First Ride Of The Year.

It was a windy one...

First ride of the year and what a way to start, with the minimum ascent Scaling Dam ride, the very thing following the New Year excesses. Yes, I know I could have been sensible and said no to the extra Guinness but if the club is kind enough to keep the bar open an extra couple of hours it would be rude not to take advantage. It was probably the gin and tonic when we got home that did it, suffice to say it may have been a bit of a delicate start to 2022. Forty eight hours later, raring to go, I met Rod in a deserted Scaling Dam car park and we set off to get the worst bit of the ride out of the way as quickly as possible. A mile or so on the A171 moor road spoils an otherwise perfect route, although there was less traffic today, it being a Bank Holiday, we were suffering a vicious headwind which brought back unpleasant memories of The Sandstone Way, when we had three days of 50 mph headwinds. We continued into the wind along the Robin Hood’s Butts track to reach the turn off for Sis Cross. Now we had a side wind buffeting us while attempting to navigate narrow, slippery singletrack, the gusts giving us unhelpful shoves in the wrong direction. Reaching the road, we crossed over and joined the Lord’s Turnpike, following it up toward Clitherbeck, where the track continues as the Pannierman’s Causeway, partially paved somewhere back in the mists of time, it climbs up to the Danby Beacon road. Rod inadvertently found an unpaved section and lost his front wheel in the mud, giving us the first fall of 2022. Unfortunately not on camera. At Danby Beacon we paused briefly on the mound which bears the beacon, while the wind did its best to blow us off. Luckily, we had a tail wind for the bridleway across Roxby Moor, the track was fairly dry, apart from a bit of squelching at the start and we had a grand blast across the moor. Eventually we reached Scaling Dam, with just a pedal along the dam between us and our cars, shame it was back into the headwind, which whipped up whitecaps on the water, actual waves splashing up the steps as we rode past. No sailors brave enough to be out today.

From Hero To Zero

The weather, that is, double figures to minus figures.

Twenty four hours later, we have lost a dozen degrees from the ambient temperature and my roof rack is frozen so solid the bike had to go in the car. Howard is swapping proctology for pedalling this week, we met at Lordstones for a rerun of a ride me and The Breadlad did the other week, which begins with a gruesome climb, all the way to the summit of Carlton Bank. Very picturesque with a light dusting of snow and a photogenic blue sky but the climb is no easier, especially when you are trying to keep up with a blatant cheat, who uses training and diet to enhance his cycling. A superb descent takes us down into Faceby Woods, the muddy sections were not quite as frozen as we would have liked and the decision to leave mudguards behind was soon regretted by our behinds. We dragged our cold, wet, arses up to the top of Scugdale, shouldering the bikes for the final climb up to Stoney Wickes, ready to plunge down the other side of the hill on Raisdale Mill Lane. Calling this trench of mud, rock and water, a lane is like calling Prince Andrew, Professor Higgins. “If I had been there, which I wasn’t, I would be teaching her proper English, like what my mam speaks'' A bit more climbing took us to Beak Hills and onward through frozen fields to The Fronts and a quick blast back to an icy Lordstones for a warming coffee. And my roof rack was still frozen, even though the temperature had risen to a balmy 1.5 degrees C.

Glad I'm Not A Brass Monkey.

Another chilly one today, a light dusting of snow covered the ice in Clay Bank car park, Howard and Simon T. already present, ready for a bike ride over the highest point of the North York Moors, which, it almost goes without saying, will also be the snowiest, coldest and windiest point on the North York Moors. Why are we doing this? The sun is out, the sky is blue, there’s not a cloud to spoil the view...except for the dirty great one that followed us the Carr Ridge steps. We rode across Urra Moor with it at our backs, threatening to dump all manner of unpleasantness on us. By the time we reached the top of The Incline, it gave us a little burst of hail and snow but like a politician’s promise it turned out to be mainly empty air. We continued on the Cleveland Way path to Burton Howe and down the Old Coal Road towards The Flagged Road, which is neither flagged nor a road. Most of our NSP’s (Natural Stopping Points) were eschewed today, mainly because it is too cold up on the tops to be hanging about. Heading North across Ingleby Moor, the track drops to cross a beck before climbing up to rejoin the Cleveland Way, nobody was taking any chances today, our usual downhill hurtling became restrained gliding, as the track was covered in ice and snow. The descent of Turkey Nab was a similarly pedestrian affair. From the gate, we headed into the trees for a play on the forest tracks, not much snow this low down and we were sheltered by conifers as we spent a pleasant hour or so on the trails. All that was lacking was a young person to throw himself off the bigger jumps though; we perused them, coming up with so many reasons not to make an attempt, a health and safety officer would have been proud. Eventually we reached the bottom track, near Bank Foot Farm, leaving only the long drag through Greenhow Plantation back to Clay Bank. The last 600 metres is public highway, the road between Clay Bank and Ingleby Greenhow, it was in treacherous condition, a couple of cars were abandoned by the roadside, obviously realising going up or down would be challenging to say the least. Sticking to the rougher bits at the side of the road gave us a bit more traction and we all managed to reach the car park without any ignominious ice-related incidents. A very parky picnic finished the ride, standing around like giant penguins, shoving food into our mouths, against a backdrop of crispy white snow and blue sky, a perfect winter’s ride, with the added bonus of clean bikes at the end.