Yad Moss/St Moritz

[sojournermike]

It might be full by then - I have to order brevet cards soon, and I don't want to over-order and be stuck with a dozen unusable brevets.

Not fair;) - I don't want to DNS or DNF, but I may send you a tenner in the next couple of days and hope for a mild January.

[sojournermike]

Entered - fingers crossed for the weather

[Socks]

Same here - entered in the hope that the weather is ok, and my legs feel up to it.

[Deano]

Only about a dozen places left.

[Deano]

Make that 11.

[L CC]

I had a go at a helpers ride yesterday and found that the combination of my lack of fitness and a 20mph headwind was not a good one. It was mild and sunny but its still bloody exposed - and I didn't even get as far as Middleton before I decided to quit as I reckoned I'd never have made it round in time.
With hindsight I'm not sure if that's true, I made awesome time back into Darlo.

[Graeme]

My turn at the Helpers Ride on Tuesday - with the Deano himself. Storm Bender had passed over and although the forecast still had rain and wind, I figured this was situation normal for Yad Moss in January. We nattered our way to Folly Top in no time at all, but put rain jackets on at Middleton in Teesdale. Cycling past High Force we were able to see the full waterfall thanks to the absence of leaves on the trees... but as we rose above the tree line we could see that we couldn't see the hill-tops. It was raining by then. At Langdon Beck valour deserted us, but like all OCD types, we wanted to 'get somewhere' before we turned around. So a few extra miles to Cow Green Reservoir. Hooo! It was exposed up there. The wind was horizontal and the rain was attached to it. The return was fraught with pot hole dodgems.

Back at High Force we stopped for soup and chips with beer. The lovely landlady type took our drenched "waterproofs" to the drying room while we ate. We sat by the log/coal fire and reminisced about the olden days when every house had a coal fire.

Warm and dry, we headed out into the rain, which immediately reversed the situation. Shivering, we headed downhill to Barney.

Deano's route is very clever. The Brevet card is hilarious - wait till you see just how many controls he's included! The event is sold out, I reckon there will be quite a convivial peloton riding this together on Saturday. The forecast is for beautiful sunshine. I guess Deano and I suffered in the rain and wind so you don't have to. Have a great time on Saturday... I'm down as a DNF.

[sojournermike]

Sunny, but thickest tights day I reckon. Will be cool in the valley, so more cool on the tops.

looking forward, and a bit nervous.

[Graeme]

Sunny, but thickest tights day I reckon. Will be cool in the valley, so more cool on the tops.

looking forward, and a bit nervous.

The trick will be not overheating on the climbs and then having something windproof for the descents. Not being wet through will make it so much more manageable. However at this time of year I, think sticking in larger groups and riding easy... keeping it social... that'll be the way to make this doably fun.

[Flite]

By Tuesday late afternoon, it was snowing....

[Deano]

Aye, we could see snow up on the top of Cronkley Fell (when the clouds cleared enough).

Good! One of the riders has been demanding SNO.

[Deano]

I haven't ran the figures, but there are over 50 on their way to the St Moritz of the north.

Bit of ice at the edges, otherwise gorgeous up Teesdale. Bastards.

[Graeme]

Bob voyage everyone!

[grams]

Excellent route and great weather, apart from the ferocious headwind. I didn’t make it over the top of Yad Moss until 12:30 which gave me 2 hours to cover 40 km to the turnaround control.

90 minutes later, with only 25 km covered I decided to turn around. I’m sure I might have blagged validation with a late stamp, but I really, really didn’t fancy going back over Yad Moss in the dark and increasing cold. It was much better to do it again in daylight, especially the descent.

I was really feeling the cold at Middleton, so decided to skip the Barnard Castle loop too, which got me back to the finish at a sensible time.

Well done to everyone who managed the full route, and thanks to Deans and his excellent helpers.

[Deano]

Cheers Grams, nice to see you again.

I am lucky in my helpers - and the volunteers at Hallbankgate Community Centre got lots of praise from the riders too.

I capped entries at 60 (and could have taken a lot more, but it wouldn't have been fair on Hallbankgate), booted 54 out this morning, and 50 finished.

First sweep of photos is here, hopefully the link will work... https://photos.app.goo.gl/V4ZpXEAuqHhuZFyRA

[Socks]

Lovely route and a particularly elegant brevet card.  I found it hard going in the first section with the cold, the hills and the headwind and plodded along until I got to Middleton in Teasdale.  Just in time at this point but as usual nowadays the prospect of that headwind and the bigger climbs over the Moors did for my motivation.  Flask and a bite to eat on a sunny, sheltered seat.  Then turned left onto the return loop for an easy run back to Darlo.  So a nice (short) day out rather than a tough challenge and struggle to stay within the time limit.  Just as well I've already got a January DIY in the bag from a couple of weeks ago, to keep the RRtY going.

[Revolution9]

First 200 of the year for me, and the RRTY moster is still alive for the time being.

I was a bit nervous of the conditions after the drive down from the Borders.  My confidence seems to have taken a bashing after an 'off' earlier this year, but on the whole, the roads were ice free. (we did come agross one car being recovered from a field, but this was probably not due to ice alone)

As others have said, there was a horrible head wind all the way to the turn.  I even got blown off the road over Yad Moss a couple of times into the gutter, which probably caused my puncture after leaving Alston.

The Flap Jack followed by Beans on toast at Hallbankgate was just what i needed for the return leg.  Great service there.

I had to disable my rear brake at Romaldkirk due to a broken spoke, which made group riding interesting to say the least, but we all made it round in one piece.

Thanks to the VC167 lads who sheltered me from the wind, and of course to Dean and Co. for all their hard work.