Weekend round up Sat. 30th Jan.
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 1:23 pm
Another good turn out for the Inters' ride on Saturday. Nine of us left the square on a sunny but blustery morning. Other than myself there were Tony, Graham, Dr Joe, Dr Dave, George, James, Kev N and a Norwegian student whose name escapes me. We headed out through Haxby and Wiggington and then on via Sutton and Huby to Crayke before tackling our first significant climb of the day up Yearsley bank. The wind was starting to get up which resulted in an interesting descent into Ampleforth and I suspect that removal of gloves would have revealed a few white knuckles! We battled the wind on through Coxwold where Dr Dave left us reckoning his lack of fitness would not get him to the top of Boltby bank which lay in wait for us. Dr Joe was a little off the pace as well but, as he had downloaded the route onto his Garmin suggested we go on without him and he would meet us at the café, which he duly did. The weather continued to keep us on our toes and, just for good measure, decided to throw a blizzard at us on the ascent up to Felixkirk. Fortunately the sun had reappeared and the wind abated somewhat as we made our way towards the main event of the day, namely the climb up Boltby bank, which Tony had kindly included on the route for the Fred Whitton entrants among us. As a climb the bank does not disappoint and is surely one of the toughest around. The sobering thought is though that we will encounter far tougher climbs than that in the Lake District. A few hill reps may well be in order before May 8th! Fortunately we all made it up in one piece and mostly on two wheels before enjoying the glorious descent down to Rievaulx Abbey before the short climb up to the Bilsdale road and the final descent into Helmsley and a well earned café stop. The ride back passed without incident, coming back via Harome, Hovingham, Terrington bank and Sheriff Hutton. The group split at Strensall and I arrived back in York with 72.9 miles/116.6 km showing on my Garmin.