Ride 030.

Date:     9th September 2004         Distance: 22 miles

Kind of spooky this, two Terra Trailblazers rides in a row where the sun shone and nobody had a disaster. Once again we met at Pinchinthorpe, only four of us, no Oz or Simon, the lure of lucre ensured they didn’t stray too far from the control room. A steady ascent on fire roads took us up through the Guisborough Woods to the gate leading out to Hutton Moor. Lungs burning, eyes popping, legs throbbing, we took a breather by the gate before pedalling the whole of Percy Cross Rigg, everyone except Bob remembering about the sand trap at the end of the off-road section. We headed along the road toward Kildale, stopping at to turn off at Little Kildale – baffling Chris who seemed to be envisioning an early café stop. We had all been up this road before and realised the folly of attempting the next two ascents with full stomachs, it was all new to Chris but everyone has to do the infamous Field Of Heavy Gravity at sometime in their mountain biking career. See TTB 011

The tarmac slog up to Warren Farm proved somewhat grinding, the descent through Leven Vale only served to remind us how much hard-gained altitude we were losing. The Field Of Heavy Gravity welcomed us, seemingly snooker table flat, innocuous, a pleasant meadow interlude preceding the steep moor behind. Reality kicked in about the same time the granny gears were selected, cloying grass tugged at the wheels as we battled an invisible force field attempting to draw us back to the café in Kildale. It was a relief to reach the gate and push the rest of the way up the rocky bridleway to the top of Kildale Moor. The bouncy descent was even more fun, rocks and heather – the yin and yang of the mountain bike world, keeping us alert. Too soon we were in the Baysdale valley, where, as the song says “The Only Way Is Up”. We decided to take the road for a change, mainly because it is another of those North Yorkshire test pieces Chris had yet to attempt. Needless to say, the under-fifties reached the top some time before the over-fifties but the over-fifties were well ahead in the swearing and moaning stakes.

A 40mph descent down the road past Park Nab and straight to Glebe Cottage reminded us why the perversity of dragging ourselves up punishing hills only to come down again is necessary. Howard attempted to break the Glebe Cottage sandwich eating record by trying to down two gargantuan sandwiches, huge doorsteps of bread plus salad garnish but left some crusts so was deemed a failure.

More perversity followed when we opted to ride up the bridleway from New Row back to Percy Cross Rigg – normally a rocky descent. Nobody managed a dabless ascent although there were some good attempts. Retracing our tyre tracks over Percy Cross Rigg, we made our way through Guisborough Woods to finish off down The Chute, a blur of tyre-thrown mud, pine trees and hard-packed soil. Only the fire road pedal back to the car park remained, nice and steady, winding down after another good day.  Muddy but mellow, we loaded the cars up, ride number thirty in the bag.

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