off to the AGM tomorrow...

[hellymedic]

On Londdon-bound ECML train now. I've been put in First Class as wheelchair space in Standard occupied by luggage.
Other yacfers + bikes are elsehere on this train.

Safe journey Helen, hope your weather is better than ours! Horrible here 

Thanks.
Got soaked in 10 metres between pedestrian tunnel and cab.

Manotea, Mel Kirkland, RichForrest and others had to ride their bikes, poor things.
LEL reminiscence therapy, maybe...

Good to be home with my pint tea mug.

That's a bit pointed Helen, since Rich and Mano didn't finish LEL. !!

Not intended. 
It's WET here and home with hot drinks and comfort comestibles is best, IMO

[MSeries]

It's wet here too. The wind changed direction since Friday and I had a tailwind home which is much nicer than a headwind especially with rain.

[Martin]

got a txt from Manotea; he bailed the bike in favour of the train. Can't blame him; there's a stiff cold southerly wind and almost 100% rain. Not the best day to go out checking my next year's event extension down skoggy flooded lanes; but I did anyway 

[MattH]

My weekend got off to a bad start when I was driving up to Oldham with the kids on Friday night (so that I could leave them with their grandparents whilst I attended the AGM). Appalling traffic meant it took a couple of hours to get to Oxford, at which point I remembered that I hadn't packed my nice eVent cycling jacket. There was no way I was going back for it, I decided I'd make do with the one jacket I had with me - a Rohan pertex shelled walking jacket with reasonably thick insulation, designed to zip into a goretex shell (so not waterproof, but very warm).

Saturday morning at 7:15am was wet. Three quarters of an hour later I'd climbed up past the snowline on the Isle of Skye Road between Dovestones reservoir and Holmfirth, so was now riding into driving snow. In places the road was nasty due to the cars having compacted snow into ridged ice. Whilst taking this photo, a driver in a white van stopped to ask if I was OK

A couple of runners were out up there, I'm not sure who was the nuttiest!
Coming down the other side my gears weren't working properly, and I wanted to change into my warmest winter gloves so I pulled over. Didn't take long to find out what the transmission problem was:-


I was quite surprised at the progress I made; I arrived at York having covered 145km in 6:45 - which included a feed stop. Not massively fast, but through some pretty nasty weather on a fairly hilly route.

The AGM was well worth attending, especially catching up with lots of people. I must make better arrangements next time so I can actually stay over - this time I had to get back to Oldham so I could bring the kids home today.

I left the AGM four hours after arriving and took a different route home - heading North West out of York, then picking up the 3 coasts route through Castleford, Wakefield (where I saw a lot of young ladies most unsuitably dressed for the time of year  ), before jumping onto the A62 through Huddersfield and back to Oldham. The rain started in Huddersfield, turning to snow again as I approached Standedge cutting - where I had a very helpful tail wind pushing me up the hill!

I was still back before midnight; in the end I did 270km (I needed to do at least 250km for the UMCA year rounder I'm working on)  in 16:45 - which I was pretty pleased with considering the weather conditions and that that time included 4 hours at the AGM!

I did feel for those riding home today; not good weather to be out on the bikes.

[Weirdy Biker]

A great bit of cycling up to York from Surrey.  Early morning A road bash to Byfleet, gradually giving way to familiar lanes around Windsor and on to the first control at traffic clogged Henley.  Surprisingly benign route over the Chilterns, avoiding anything seriously nasty.  Toughest hills on roads around Brill which made me thankful for Buckingham Tesco (Mmmmm..acaroni).  Then a rolling rural route through North Bucks, skirting the north of Milton Keynes and onwards to Thrapston travelodge with 245km on the odometer and 14.25 hrs on the clock.

Manotea arrived later (I'll let him tell the story).

Main road bash out of Thrapston in early morning industrial traffic before turning off to Oundle.  Start of an extremely beautiful 50km of riding, complete with ruddy sunrise illuminating the air.  Cross winds all the way up to Goole via Grantham and Gainsborough.  Sorry, but I found these three towns disappointing blots in great Rutland and Lincs countryside.  Goole was a mistake, or at least the route I took (up the east bank of the Trent from Gainsborough, doglegging at Scunthorpe, clues in the name) meaning a horrendous 20km main road sprint after some delightful rustic roads - thankfully flat but into a teasing westerly.  Arrived at Goole 12 hours exact with 210km on the odo, with the prospect of another 40km to York.  I couldn't remember how hilly it was, but did some rough math, feeling relatively strong (despite a long absence from audax) thought I could make York just about in time with a little bit of begging if I wanted to claim the dart.  But it was 6pm and I'm not points chasing this year, just trying to get fit for the spring.  So job done, I jumped on a train to York happy in the knowledge that I had a good two days on the road, despite riding it alone.

[Postscript: just looked at those last 40km from Goole.  Could have should have done it.  Flat, fast and non-technical.  I also had 3hrs to complete, even without begging as minimum route was 214km.  Oh well, next year...]

[Weirdy Biker]

packet soup starter and the pseudoBisto gravy...

 

is it back down south next year?

Undecided as yet.

There was a kind of thought going around the end of the AGM meeting that York could be a permanent location for the AGM.  I'd have no problem with that myself, despite it not being local, although I'm more taken with the idea of a "constant" home in the centre of the country (perhaps somewhere in Derbyshire/Notts would also work?)

