Sunday 15th March

Medium Ride

Despite the blustery morning nine of us chose to follow the suggested route, albeit in reverse, to Arkendale, the Dunsforth’s, Boroughbridge, Bishop Monkton, Knaresborough and home. However, I hadn’t reckoned with Brian’s penchant for suggesting alternative routes. Always happy to delegate, we followed Brian through the Showground, through Stonefall, and along to Forest Moor. From then, there were no more deviations for the ride to Boroughbridge. It’s a quiet, pleasant route and we were soon at Boroughbridge. Following our coffee stop at Morrisons, four of the group chose to go straight back to Harrogate via Minskip. The rest of us battled the wind to Bishop Monkton. Here, Brian had another suggestion – to return by the Mount Garret estate. We all agreed that sounded a good plan. Just before Bishop Monkton, I heard a loud ‘pop’. It transpired that one of Dave’s spokes had popped out. He seemed to think he would manage to get home and we set off. However, at the next junction he was nowhere to be seen. We guessed he must have taken the main road. Hopefully, you got home safely, Dave. We were soon at Mount Garret. The stream was flowing fast and was much higher than usual but quite safe to use the bridge, with the help of Brian and Mike. Then an uneventful ride along a busy Greenway where we went our separate ways.  It had been a most enjoyable ride with lots of chatting. Thanks to Brian for his suggestions. Alison N

Medium Plus – Alternative Ride

Rather than cycle the suggested route to Wetherby and Boroughbridge eight of us decided we fancied a hilly route with views. From Hornbeam we headed to Beckwithshaw, Fewston, Timble, Blubberhouses for coffee at Flock to the Fold at West End. After coffee we crossed the reservoir and cycled through Padside, Thornthwaite to Hampsthwaite for our second coffee at Sophies. It was a lovely 33 mile ride in great company. Paul

Medium Plus Brisk Group

Beware the Ides of March, they say, but we had a grand ride that was blissfully free of incident. There was the usual Medium Plus mild chaos setting off as the various groups formed and split at the Leeds Road lights, but there were quite a lot of us at the traditional stopping spot at the top of Walton Head Lane so we divided into three groups. The fast guys headed off and we six (Helen, Janet, Katherine, Tim, Tim and Vince) followed with a further smaller group behind. Brisk progress and some sunshine followed with the consensus to stop at the Tancred Farm Shop. As we approached near Whixley the fast boys magically appeared behind us – still not sure how. After fully testing the service at the farm shop (who did exceptionally well) we headed back out with Jonathan as an addition to get the full experience of the wind, which had picked up and became a sporting headwind. We detoured via Bishop Monkton to avoid the section of dirt track on the published route, and arrived at the top of Sandy Bank to find the fast boys approaching behind us again, closely followed by the third group as we all followed slightly different routes. Knaresborough Hill preceded the usual split at the end of a great, if windy, ride.  VG

Medium Plus Ride – PCJ’s Group

With no designated ride leader, the majority of Medium Plus riders left Hornbeam en masse heading for Burn Bridge. All the riders met up just off the A61 where the various groups were sorted out. This left me with four other riders to follow on after the “fast boys”. This group proceeded to Wetherby at a steady pace. Here one of our group, Glyn F, left to go home. The remainder continued along the prescribed route. At Cattal we had an enforced rest as the level crossing was closed for a substantial amount of time. On reaching Whixley a small diversion was called for to visit Tancred Farm Tea Rooms, where we met up with other Medium Plus riders. We now made our way to Boroughbridge and Roecliffe fighting a headwind for the majority of the time. Once past Roecliffe it was a case of finding the well-hidden bridleway to Copgrove. On reaching Occaney we were over taken by the “fast boys”, where had they been? At the top of Sandy Bank we met up with all the other Medium Plus riders again. We then set off for Lingerfield and returned to Harrogate via Knaresborough. PCJ