I didn’t get off to a good start. I’d arranged to meet Peter at The White Bear for a lift to York at 06:15. I was early so I waited by the entrance to the car park thinking that he’d not need to pull in to pick me up. After 20 minutes of waiting I wondered if there was actually another entrance to the car park, I knew he’d approach from the other direction. Sure enough there he was, he’d been there since before me. Oops. He said he was disappointed, that he was getting ready to call Keith saying that I’d not turned up so he had the perfect excuse not to ride the 24 hour Summer Arrow. One drop out would make the team too small !! I was preparing to call Gordon to say I’d make it to York Station in time to tag along with his team !!
A fast drive later, we arrived at Keith’s for some more breakfast and finally rolled out at 07:45 bound for Ripon. The wind was in our faces but we were fresh and the roads are pretty sheltered Keith knows these roads well and lead us directly to WH Smiths for a control. The Harrogate Post is what may receipt said, hmm, thankfully the previous customer hadn’t bought ‘Nuts’ or ‘Your Pregnancy’ !!!
We headed North East with the wide behind us, ruckenwind as they’d say in Germany. Keith took us on a private road past some rather impressive sculptures of prehistoric creatures made from scrap metal. Seems a shame to have them hidden away like this but hardly the think the Yorkshire Sculpture Park would show, far too recognisable for that place. We were led on a track, a disused railway towards Northallerton and using my road maps I still can’t see where it was !!! It did allow us to cross a river which often causes me to have to take long detours, apparently the landowner of part or the route asks people to write to ask permission to use the road. It’s always granted but then it covers him from ‘right of way’ issues since he’s granted permission.
Thankfully they’d built the new bridge over the A1 near the Rountons, I didn’t fancy doubling back into the wind. A control at Westbrook Cycle s in Stokesley then up Clay Bank into Bilsdale. With the tail wind this climb was very easy so was Newgate. Hoards of motorbikes passed us, all loaded up with camping gear. Custom bikes mainly, not sport bikes, interesting machines. They were noisy but most riders gave us plenty of room. Lunch in Stokesley at a new cafe for me, one of Keith’s favourites, full of pensioners (!).
Long long leg to Beverley, the tailwind made it easy, a couple of climbs with chevrons but not very long and all of us made it up pretty easily. Navigation by chance in Beverley, we found Tescos at about 17:45 and the cafe was still open, not much choice of food though at least nothing that I really fancied. This was meant to the a short stop with a longer stop for dinner two hours later The toilets were kind of open the cleaner was doing her job and told us at least three times that she should have knocked off at 18:00. “Just go home and let us use the toilets” we though. The average age of the three riders was 56 and well you know what it’s like at that age. Our short stop was longer than we’d planned but on this ride our plan did give us 6 hours off overnight so we could afford to take it easy as we went on.
I was a little concerned about the main road down to the Humber Bridge, I thought at tea time on a Friday it might be busy, it was but not too bad, We made it Ok, but that long twisty detour to get on the bridge cycle path is rather tedious, Well sign posted but surely a simple chicane/bollard arrangement around the toll booths would have worked. I felt a bit nervous riding over the bridge on the wind. The early evening was splendid, mid summer so the sun was still fairly high, our shadows dance on the dirty rippled water beneath us when I dared to look down.
Now, last I was in these parts heading for Gainsborough we went through Scunthorpe but today I wanted to suss out the B roads that appear to be more direct on the maps. So that’s right at the end of the bridge access road and through Barton-Upon-Humber. Straight through the town, left then soon right on the road to Brigg. Perfect, it worked out well, soon we were riding parallel to the A15 as on the map. There was no traffic, it was great. Linking together places by following the signs we made it to Kirton Lindsey by 20:30 in time to eat at the pub. The landlord kindly allowed us to park the bikes in the yard out of the way. He claimed to recognise Keith from an earlier visit but probably just the VC167 jerseys on other club members as we pass through this area more frequently on Arrows.
We suited up for the night and headed out, bound for Gainsborough. It’s a null town. Youths hanging around, boy racers in crap cars. Same as last time. Tescos again. Another shopper thought she’d seen us in Lincoln earlier in the year, “probably someone else from the club” I told her.
Arrived at Blyth at 23:30 for at least three hours off. We agreed to leave a hour earlier than the schedule demanded, Peter was worried about keeping the speed up for the final run up to York. We snoozed until about 02:20 and got away at about 02:45. It had drizzled overnight and the roads were wet, it was cool but not too cold. No wind. I warned that we’d have to kill time in order to be not too early at Thorne for our 22 hour control. I faffed as much as I could on the road, put my jacket on, had a pee etc. We had to kill 40 minutes, the lady in the 24 hour garage wouldn’t let us indoors until they’d ‘done the papers and washed the floor’, we offered to help her but not even Keith’s nor my charisma persuaded her !
Finally we were on our way again. Selby, cashpoint receipt and onto York arriving at the racecourse and the York Rally at 07:10. Gerry Boswell in the stewards tent was our finish controller and gave us an official stamp. We parked our bikes in the tent and went for a cup of tea. Our Arrow was done, not a difficult ride, a nice route, I am pleased with the North Lincs part in particular. Nice to ride with some other people, we got on well and kept each other amused.
Our final task was to lead the Ron Kitching Challenge Ride out of the city !
