Great North Road 400: 18 May 2019

[L CC]

Nice bridge!

[yorkie]

Nice Power Stations! 


It's the smell of home! Well, it is since the sugar beet factory closed down! (...and the wind very rarely blows from the direction of Rowntree's Chocolate Factory!) 

[rob]

Nice Power Stations! 

Top one Eggborough, 2nd one Drax.

[yorkie]

Nice Power Stations! 

Top one Eggborough, 2nd one Drax.

Thanks! 

Round here you see so many power stations that they all tend to merge into one giant power station!


Bernie's Long Flat One (600km) from Doncaster wasn't known as "The Doncaster Tour of the Power Stations" for nowt!

[rob]

Nice Power Stations! 

Top one Eggborough, 2nd one Drax.

Thanks! 

Round here you see so many power stations that they all tend to merge into one giant power station!


Bernie's Long Flat One (600km) from Doncaster wasn't known as "The Doncaster Tour of the Power Stations" for nowt!

On that one you got a bonus of Cottam and West Burton.

Eggborough is now being decommissioned with Cottam to follow this year.   Not sure if they'll ever demolish them completely but I suspect the scenery will gradullay change in the coming years.

[Graeme]

Nice bridge!

Horkstow... a treat we've been introduced to by a local rider and friend. That, and the Humber Bridge, make a grand outing.

[Deano]

Nice Power Stations! 

Top one Eggborough, 2nd one Drax.

Thanks! 

Round here you see so many power stations that they all tend to merge into one giant power station!


Bernie's Long Flat One (600km) from Doncaster wasn't known as "The Doncaster Tour of the Power Stations" for nowt!

On that one you got a bonus of Cottam and West Burton.

Eggborough is now being decommissioned with Cottam to follow this year.   Not sure if they'll ever demolish them completely but I suspect the scenery will gradullay change in the coming years.

So enjoy them while you can

The route doesn't actually go particularly near Eggborough or Drax, but you do get pretty up-close-and-personal with Ferrybridge.

[mattc]

Nice bridge!

Horkstow... a treat we've been introduced to by a local rider and friend. That, and the Humber Bridge, make a grand outing.

It's a long way to ride just to see 2 bridges. I can do 2 on my commute!

[Graeme]

Nice bridge!

Horkstow... a treat we've been introduced to by a local rider and friend. That, and the Humber Bridge, make a grand outing.

It's a long way to ride just to see 2 bridges. I can do 2 on my commute!

Yebbut I'm leading the next control after them. Hungry?

[Deano]

Nice bridge!

Horkstow... a treat we've been introduced to by a local rider and friend. That, and the Humber Bridge, make a grand outing.

It's a long way to ride just to see 2 bridges. I can do 2 on my commute!

Not these bridges. And there are a few more than two, and neither of those two is The Best.

[yorkie]

Nice bridge!

Horkstow... a treat we've been introduced to by a local rider and friend. That, and the Humber Bridge, make a grand outing.

It's a long way to ride just to see 2 bridges. I can do 2 on my commute!

Not these bridges. And there are a few more than two, and neither of those two is The Best.

Aldwark or Whorlton? (Both equally rickety these days!)

[Deano]

Whorlton, of course! But I could run a poll of riders afterwards.

In other news, cheap train tickets will soon be available. And you can kip in the hall the night before, of course.

[Karla]

Nice tribars on that Pompino 

(Can someone rename the Pompino thread 'Pimp My Pomp'?)

[yorkie]

Whorlton, of course! But I could run a poll of riders afterwards.

Whorlton is probably a nicer rider experience, unlike Aldwark it doesn't feel like it's about to collapse when you ride over it.

I once followed a transit sized van across Aldwark bridge, the planks were bouncing about 6" into the air! I'd rather not repeat that experience any time soon!!

[jiberjaber]

I'm a little excited about doing this  as long as I can make the logistics work - what's the score with Hall accommodation the night before?  And is the RWGPS route route checked and final yet?

[L CC]

I'll be driving over in the morning from Guisborough if you want a lift jibers?

[jiberjaber]

I'll be driving over in the morning from Guisborough if you want a lift jibers?

Cool... will keep in touch if the other logistics of getting up North work out.

[Deano]

Hope you can make it, jibers. The hall's not open till 10 on the Friday as we have to kick out the Scouts, so boab's offer sounds good. I've been telling anyone (and it has just been one so far) that I'll charge a nominal fee of a fiver to cover the cost of booking the hall for anyone staying over.

I'm pretty happy with the route, but as I've been more-or-less off the bike for I haven't had chance to fill in one gap on the routesheet (Micklefield to Askern), and I've been keeping an eye on some building works in York. If I don't get to ride, at least one minion will be checking it. I think it's fine, but I haven't ridden the Micklefield-Askern bit since last summer.

[jiberjaber]

Hope you can make it, jibers. The hall's not open till 10 on the Friday as we have to kick out the Scouts, so boab's offer sounds good. I've been telling anyone (and it has just been one so far) that I'll charge a nominal fee of a fiver to cover the cost of booking the hall for anyone staying over.

I'm pretty happy with the route, but as I've been more-or-less off the bike for I haven't had chance to fill in one gap on the routesheet (Micklefield to Askern), and I've been keeping an eye on some building works in York. If I don't get to ride, at least one minion will be checking it. I think it's fine, but I haven't ridden the Micklefield-Askern bit since last summer.

I'm IN!  Looking forward to the weather forecast being wrong... getting a bit fed up of wet rides now!

[FifeingEejit]

Still a long way off weather wise but on the 2 forecasts I've checked there isn't much rain forecast and looking pretty warm
Going to be dark though as almost total cloud cover and a fair bit of fog and maybe some electrical activity over Lincoln.
Wind ENEish so never in our favour

I'm on the 1123 from Leuchars and booked into the premier inn (decided I wanted a comfy bed before hand) so will be hanging around bored from about half 2 onwards...
Unless the usual Darlington bike problem occurs and I find myself on a train back north from York.

1230ish back north on Sunday

[Revolution9]

We're heading down Friday afternoon, staying in the Travelodge.

Heading to McD's on arrival @ Morton Park.

Looking forward to this one after seeing Deano's pictures from the weekend.

[Stretch]

Any chance of you offering this as a perm Deano or should I wait until next year? 

[FifeingEejit]

We're heading down Friday afternoon, staying in the Travelodge.

Heading to McD's on arrival @ Morton Park.

Looking forward to this one after seeing Deano's pictures from the weekend.

Bah I'm in the town centre PI, Nandos just roudn the corner from me
Although I may head down to Morton PArk to see this again:

[Deano]

Any chance of you offering this as a perm Deano or should I wait until next year? 

I'm not running it again. This is the only chance you'll have.

I don't do perms (and I think it would compromise the route too much - all controls had to be 24-hour with no infos last I checked, then it'd be horrendously overdistance to avoid the A66 and A18, plus going to Middleton rather than Romaldkirk etc etc).

Feel free to use the route as a DIY, though, and gimme a shout if you do, I can meet you in Darlo with scones or something.

[Deano]

The route check went quite well - it was a lovely day, though the tailwind all the way home from the Humber Bridge made it quite hard to keep warm when the temperature dropped. Fuelled by Mac n cheez at CrinklyLion's, I just rode the last 100 km home without stopping (apart from nipping into a campsite to top my bottle up, and a couple of bus shelter stops to swap batteries in lights).

I only spotted one missed instruction on the routesheet, and I'll update that before re-sending it. There were some roadworks on the route, but all passable by bike (or trike).