Lincoln -) Durham day ride

Executive summary:

Well, I tried it on Friday and made it to Northallerton before the weather made it impossible to
continue. This was rather vexing, since I had under 30 miles to go at that point

The full story:

I set off at 0645, and noticed that the wind was a) rather stronger than forecast and b) coming
from the wrong direction. Since the temperature was sub-zero and I couldn't even look forward to
turning round and riding with the wind like I could on a normal ride this was rather disheartening.
Still, I pressed on (slowly) and when the sun came out just before entering Gainsborough I cheered
up a bit. Not least because I'd been thinking up fresh insults to use on metorologists should I
happen to meet one.

Due to the wintry weather, I'd revised my route to use gritted main roads for the most part.
Unfortunately, the grit worked its way into the rear derailleur cable, resulting in some annoying
mishifts from time to time. Also, I saw several car-wrecks nicely stored by the side of the road;
such a cheery site when their precursors were hurtling by with inches to spare at times. Once rush
hour was over, things became much more peaceful.

I crossed the M18 junctions at 1000 and reached Selby for 11-ish. Unfortunately, the cold rendered
all my finger food rather unappetising so I'd not eaten quite enough and consequently the last 20
miles into York were extremely difficult. The world's largest baked potato, some hot soup sorted
that out and I stopped thinking of the train station with such longing, instead preferring to ponder
the fact that some people actually like deep-frozen mars bars. At that point, these unnatural folk
were welcome to the contents of my jacket pockets.

After a good long rest I set off again, rejoicing in the fact that the wind had dropped
considerably. However, the blue sky was soon replaced by grey clouds, then a few flakes of snow
fell. By the time I reached Northallerton at 1650 I was getting quite worried about continuing; I
only had showerproof clothing and my gloves, once wet, wouldn't work at all. So, with reluctance I
phoned a friend and got her to examine the BBC weather forecast on my behalf. Once she'd stopped
laughing[1] she obliged and unfortunately the precipitation radar showed a huge snow storm about to
descend and with great regret I boarded a train for Durham and abandoned my attempt

With hindsight, it was the right decision since there was already a couple of cm on the ground by
the time the train reached Darlington and much more in Durham itself. While on the train, I looked
out of the windows and could barely see the trees at the top of the cutting, the snow was falling so
thickly. Thinking positively, 115 miles into a headwind of varying strength was not a bad effort for
someone who'd only done up to 70 miles in a day before. I'd done my first century at least

Nevertheless, disappointing. Watching one of my mates attempting[2] to cook a barbeque in the snow
later that evening and consuming half a crate of McEwan's "Red Death" Export more than made up for
it though.

There is only one answer of course. I'm going to do it again when the weather gets a bit warmer.
Only this time I'll make sure I have a tailwind

Regards,

-david

[1] "Er, hi. It's David. Now, this may sound a little odd but I want a current weather forecast for
the Northallerton area..."
[2] Suceeding, actually. We were impressed!

 

On 01 Mar 2004 15:53:48 +0000, David Nutter <[email protected]>
wrote:

>
> Executive summary:
>
> Well, I tried it on Friday and made it to Northallerton before the weather made it impossible to
> continue. This was rather vexing, since I had under 30 miles to go at that point

Thanks for the story. You sure picked the worst day possible to go for it. I got a call from my
better half mid-afternoon on Friday telling me that if I was going to get home at all I should set
off there and then. I got the next bus to Consett, we then set off from Consett for home but we
ended up abandoning the car less than a mile from the house, the final bank was unpassable, a foot
deep in snow with a blizzard blowing. We walked the last mile which was eeery. You did right to get
on the train.

Colin

 

So you missed out on the crates of beer then ? You probably made the right decision though. Try
again when the weather is better. Good luck

 

David Nutter <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Executive summary:
>
> Well, I tried it on Friday and made it to Northallerton before the weather made it impossible to
> continue. This was rather vexing, since I had under 30 miles to go at that point
>
> The full story:
>
> I set off at 0645, and noticed that the wind was a) rather stronger than forecast and b) coming
> from the wrong direction. Since the temperature was sub-zero and I couldn't even look forward to
> turning round and riding with the wind like I could on a normal ride this was rather
> disheartening. Still, I pressed on (slowly) and when the sun came out just before entering
> Gainsborough I cheered up a bit. Not least because I'd been thinking up fresh insults to use on
> metorologists should I happen to meet one.

You cycled through Gainsborough in winter! *Bows down*

Simon Mason Cycle city nr 3 + Obesity capital nr 1 ??? Hull

 

> Simon Mason Cycle city nr 3 + Obesity capital nr 1 ??? Hull
>

Alas, not all cyclists are built liike anorexic whippets. I should know ;-)

Cheers, helen s

--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get correct one remove dependency on fame &
fortune h*$el*$$e**nd***$o$ts***i*$*$m**m$$o*n**[email protected]$*$a$$o**l.c**$*$om$$

 

On 1 Mar 2004 19:06:39 -0800, Simon Mason <[email protected]> wrote:

> Simon Mason Cycle city nr 3 + Obesity capital nr 1 ??? Hull

By the sole measure of (Type 2?) diabetes. I thought it interesting that the 'obesest' was Kingston
upon Hull while the 'leanest' was Kingston upon Thames. Something in the water?

Colin
--

 

On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 08:48:03 -0000, Colin Blackburn
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On 1 Mar 2004 19:06:39 -0800, Simon Mason <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Simon Mason Cycle city nr 3 + Obesity capital nr 1 ??? Hull
>
>By the sole measure of (Type 2?) diabetes. I thought it interesting that the 'obesest' was Kingston
>upon Hull while the 'leanest' was Kingston upon Thames. Something in the water?

Golden Syrup, perhaps?
--
Matt K Dunedin, NZ

 

"Colin Blackburn" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> On 1 Mar 2004 19:06:39 -0800, Simon Mason <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Simon Mason Cycle city nr 3 + Obesity capital nr 1 ??? Hull
>
> By the sole measure of (Type 2?) diabetes. I thought it interesting that the 'obesest' was
> Kingston upon Hull while the 'leanest' was Kingston upon Thames. Something in the water?

Something in the fish + chips more like it!

--
Simon Mason Anlaby East Yorkshire. 53°44'N 0°26'W http://www.simonmason.karoo.net

 

MSeries <[email protected]> said:
> So you missed out on the crates of beer then ?

Nah, we shared it out, considering I had to abandon the attempt due to foul weather rather than
simply getting too tired to continue.

> You probably made the right decision though. Try again when the weather is better. Good luck

Oh I will! Thanks.

Regards,

-david

 

Colin Blackburn <[email protected]> said:
> On 01 Mar 2004 15:53:48 +0000, David Nutter <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>> Executive summary:
>>
>> Well, I tried it on Friday and made it to Northallerton before the weather made it impossible to
>> continue. This was rather vexing, since I had under 30 miles to go at that point
>
> Thanks for the story. You sure picked the worst day possible to go for it.

Yeah. Bloody weather gods

> I got a call from my better half mid-afternoon on Friday telling me that if I was going to get
> home at all I should set off there and then. I got the next bus to Consett, we then set off from
> Consett for home but we ended up abandoning the car less than a mile from the house, the final
> bank was unpassable, a foot deep in snow with a blizzard blowing. We walked the last mile which
> was eeery. You did right to get on the train.

Blimey. I'm glad I didn't have to go through any hills on the ride up...

I fell over coming out of the station in Durham as well; it would appear that conditions were a
little *too* exciting for everyone that night whatever mode of transport they were using! I hope you
managed to dig your car out the next day.

Regards,

-david