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Well with the Met Office website promising temperatures well in excess of three degrees on Saturday, shall we go north? An opportunity to ramp it up a bit on the A168 and do a lap or two of the Milby circuit, plus a few lumps and bumps on the return run if we do the full Crayke - Brandsby - Sheriff route. Will split into groups in an effort to avoid it being a day of individual TT's. For those wanting a steadier ride there's the 8:45 ride with Steve A at the helm - choices, choices!

Should be out, might have to ride in and home from Selby though so expecting to be a shattered shell of my former self by the time I get home!!

Hope to be out. First race next week so hoping to have a decent outing. Misread this at first and was looking forward to being able to camp it up on the A168, then reread Phil's message!

Still, you never know!

The new Almadovar movie seems to be the place to go for tips, Nigel...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EXEDke0_f2Q

Phil,
Don't you think shaving your legs and wearing very tight clothing is enough?

That's one reason why I don't shave my legs!

Funny you should suggest Almodovar Phil. I've been learning Spanish this year and watching some of his films recently (with English subtitles cos they all speak so fast!). They're great for trying to match the language up but all pretty weird!

To be fair shaved legs on the bike doesn't look too out of place, it's every other social occasion whilst wearing shorts with shaved legs that results in varied levels of amusement / abuse!

Not that there's any point at the moment. We need every extra bit of insulation going in these spring temperatures...

Well, given the relatively tropical temperatures I was expecting a return to the heady days of thirty-odd riders showing up - hopefully the rest of 'em were on the 08:45 "Steadier" ride! Just over a dozen in the square at nine anyway, so we set off on the northerly route in one group. There were some new bikes, some first-rides-for summer-bikes and in consequence there was a fair bit of allen-key-twiddling on the first part of the ride, but by the time we hit the A168 and camped it up... ...well, it was as smooth as a well-moisturised chin.

Things got a little looser as the pace notched up on a lap of the Milby circuit; Nigel's pump bounced out of his back pocket so I eased up to wait for him; I was joined by a couple of backmarkers but The Man And His Pump had vanished. Onwards, being joined by AndyC, until a puncture from hitting a b****y great pothole drew things to a halt. Having suffered pump envy on a previous ride (yes, Greg) I'd got one of those mini-trackpumps and so once the tube was replaced I was surrounded by one very impressed little group of cyclists.

We pressed on - presuming the fast lads to be well ahead - and by the time Liam peeled off to Strensall it was AndyC and I doing a steady two-up. A good ride - 21mph out-of-town (about 23-point-something on the A168 and Milby) and 218W. I'll be over at Barton with the other old blokes next Saturday - would someone under 40 like to take on coordinating duties?!? Andy?

Sorry Phil! Given the speed of the group on the Milby circuit I didn't think there was any point in continuing round by the time i'd turned back to collect my light (it was my Exposure Joystick which bounced out of its bracket) so turned round with Nick and John (I think- I'm crap with names) who had both had seatpost issues on the less than smooth tarmac at Cundall and headed back to Thornton Bridge to wait for everyone to come round.

Once the group had caught us (minus Phil, Liam, AndyC etc) we waited for a while but it became clear that mechanical issues had caused a problem so we set off as people were starting to cool down.

Steady away to Easingwold and Crayke and we then also camped it up from Sutton back to Wigginton at an ever-increasing pace (by the Reliant Bus Garage we were rolling through around 28mph!) so I was v. glad to reach the lights at Wigginton!

58 miles for me at an average of 20.3mph so a good, solid outing before I also do some old blokes racing next weekend.

Thanks to all for some solid, safe riding at speed- given that everyone was clearly working v hard the group rode really well together. I'm looking forward to camping it up again soon

Thanks again to Rich for catching my water bottle cap that came flying off by Cowthorpe. Was good to be out again on a training ride on Saturday. Felt pretty tired and just sluggish thoughunfortunately, which was a shame. Probably thanks to all the riding ive done over my Easter hols. Still, enjoyed the company and was good to see so many familiar faces out. Rich and Cam were riding very strongly indeed. Got home and after lunch just couldnt resist the weather and headed back out to round it up to a bit over 5 hours.

Would someone under 40 like to take on coordinating duties?!? Andy?

Sorry Phil, I wouldve been around but I've been roped into a 50km 3-up TTT with uni, down in Oxfordshire - im sure it'll be fun really