Sunday 19th November
Medium Steady Plus
Nine of us set off this morning on the medium plus steady in dry fairly warm conditions after a wet night with the promise of more rain to come! Three ladies, Alison, Margaret and Yvonne, six chaps, Tim, Andy, Peter, a clutch of Mike’s and me. We kept together as one group and maintained a good pace to Boro’bridge far too early for lunch so kept going to Ripon. We decided on a short detour to have lunch at Tate’s, by now we were only 8 as Peter had left us at Aldborough for home. We managed to get a table for 8 inside straight away even though it was packed, good service and the usual high quality fare. The promised rain appeared just as we left but never got too heavy all the way home. We all went our separate ways after the Knaresboro road climb, many thanks to everyone for your company, I had 40 miles on the clock and 1500ft at 12.4 mph. Steve B.
Medium Steady
8 riders set off in good spirits looking forward to an ‘interesting’ ride through wind and rain up to Brimham Rocks and back. Debbie, Kevin, James, Roger, Gia, David, Paul and yours truly. Out to Ripley via the, very sketchy, Greenway then onwards up Hollybank Lane where we waved our fond farewells to Gia and David who left for home(s). The remaining 6 rode on to Burnt Yates and up the steady and occasionally blustery climb up Brimham Rocks Road which took us up to, well, Brimham Rocks. On from there the usually lovely swoop down Careless Lane was somewhat slower and more cautious than normal because of patches of mud, leaves and gravel spread liberally throughout, though we still managed to enjoy it! As we had already decided to go back to Harrogate calling in at Sophie’s in Hampsthwaite for coffee ’n stuff rather than back along the Greenway from Ripley, we turned right at the Drovers to Bishop Thornton, Shaw Mills and up the hill to Clint then down into Hampsthwaite, navigating the small lake over the bridge, and onward to Sophie’s where the refreshments and service were as good as usual. We split at this point with some going back into Harrogate via Knox and the rest, well just me actually, taking the challenging Rawden Lane/Oaker Bank route. Thanks for the great company and chat. 31.5mi/2349ft elevation for me. John C
Medium Plus Brisk
Route 78 was reversed so that we could go to the new café in Boroughbridge – you know, the one that used to be called Bean – on the corner. The Met. Office forecast was rain all morning but we didn’t see a drop of it until we were climbing up Knaresborough Hill towards the gold club. And it was warm – very warm for the middle of November. In between the roads weren’t that bad & there were some considerate drivers when we came up to the larger areas of water. At the end Helen, Vince & Denis went their separate way down Boggs Lane & Janet, T1, Rachel & Young Tim went onto Starbeck & the Showground. 35 miles. Young Tim.
