Ride 024.

Date:     18th June 2004            Distance: 17.5 miles

It appears weatherman speak for continual deluge is ‘cloudy with showers’, rather cool, too considering we are three days from the summer solstice. After a couple of weeks heat and dryness which lulled us into removing mudguards and dry-lubing chains, the weather reverted to type and treated us to the type of monsoon downpour we can expect if the Cassandras of climate change are to be heeded. 

Plan A involved sitting in the Sutton Bank Visitor Centre café waiting for the rain to stop, this was eventually superseded by plan B, ‘ We’ll wait until it eases up a bit‘ followed by plan C ‘We’re here now, we may as well go for it’. Our bladders no longer able to contain more of the free coffee refill, we ventured out into the cold and wet, steering Bob away from the chunky-tyred electric wheelchair reserved for genuinely disabled persons and onto his Marin.  

A few no-shows today, Euro 2004 and England’s victory over those giants of the football pantheon, Switzerland, accounting for the boy Simon. Howard’s tree-root induced attempt at unaided flight in Guisborough Woods leaving him somewhat battered and missing a right arm, fortunately only a crank arm. 

Riding directly North we pedalled on tarmac for a couple of miles, past Dialstone Farm to Sneck Yate, then followed the track through the top end of Boltby Forest, passing three of the most miserable ramblers on the face of the earth – well, North Yorkshire anyway, our cheery greetings were met with blankety blank stares. They probably blamed us for the weather. Through the gate, and along the Drove Road for a short while, riding into the rain, thankful we didn’t have to follow it all the way to Osmotherley, before heading East over Little Moor on a wide track littered with lake size puddles. The Thorodale valley lay temptingly to our left but Chris the Apprentice may not have appreciated the awesome descent and scenic splendour on a day like today – not to mention the climb out. Just before the track drops steeply down Arden Bank, we turned South onto Dale Town Common, then east again above Gowerdale, dropping down through fields to Noddle End. The path going down from Noddle End to Peak Scar woods is always steep and rocky; today’s rain gave the limestone all the friction of wet soap and none of us managed the whole descent without a bit of ground contact. 

Our first proper uphill of the day brought us back onto tarmac at the top of Murton Bank. Still raining. The various alternative routes back to the café were discussed; bearing in mind we were all thoroughly wet by now, the most attractive option being to follow the road back to Sneck Yate, then ride the escarpment back to Dialstone Farm with the wind behind us. The escarpment is one of the classic rides of Britain, singletrack swooping through the heather, on the very edge of the Hambleton Hills, the occasional rocky patch to keep things interesting, on a decent day views across to the Pennines and the Vale Of York. Even today, wet but not slimy, it was enjoyable, too soon the No Bikes sign was upon us and we only had a short hack through the fields back to the café.  

Mud-sodden trousers and coats were divested before we dared re-enter the café, wet, cold and bedraggled. Despite the weather Chris’s longest ride yet but probably the easiest, no serious climbing, I don’t think even Simon would have had recourse to the granny ring. Although it has been so long since Simon flung his leg over a cross bar he’ll probably need two rests to get out of the car park next time he joins us. 

Needless to say, as we shivered across the car park to the cars, the first glimpses of blue sky could be seen breaking through the clouds to the North and it was sunglasses on for the drive back along the A19.

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