Clifton CC

OK gang, you asked for this...

This is not a day at the shops, but a fun-filled jaunt to burn off some of those excess Christmas calories. Go ahead and enjoy another mince pie on Friday, guilt-free in the knowledge that you're working out on Saturday

The Beeb forecast is looking like another doozy; +13C, cloudy and dry, but those pesky SW winds will still be with us. We're also on the upside of the winter solstice, so gaining a few minutes of daylight.

Since it is Boxing Day, many of the smaller town cafes are likely to be closed, so we need to head somewhere with a decent population density. I originally planned a hilly route to Thirsk, then I saw the windy forecast and figured that especially after last week, some homeward-bound tailwinds would be nice.

Except for the "damp" weather, many of us enjoyed our curtailed ride out to Otley a few weeks ago, so I thought tweaking that route would mix it up a bit. We're sure to find an open cafe and I figured we'd take in Otley Chevin and return a different way through Harewood House, Scarcroft and Tadcaster.

As always for this time of year, fenders and lights recommended

129Km / ~80 miles square to square. View and download the route at RidewithGPS or click the map.

Looks good to me Tony , are you sure you have been looking at the weather forecast for Yorkshire? and not somewhere in Canada ? . anyway shoud be there unless I over indulge on the mince pies .p.s great sense of humour as always.

Looks like a nice route, Tony. Most of us will be familiar with the outbound route but the inbound route offers something a little different. Looking forward to blowing the cobwebs off after Christmas day. Hopefully the rain will stay away. Have a good Christmas. See you Saturday.

Are we confident that there will be cafe open presumably in otley if that's where your thinking of stopping.

The weather forecast has gone biblical

Just checked and confirmed that storm "Eva" is wreaking havoc on our plans.

Sunday's still looking dry and +13C with some SW wind, so postponement in order. 10am in the square.

Just had a look at forecasts on 2 sites and both are suggesting Driffield Bridlington are dry relative to going west. Saturday is my only option so I am going east for a festive scone.........anyone interested??? Kevin

Really need to ride tmrw as can't do Sunday but forecast is so shoight I'm having trouble getting myself into any state of mind to cycle

Tony are we still on for a blast to Otley . could be some flooding , just seen on news ilkley town centre flooded , your thoughts . G

Heading West could be tricky due to flooded roads, I'm thinking of heading to the Wolds with no definite route in mind but maybe heading for the Fridaythorpe cafe.

I will still head to the square in the morning first.

Ian H.

Let's meet at 10am Sunday, as planned and re-assess the route as necessary. I'm certainly flexible if the roads are in a bad state,

BTW, I heard Huntington Rd is flooded in York this evening.

Latest up to date info on Minster FM

http://www.minsterfm.com/news/local/183 ... -affected/

Ian H.

Well I tried and failed, didn't even manage to get as far as York this morning due to various flooding problems. The main one been that they had closed cawood bridge. Once I committed to go that way it's too far diversion to go via Selby not sure whether that was the least of my problems though , whats York like?

Hope you guys managed a ride of some sort. Will try again next week but weather doesn't look good for next week either. More rain which won't help the flooding situation.

Still managed a couple of hours on bike but still disappointed on such a sunny day

Jon

Hey Jon;

Sorry to hear that the storm got the better of you today. Five of us made it to the square - Graham, James, IanH, Dr Joe and myself.

Given the challenges getting to the square in the aftermath of yesterdays biblical downpour, we had little faith that we'd be able to follow the planned route. Clifton Green was impassable and we anticipated severe flooding near Overton, Beningbrough, Linton-on-Ouse and Aldwark.

We decided to head East, crossing the swollen Derwent at Kirkham Abbey before heading to Leavening, Langton, North Grimston and Sledmere. After grinding up to Fridaythorpe in a headwind, some (myself excepted) were disappointed to find the greasy spoon cafe closed until Jan 2nd.

From there we continued into the wind, reaching Millington, welcomed by a warm fire at our standard cafe destination (will be closed NYE to Jan 6th).

Standard trip back to York, except that in light of flooding at Stamford Bridge town centre, we took the "viaduct" bike path and arrived back in York just as daylight was fading.

All considered it was a fantastic winter day (weather-wise) and a good day to be out. My Garmin clocked just over 110Km and 906m of climbing. Thanks to all for their usual excellent company.