June 2017 Round Up and Video

June 2017 Round Up and Video

Don’t do words? Video here.

Following the already documented ride to say goodbye to The Pensioner, here and here and the atypically tropical temperatures of The Lakes, click here, the last week or so of June took a definite turn for the worst. Our apprentice, Benny The Brawl, decided he would mark his ultimate day as a seventeen year old by showing some old blokes how it was done in a ride around Guisborough Woods - like many before him -  he soon realised it is a lot more arduous than pedalling around the streets of Redcar. His riding, like his tea making, will hopefully improve. Route.

The remainder of the week’s rides were wetter than the Titanic’s engine room, their brevity a testament to the conditions, or perhaps a reflection of our stupidity. A return to Guisborough Woods with The Breadlad, began wet and ended wetter, literally pouring water from our shoes when we returned to the cars, feeling as though we had been waterboarded. Route.

The next day, mere drizzle was forecast at Danby, so we went to Danby and found the sort of pervasive moisture which somehow even works it way into your underwear. Plus low cloud and mist meant the majority of our ride was in a cocoon. New rivers are appearing all over the moors, flowing down the hillsides, deluging over the grass. A lone walker, the only person we spotted all day, battling against the wind on the Sis Cross track, summed it up perfectly in his broad Yorkshire accent.

“Not a bad day, for December.”

The cafe was warm and welcoming despite us leaving puddles on the floor. Route

Like some type of lunatic cycling otters we rolled up to Hamsterley for our third day in row, today’s precipitation unable to quite decide whether it was drizzle or light rain. Unfortunately not wet enough to keep the midges away. The day did improve in a “is it raining or isn’t it” sort of way, not helped by being too warm to wear coats. Riding down Oddsox, a loose rock leapt up and bit through my brake hose, leaving me to ride the remainder of Hamsterley’s tracks with just a front brake - it can be done if you take it easy but takes the fun out of it. Route.