Cyclocross Bike Ride.
The Chairman, Oz, Rich.
Another sunny Great Ayton start, assembling bikes by the river, Chairman Whelan of The Cafe Racers lured away from pristine tarmac for a bit of buttock-rattling on his cyclo-cross bike, or adventure bike as the manufacturers have christened his bike. The rest of us just used our unadventurous cross bikes. The Chairman wore a particularly fetching black Lycra ensemble which made him look like an emaciated Hoover belt.
Some steady road riding took us to Ingleby Greenhow where our adventure credentials were tested by the ford behind the church, swollen by the rain earlier in the week, discretion being the better part of valour and all that, we took the handy footbridge provided. Gaining height up the road toward Clay Bank, soon we turned into Greenhow Plantation and followed fire roads to The Incline, two words guaranteed to turn any self-respecting cyclist’s bowels to water, especially those riding high-geared cross bikes. Slowly winching our way up the loose surface, one by one feet hit the floor except for Chairman Whelan whose policy of treating the E shift hedonistic one a.m. cream cake feasts as something more unthinkable than a depraved crystal meth orgy in a Darlington squat is paying off. He made it to the gate and even attempted the even looser and steeper top section, if he had managed it he would have made a name for himself - that name would have began with C, and it wouldn’t be Colin.
Once things levelled out we kept following the old rail track which contours the moors to the valley of Rosedale, an engineering feat which must have entailed hundreds of 19th century man hours as the demand for steel grew with the Industrial Revolution. Six miles of almost flat riding, cranking along, taking in the views across Farndale to Rudland Rigg. Crossing the road at the top of Blakey Bank, another disused rail line beckoned, running high above Rosedale, passing relics of the mining days, a fenced of air shaft, the remains of buildings and an almost complete kiln which was used to drive the water from the ore before it was loaded onto the trains. Another bowel loosening bank came next Chimney Bank, luckily we were heading down, into Rosedale Abbey for our cafe break.
Sandwiches scoffed, coffee swilled, back on bikes, the only way is up, as the song says and soon our pace was reduced to a steady plod as we passed The Pensioner’s snigger point at Bell End Farm and onward ever upward to bring us the the Castleton road some five miles away. Payback time in the form of the almost straight road which drops directly to the village of Castleton gave us a chance to increase our average speed for a while before the climbing restarted, an especially vicious gradient, thankfully brief, leading to another bridleway which passes Box Hall on its way to Commondale. Varied surfaces ranging from concrete to loose rock but no difficulties. The road drag from Commondale toward Kildale came next and lacked the usual headwind so felt almost pleasant, at Percy Cross Rigg crossroads, a bit more torture was mooted and we headed uphill to sample the delights of the Lonsdale Bowl on cross bikes. Some people thought it could not be done on skinny tyres being more ‘offroad’ than anything previously ridden in this ride; rutted, rocky and muddy across moorland, through heather and rough grass before a loose slope curves down to the car park at Gribdale, a high speed blast on the mountain bikes but requiring a bit more consideration without the skill compensation provided by 140mm of suspension travel.
All downhill from here, we opted to turn left at Dikes Lane and pass Fletcher’s Farm Coffee Shop on our way back into Great Ayton, just for a bit more offroad.
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