Clifton CC

Unlucky 13 set off on the A ride on Saturday, Tony G left us just before masham, Kevin also turned back early, still recovering from a recent crash , dr Dave we seemed to lose somewhere between masham and leyburn. The group split on the decent into masham from grewelthorpe when Graham's garmin decided to fly of the bike and myself and John b sat up and waited, we regrouped with Pete and then met Kevin N near the turn to Jordan's moss and 5 of us continued to leyburn, the rest of the group were just ahead which included Stu, Rich, James, Simon, Tony, whilst they decided to follow the route through wensley arriving a few minutes after the rest of us we all regrouped at the post horn cafe in the square. After a refuel, we set of back on the return journey at what could only be described as a descent pace however we kept it together just due to the lack of hills . Despite Rich's early p*****e and James stop at the bike shop in boroughbridge to replace a torn tyre we arrived back at a reasonable time into York thanks to the average speed. I even got back just in daylight . I did the same ride last February and matched the stats of a whopping 130 miles door to door. I would have struggled had there been more hills but felt OK for the distance. I do on the whole prefer shorter hillier rides though. Quality rather than quantity I think .but it is good to vary it sometimes . Don't think I'll be out over the Easter weekend, if not see you all on the next one
Also yesterday I went out for an easy recovery ride and went to watch he seacroft wheelers road races at bishop wood which is just a few miles from were I live. Kept moving to different vantage points so didn't see the finishes of the races so don't know the results but there were some Clifton riders in the first race according to the start list, how did you guys get on? . You do get some idea the speeds they do though when they pass, rather you than me, also funny to hear the carbon wheels creaking and making various noises as they pass


Jon

3 of us in the Seacroft Wheelers 3/4 race on Sunday, myself Martin and Tim. I've been struggling to find any form this year and March seemed such a long time away when the entry for this race went up in January! So went in with pretty low expectations (just finishing in the bunch was the first)! In the end I needn't have worried. Lovely morning for a bike race with bright sunshine and a light breeze. Can't say I did anything of note apart from hiding in the wheels Martin had a good go but was brought back and I had a brief turn at head of affairs when following Tim's wheel realised he was going off the front. Soon realised the bunch was on us. Just missed out on the points with a decent sprint but got boxed in with 50 yards to go. Overall great fun and good to be racing again. Kudos to the top 3 who got a break and kept away. No mean feat on Bishopwood.

As Jon has described I rode out with the Inters as far as Masham before deciding to stop there for lunch. Kevin W had the same idea. We had an excellent lunch at Johnny Baghdad's before heading back to York.
Unfortunately we managed to become separated on the decent before the junction to West Tanfield (did you go straight on at the crossroads?) and so I rode back alone. Only 77 miles for me this week but it felt like more Need to MTFU and put the work in to regain full fitness.....

Great cycling conditions again on Sunday for the Thix Spirograph. Over a dozen riders, a mix of Sunday regulars, old friends and a few Sunday virgins.

Just about held it together. The group will always splinter on the big climbs, but its important to keep the group as one on the more benign terrain. When the group is big, those on the front cannot be aware of what is happening at the back, so it is the responsibility of those further back to shout out if there is no longer anyone on their wheel. It's no good saying "I'm alright Jack" and keeping quiet. Knock half a k off and we can give the weaker riders some shelter and all get round quicker.

Nuff said. Anyway, this has to be the strangest route ever devised (Heather's fault, she keeps talking about a Pateley Spriro, but we'd need to take a defribulator I reckon.) Thix Spiro is "only" about 1700m of climbing, but it's all horribly inefficient and agricultural. In some ways it would make a great Audax, but the brevet card would have to run to 30 odd pages...

R