Martin "MSeries" said it best. "Common as muck them Airbornes"
My nice Ti road bike was positively common at 8am on Saturday morning waiting for
the start of the Ron Kitching 150km ride. I counted 6 and then gave up as more
arrived.
In true CTC stylee, most of the riders were in shorts dispite the cold (11C at the
start) and unpromising forecast. I was one of the few in leg warmers, arm warmers
and gillet. Each to their own, but it was definately too cold for shorts for me!
The route had been changed at the last minute due to the floods in Helmsley so we
only got to see the route 5 minutes before the start. Basically a straight run
north to the top of the Moors and then back again. In most ways a more natural
route than the original and one that looked nicer to me.
The start was very sedate as we all moved out en-mase through York. Various groups
got split up by the lights and then re-joined again over time, but there was still
one very large peleton as we hit the first hill at Terrington Bank after 12-13 miles.
Terrington Bank is always a shock to the system after the flat run out, being 100
vertical meters of 1:5 - 1:6. The group split up straight away here, with one guy
leaping off the front on a mission. I tagged on his wheel as far as Hovingham but
at the foot of Caukleys Bank decided that I didn't fancy doing the whole ride at
that pace and sat up for the next group to catch up. Funnily enough the guy that
rode of was on an Airborne as well ...
I was soon joined by a group of about 8 including 3 riders from VC Lincoln and we
stayed together for the rest of the ride. It was nice to ride round in a group,
and slightly surprising that we stayed together on such a hilly ride!
Into the headwind on the way out four of us shared the work nicely and we made good
time heading North on the flat section from Nunnington to the start of the real
climbing in the Moors.
The run up the valley into Farndale is lovely. It's a very peaceful valley, very
rural and makes you glad to be there. A long climb up takes you into the valley,
then you lose all the height you've just gained so that you can gain it again
up the very hard climb of Blakey Bank.
I dropped my chain at the bottom so was a little behind the group on the hill, so
got to watch as riders zig-zagged all over the road in an attempt to keep the
gears moving. I had to seriously grunt the 38x25 round in order to keep the bike
moving upward. Fortunately there's a couple of breaks in the gradient where you
can rest a little between the ramps but it's still hard. To add to the mood
it started raining on the way up as well!
The next section to Castleton was the least pleasant for me, mainly becuase we were
now up into the cloud/fog and the combination of wind, rain and cloud ment we all
got very cold on the descent into Castleton. It was one of those awkward times when
leaving my cycling specs on meant I couldn't see anything due to misting and taking
them off ment I couldn't see a lot more due to screwing them up to keep the rain/wind/
crud from the road off.
Once down in Castleton, things improved. The sun came out, I warmed up and the whole
thing started seeming like a good thing again!
The next section back up to the main ridge was for me the highlight of the ride. I don't
often come up to this area, and the roads around Danby are lovely. The roads
are "heavy", sapping speed and strength, but make up for it my being very lovely
indeed, full of small villages, houses and even with chickens running across the road.
Somewhere round here we may, or may not, have got lost. We were never really sure. We
didn't know where we were, it didn't agree with the route map, but we did end up on the
right climb out the valley, so that was all ok.
Climbing up Dan Joyce and Jason Patient were out taking pictures to try and get a cover
shot for the CTC mag, so some punters will have their moment of fame in a while. I stopped
for a very brief chat and then headed on so as to stay with the group.
Finally once on the top, we knew that not only were we at the highest point of the ride,
but there was a nice tailwind all the way back. Sorted.
The run back was pretty much without event. We worked nicely as a group, kept it moving
nicely and only went off route once. Opps. The route parallels the run out, but is less
hilly and with the benift of the tail wind went by rapidly.
The final hills around Castle Howard proved a little sting in the tail, but there was still
a little bit of playing going on on the rollers as the VC Lincoln lads attacked. I felt duty
bound to try and respond though funnily enough my legs weren't working quite as well as
they were in the morning!
We were back at the rally for 2pm, so I wandered off and had a very welcome cup of tea
and slice of pizza (the food of champions, erm..) before heading home for more food and
tea.
The boring stats:
In my urge to get extra value for money, I got 160km not 150 🙂
1,800 metres of climbing. 10C min, 14C average.
6 hours riding, 6:15 elapsed.
I ate 4 geobars and drank two 750ml bottles of energy drink. I would normally have drunk
a lot more but since we didn't stop at any point except to look in confusion at the route
sheet, I didn't get the chance to top up.
38x25 bottom gear, which was fine for everything except Blakey Bank where I was a little
over-geared.
Arthur
--
Arthur Clune PGP/GPG Key: http://www.clune.org/pubkey.txt
The struggle of people against power is the struggle
of memory against forgetting - Milan Kundera