Ride 043.

Date:    10th February 2005           Distance: 17.5 miles

The day the Terra Trailblazers overtook someone.

I promised a mud-free ride and that’s almost what we got, give or take the odd patches which couldn’t be avoided. After parking at Kildale Station, Chris, Oz and me rode past Glebe Cottage – a worryingly closed Glebe Cottage, hopefully it would be open when we returned desperate for our post-ride fix of caffeine and toasted teacakes. Only three of us again, I can’t help noticing a number of our summer regulars appear to be making like Yogi and Booboo and hibernating for the cooler, wetter part of the year; struggling to extract their bodies from the delve they’ve created in the sofa; unable to grip handlebars because of the remote control lodged in their palms; blinded by the unaccustomed daylight. 

Cheating a bit with the mud free theme, pedalling on tarmac towards the Percy Cross Rigg crossroads, we were overtaken by a brace of fellow mountain bikers as we ambled along in our usual non-competitive way. They turned left onto Percy Cross Rigg, which was also our chosen route; we followed expecting them to disappear into the distance, which is what normally happens when we are overtaken. But no, could it be the gap was closing? Almost subconsciously cranks were pushed that little bit harder and faster; breathing became more laboured; puerile process operator limbs mobilised; yes, the gap was closing. Our gasping peleton, combined age in excess of 130 years, tucked in behind the pair, Oz pulled out to the left followed by me and Chris. We passed them, trying hard to disguise our breathlessness with a polite “How do.” Now we had to lengthen the distance, to show them they were truly beaten, cranking through the gears until we reached the gate at the end of the tarmac section.

“Are they out of sight yet? Can we go back to our normal pace?” Continuing up Percy Cross Rigg, we didn’t even have our usual stop by the gun emplacement thing, straight down the other side and into Guisborough Woods, skirting the top edge of the woods and back out onto Newton Moor to join the Cleveland Way above Roseberry Common.  

Eschewing the nicely paved, (deliberately?) biker-unfriendly descent, we opted for the popular downhill, nicknamed Little Roseberry by the body-armour and full-face helmet crowd. And managed to get ourselves down without the need for an air ambulance. Apart from the bridleway crossing Newton Moor, things had been remarkably mud-free up to now – so far so good. We took the track from Roseberry Common, through Aireyholme farm – only marginally muddy, we weren’t forced to dismount at any point – and rejoined tarmac to take us to Dikes Lane and eventually Little Ayton. More tarmac to Bank Foot Farm, then it was time to pay for the loss of altitude with an ascent of Turkey Nab. Wind assisted it seemed almost easier than normal; we definitely were in the saddle more than usual. The Cleveland way marker at the top was still a welcome sight. 

All that remained was the superlative descent to Kildale on the Cleveland Way, mud-free but the wind got it’s revenge by slowing us to a relative crawl – only 32 mph on the tarmac section past Park Nab. It hardly mattered, the sun was shining and an (almost) mud-free ride was behind us. And the café was open when we got back, sighs of relief all round.

 Height Profile: (click to enlarge)

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