[MSeries]

York is very central and very easy to get to by public transport with it being on the NECML and direct trains from the capitals of England and Scotland.

[Martin]

as someone who's never ridden to York (although hope to next year on a perm 600) I don't feel much enthusiasm for doing it at this time of year; If the AGM stays permanently there I won't be going again.

was there a vote?

[MSeries]

as someone who's never ridden to York (although hope to next year on a perm 600) I don't feel much enthusiasm for doing it at this time of year; If the AGM stays permanently there I won't be going again.

was there a vote?

No vote. The committee was given permission to decide the venue for next time. This was my first AGM, largely because it was inexpensive and easy to get to for me.

[Martin]

the one last year in Guildford was also my first (well actually I only did the dinner)for exactly the same reason (I got the train there and back avoiding a hotel); it also made a very pleasant 200 dinner dart.

+1 for it alternating North / South

[Manotea]

Heigh ho, another mixed weekend for me. I'm getting a bit fed up with being unable to answer the simple question, "did you you ride up?", with a straightforward "yes!".

Plan was to ride up with FY for a 2x200 (well, 220/235 really but who's counting) but Real Life intervened and I didn't get on the road until 3pm with a 3am arrival at the Travelodge at Thrapston. FYs fine route was quite benign but I too needed a stop at Buckingham Tesco's to take on some major calories. I'd had the benefit of an occaisional tail/cross wind but the air was plenty damp and chilling. Happily the only rain I saw fell whilst I was indoors so that worked out well enough. I had bagged a couple of bakewell tarts for breakfast but my late arrival meant I went to bed without eating and I paid the price feeling cold all the next day. I kicked off about 30 minutes after FY and I think almost caught him at one point but I had to stop to scoff some bonk rations. I was going well enough and in good spirits but the fact was it took me about four hours to cover the 60km to Grantham - about a quarter of the distance to York and by far the hilliest section  - and after a sit down cafe stop I still felt cold and had no appetite to push on. After ~10hrs riding through the dark the day before I really wanted to arrive in good time for dinner, so I jumped a train. I arrived in York about 3pm and spent the last hour of daylight exploring York before tracking down the AGM accomodation. It seemed a good call, especially when FY arrived around 8:30 despite packing at Goole. Still, at least I was able to save him some supper. They also serve...

It was still prettry damp and grey the next morning so I ducked out of the morning ride and walked into town with Billy, Lynn, John Spooner and Martin Newstead for another look round, admired the South Transept of York Minster (£9.50 to go all the way inside!) and toured the Railway Museum (free - that's more like it!) then hotfooted back for the AGM where it was standing room only (well, at the bar anyway) to discuss LEL with votes of thanks for work done and plans for the future.

There was some discussion about future venues with a suggestion of making York the regular location, which seemed fair enough to me but equally there's a case for moving it around the country (north as well as south). Not sure I'd have contemplated riding to Scotland though. I enjoyed the venue but suspect we only just squeezed in - we definately filled the meeting and dining room.

Changing plans meant that I had the option to ride home but the weather forecast more than persuaded me the wisdom of using the train ticket I'd bought a couple of months before, as there was lots more rain to come and a cold headwind all the way to London. A cohort of soft southerners - up to and including my esteemed clubmate Mr Kirkland - agreed with me!

p.s., Great Pictures, MattH. You are officially "Well 'Ard"!

[Weirdy Biker]

*Pun alert*  This year's venue was very much horses for courses.

Personally, I thought accomodation and breakfast were good for the price.  As was the meeting space - it did the job and had a ready supply of bottled ale.

But it lacked a sense of occasion for the prize giving, which should be the highlight of the weekend.  Saturday felt too cheap.

PS: Martin, cycling up to York in two stages from the South East is actually very possible, surprisingly varied and rather enjoyable.  A very early start (4am) meant I got past the urban sprawl south west of London before rush hour.  Next year, I might do an eastward loop, making use of the DART crossing.

[Ian H]

PeterM and I left early Thursday for a leisurely pair of 200s, so we've missed all this discussion. It was dry on the way up apart from one shower on Thursday morning. We even had sunshine.

The AGM appears to have come up with the right answers with out too much blood-letting. The venue had echoes of the old Youth Hostel AGMs.

I left not very early this morning to ride a few miles out of York to a friend's; then back to the station and train to King's Cross, quick wet ride to Reading to collect the car, and now ready for bed.

[Ivo]

Back home after a long journey by coach and various trains. The trains were allright, National Express is a bit cramped.
A good expereince though. Luckily not the slaughter I was fearing during the AGM. I spoke to a lot of people but missed the time for a lot of others. So it was in fact a bit too short

[mikewigley]

a ready supply of bottled ale.

Which was much cheaper than last year's beer prices at Guildford.  I thought Dave and Yaz(?) did a great job  The Pilbeams put a lot of work into these occasions which is very much appreciated

[DanialW]

Which was much cheaper than last year's beer prices at Guildford.  I thought Dave and Yaz(?) did a great job  The Pilbeams put a lot of work into these occasions which is very much appreciated

This is a very good point, Mike. I was thinking just that on Sunday. We were very well looked after.

Where does Pam keep finding all this old kit as well? Every year the sale gets bigger!

[Phixie]

a ready supply of bottled ale.

Which was much cheaper than last year's beer prices at Guildford.  I thought Dave and Yaz(?) did a great job  The Pilbeams put a lot of work into these occasions which is very much appreciated

Agreed.  I have already written to Pam saying so.