Saturday morning dawned early, far too early if you ask me. The weather was dull, but
looking promising and after a nice breakfast of Minibix and strong coffee I started panicing
about last minute organising of stuff like clothing, lights and coffee for when we returned.
I checked my little camera only to find that the batteries were flat, so left it on the
kitchen table, thinking "It's ok I have my mobile for those stunning sceanery shots".
Mrs T and TLD were dispatched off to swimming lessons at 8:45, I was on my third change of
shorts (through comfort, not through spoling the other ones) and I set off for the station.
Handy this living only 3 minutes from a mainline station lark. Anyways I was the first to
arrive at the meeting point, just in time to hear the station annoucer say that the train on
platform 2 was the one to Middlesboro, the one I knew MSeries would be on. I stood there
waiting and sure enough after a couple of minutes he turned up. We started chatting about
wether lights were needed (I though they may as the Moors can get a bit misty even in
August) and how effective my Exelite Lumipac would be. As the discussion continued Deano
turned up. A brief discussion of the conditions, and off we went. A brief scoot through
the busy town centre saw us heading out on the road to Osmotherley. A couple of miles of
flat soon gave way to roads heading towards the skies. And back down again. Martin and
Dean dropped me at the first sign of any hills, only for me to catch up with them again as
they rested at the top of the hills. Past the roadworks at Ellerbeck, with obligatory moton
who though he should be able to get past three cyclists through the roadworks, out the other
side, under the A19 and into Osmotherley. Our next "treat" came in the shape of Clack Lane,
more upwards pointing road. Through O and out the otherside saw us on the long drag up to
Hawnby, Up then down, up a bit more, down a little bit then, just for good measure, up
again! We passed a hedge cutter (cue thoughts of visitations) and a digger. the digger
would pass us once again as we struggled up yet another hill. The words "For F**** Sake,
who designed this route?" where heard issuing forth from my mouth. A long fast run down
hill into Helmsley saw us at our first cafe stop. I was at this cafe stop that I realised
we had passed through possibly the most beautiful and sceanic part of the route and I had
not managed to take one photo, oh well I'm not going back just for a photo...
Coffee was consumed by me, coffee/tea and food consumed by the other two, a mistake on my
part, not taking on food. And we were off again. A long drag on the busy A170 out of
Helmsley ended when we turned off through Sproxton then on towards Ampleforth. More long
drags up followed by steepish descents (and Martin and Dean being way ahead of me again) saw
us reach the beautiful little village of Ampleforth, most famous for it's boys school run by
monks (and it's yearly tabloid revalation of drug abuse in the same school). It was on the
approach to Ampleforth that I realised I really wasn't going to be able to complete this
route, and started feeling a bit like a fraud. I had designed the course, assured myself
that I was able to ride it, and may have even given the impression to the other two that it
really wouldn't be a problem for me. So at the stop in Ampleforth I told the other guys
that I was intending to head back towards Thirsk then home when we reached Coxwold, and if
they wanted to carry on to Knaresborough, I had no problem with giving them the map. Both
said that it was a group ride and the group should stay together, something that really
deeply affected me. Maybe I'm just used to going for rides with groups that leave you to
your own devices if you get dropped, or maybe I am just cynical but I fully expected them
both to go "OK, give us the map and we'll see you back at yours for coffee", which I
wouldn't have had an issue with, but instead we rode through Coxwold as a group, then onto
Sowerby (the village I grew up in) and onto the second cafe stop of the day, at the Garden
Centre.
Here I did consume food,, a bacon butty and a HUGE flapjack, to be precide, along with a mug
of coffee. The conversation flowed well and somehow Martin and Dean got onto wether I
should be riding a fixer. I resisted, cited the "One in, One out" rule that Mrs T has
enforced now. After getting our water bottles re-filled (the staff did not seem surprised
by our request, I guess this must a regular cyclist's stopping point), we discussed which
route tot take back to Northallerton. We had two option, flat or slightly sceanic. I was
keen on the sceanic route (mainly because Deano hadn't seen the view from Upsall the last
time due to torrential rain) and Martin seemed more keen on the flat route. Eventually
after an assurance that the "sceanic" route was not that difficult a climb and the view from
the top was worth it, it was decided that was the way would go.
Off down the A19, through South Kilvington and out on the singletrack road to Upsall, the
only other person we saw was another cyclist. He was funny, I saw him before he saw me, and
he was just dawdling along. As soon as he saw me he launched into full race mode, 1000 yard
stare and everything. I just kept going at my normal (slow) rate and waved a cheery hello
to him. To his credit he returned the hello and we carried on our way. We all reached
Upsall together, paused for photos (including the one of Deano trackstanding) then headed
downhill for the last time, left at the junction, through Knayton (where a marshall thought
I was involved in the TT that was going on so indicated I should be turning left when I
wanted to go straight on) and onwards towards Crosby.
At this point I started to notice that my teeth REALLY REALLY hurt, "must be the cold wind"
I thought, as I was breathing very heavily through my mouth. A few miles from Northallerton
I had to stop by the roadside as the tooth hurting had migrated slightly north nad I was
starting to get an optical migrane, the sight in my left eye worryingly fading. A passing
car saw me and gave the word to D & M, so after having been sat the raodside for a couple of
minutes they returned and forced me to sit a while. This was nice, the weather was fine and
conversation just flowed. Once recovered we set off back to Tiermat Towers for a coffee and
to watch the Olympics on the telly. TLD offered round smarties cakes and spent ages talking
to Martin and Dean. Dean gained a new friend in the shape of Lord Dashworth, who jumped up
on the sofa and promptly fell asleep whilst Dean tickled his ears.
The guys departed after been threatened with having to watch The Aristocats if they stayed I
gamely tried to stay awake whilst eating hotdogs and popcorn whilst watching the same.
Bedtime was early for me that night, but the hills just wouldn't leave my legs so I didn't
sleep very well, not did I last night....
BUT the main thing we had a good ride, Martin found that there are some good hills, and he
could climb them, we all found stunning sceanery and a good time was had by all.
Now over to Dean to design the next one, and NO NO NO I am not doing it on fixed...
