite something with rolls of thunder and intermittent hailstorm batterings. Yokefleet, Laxton, Howden and B road home through Bubwith and the sun eventually returned for the last few miles.

Battered legs, about 105miles at about 18mph for the out-of-mud section. Memorable ride. Thanks chaps.

Illegitimate Banks (deliberate non-alliteration ) next week. All Steen's doing - I'll let him describe the route for you, makes me feel dizzy.

Yep, great photos from the hostel weekend…I feel a Cliftonite article coming on Some of those muddy tracks look strangely familiar from today!

Well done to G & Fi too on what sounds like a tough day hangin’ over the tri bars. For the geographically challenged like me, I didn’t even know where the host club, Bolsover, was – a quick glance at Streetmap shows it’s near Clowne, Whaley and Pleasley - well that’s cleared that up.

Very memorable ride today Rob, thanks for leading it – Rob didn’t mention he did the whole thing on a cyclo-cross fixey (albeit still on racing slicks) – v. impressive! – must have secretly known the muddy tracks were coming. Half of the places we rode through I’d never heard of before. Steen and I looked at each other a couple of times and didn’t have a clue where we were. Rob was yelling left & right off the top of his head – he gave the impression he was making it up, but then we all ended up in the right place! BTW, it’s worth riding all the way to Swanland for the cakes alone! – could have done without being stoned by hail when we left though. I thought we resembled swans today, looking serene above the saddle, but legs going like the clappers below the waterline.

We ended up doing some cross training today – road bike, mountain bike and cyclo-cross – all needed on the same ride. On the Yorkshire Wolds Way, I was on Conti slicks rather than knobblies – spent the whole time doing donuts in the mud. Bike now fully caked – job for tomorrow night. Headwind on the way back was tough – great work by the guys to drag us home up that B-road. First ton of the year for me, and for those who know their cricket, I had Nelson on the Garmin. As I said, memorable ride, for all the right reasons, Cliftonites vs Nature – I’m sure we came out on top.

When next week’s Banksy ride is announced, I’m available for pre-ride counselling for those who want to psychologically prepare for the craziness that lies in Steen Van Gogh’s head.

D.

Ps.How was Fountains today?

Like Dave, I also rode the Harrogate Nova 24 (actually 27 miles on the new course) – my first attempt at an open tt. I started 20 minutes after Dave, so missed the worst of the rain – even than the conditions were fairly challenging. A poor choice of wheels meant that I was fighting for control in the cross winds, especially on the dual carriage way where I did not feel safe to stay in my “aero tuck” and also chose to ride in the gutter. I punctured in the final mile, but just about managed to limp around the final two roundabouts to still record a time.

Not a great first tt of the year, but a good training ride. I am hoping for better in the Ilkley CC 25 in April.

Duncan

Great photos Paul. I think you did well with the words too!

I have a few pics and a very jittery video of Sunday's ride from the hostel to Masham. Any advice as to how I can post them on here?

Just to fill in a couple of observations from the weekend. I think 'be careful what you wish for' comes to mind. On the way out, after the first food stop we were all admiring the glorious weather. Paul C mentioned to me that it was better then being bent double into a hail storm. Half an hour later he got his wish. Similarly, Karl spoke on Sunday how the bad weather of Saturday was now a memory. At Linton on Ouse we were dodging the extremely painful hailstones. I'll leave someone else to comment further on the gastro sorry cycle tour and what we ate.

Brilliant couple of days where everyone stayed together and in good spirits. Great fun.

(Any typos apologies. I've sent this from my phone and can't scroll back to edit......a bit like my cycling!)

Rode the 100k Audax event yesterday decided to jump in at the deep end as I have been putting off getting back into bike training only doing a couple of 6 mile and a 25 mile rides in the last 5 months since injuring my shoulder I thought this may hopefully motivate me once more, over 70 people signed on at the HQ at Wiggington I think there were only 5 of us Clifton guys there sorry if I've got this wrong I rode the first 10 miles very steady at the back of the last group then steadily made my way to the front group,at the Boroughbridge checkpoint at Morrisons, i got through the checkpoint first by getting my proof with an ATM receipt instead of having to lock the bike up and go in for my card stamped only for the members of staff to look at me blank and say they don't know what I'm talking about and as the others queued for theirs slipped away into the headwind thinking they would catch me up soon which some did by Studley deer park.
at the next checkpoint at Ripley cafe it was busy so I got my card stamped filled my water bottle As I was feeling very tired and stiff by then so I went straight off again (unlike me to give the cafe a miss) but I didn't want to seize up even more, still nice tailwind on the way home and even had some hail and a few flakes of snow as I rode through Newton on Ouse on the way back to Wiggington.

Ian H

Excellent news that Ian has overcome his shoulder injury and is back on the bike! Chapeau and looking forward to seeing you on the road soon....

Well done Ian, I did try to jump on your wheel after Huby, but the lay off doesn't seem to have made much difference to your fitness & speed.
I decided to ease back on the pedals after crossing the A19 only to find a few sat on my wheel until after Aldwarke bridge, after which I let some of the others do some work; which seemed to have the desired affect as everybody did a short stint at the front except Phil Suddaby who did more than anybody else up to Morrisons.
We also had s face from the past in I think was Andy the lawyer, I am sure Kevin would have remembered his full name, who started to pull us along to Ripon into the head wind. I had been speaking to a couple Christine & Paul from Accrington, who were enjoying the quiet lanes until a Morrisoons truck approached us on the road between Skelton and the main road into Ripon ( on the road closure diversion I think). And nearly took us out in the process!
Nick, Chris, Paul & I decided on an early café stop at Spa Gardens rather than risk having to sit out at Ripley. but we needn't have worried as the sun and sheltered location at the Spa allowed us to sit out in pleasant atmosphere, before we had the pull up through Studley Royal and then over to Ripley with the only tail wind of the day on this stretch.
On the way from Scotton we got blasted as if in a sand blasting machine by the hail stones for about a 3 miles, but we did manage to miss the heavy rain that had proceeded us after Gt Ouseburn, judging by the amount of water around, to arrive back into Wiggy at 3.15 average 14.4. So by the time I got home 80 miles on the clock.

Wow! What a lot of adventures this last weekend and what an advert for Club Cycling. The hostelling photos look fantastic and the Club Tour-Route Team were mentioned several times on our ride as we tried to gauge if you’d have made it over Kidstones & Buttertubs before the hailstones! Well done also to Darren and Ian, fighting their way back to fitness after their respective injury layoffs and sympathy to the sporting course time-triallers for having a dual carriageway inserted into their course. We tried as a Club Committee to influence the Yorkshire CTT body over this issue many years ago, both on the grounds of safety and of public image, but met with a very closed shop and I’ve not the stomach to try again. Sadly, their immovable stance contrasts hugely with the great advert for Cycle Sport elsewhere. Maybe they’ll catchup with Clifton CC soon………

I happily took over the baton for guiding the K ride on Saturday morning and was pleased there were at least 3 of us out for the company: JohnC, MarkB & I took well-ridden route through Crambe; Kirkham; Eddlethorpe; Langton; Birdsall; Thixendale; Huggate; Warter; Nenburnholme; Kilwick Percy to Millington. My legs felt all the climbing by the time we arrived at the café and Mark & I no longer even look at the menu to order!!

There was much light chat of holidays, films, TV & food, sprinkled with some heavier chat of age, health, life and ambition. A lot less chat, however, riding home into the cold rain, as we quickly polished off an enjoyable 63 miles and I appreciated the early return time.

Thanks - ClaireG