The Pensioner, The Bread Lad, Uncle Ian.
4th March route
Forty eight hours have passed since the start of the previous ride and the weather has moved on two months, if it was not for the bite of the wind it might have been May. Nothing out of the ordinary today just one of our usual loops from Danby, unfortunately beginning with a road climb up to Clitherbecks Farm, my legs feeling the effects of pedalling over three hundred miles in the past twenty nine days, three hundred miles of mainly mud and snow, every turn of the pedals my thighs felt as though they were on the verge of exploding.
In contrast to Monday, the off road sections were almost dry, about typical considering gone to the bother of fitting mud tyres to my bike. The first offroad section despatched, we took the tarmac option up to Danby Beacon, details of it’s role as a wartime RAF station can be found on the ever reliable Hidden Teesside site. (And in more detail on this website) We didn’t linger long at the Beacon as the wind sought to infiltrate our clothing and chill our bone marrow. The wind was also not kind to us across Roxby Moor, the normally fast and flowing track through the heather seemed sluggish today, or maybe it was just me. After High Tranmire Farm, the track drops steeply to cross what the OS map rather optimistically calls a ford at Hardale Beck, then rises equally steeply, a Strava segment known as The Slagbag. This is usually approached in the spirit of Homer Simpson, “If something is too hard, it’s not worth doing.” but today I gave it a go, having the benefit of a granny ring and almost made it, if it had not been for a pesky pensioner blocking the way and causing me to spin out on some muddy grass. The bondage sheep has gone from above Green Houses and there are lambs in the lower fields, a sure sign Spring is upon us. After a group discussion as to the remainder of the route, taking into account wind direction, hills, cafes and other factors, which mainly consisted of shrugged shoulders and a lot of “I dunno, what do you think?” We headed down Lealholmside and dropped through fields from Rake Lane to the underpass at Underpark Farm, where we collected our second flock of sheep this week. To sheep we obviously must look like the sort of blokes who ride around the countryside carrying turnips.
Reaching Lealholm, we paused for energy bars and minor mechanical adjustments before a road drag through Houlsyke eventually took us to Duck Bridge and another pause before the climb up to Danby Castle and the equally draggy road toward the major climb of New Way. Thankfully, we turned right just before New Way, riding, carrying and pushing our bikes up the bridleway onto Ainthorpe Rigg. The Bread Lad has obviously been raiding Lance Armstrong’s bait bag because in an unprecedented performance he rode without stopping from Duck Bridge up to the point where the bridleway becomes unrideable. Many theories were postulated for his sudden burst of speed ranging from marital demands to overactive bowels but he insists he was merely “feeling good”. And so to Ainthorpe Rigg, no longer the multi-lined, gully-ridden delight it so recently was, drainage work has replaced the gullies and drop off’s with an, at times, vague track crossed by drainage ditches. It is still rideable for the most part but only a pale imitation of what it once was, hopefully more traffic will consolidate the ground and redefine the track. As if that was not bad enough, we missed The Pensioner falling off - again.
All that remained was the fast as you dare road plummet through Ainthorpe and back to the ever welcoming calories of The Stonehouse Bakery. The sky had remained blue all day, shame about the wind but for early March - not a bad day at all.
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