OD Ride to Allerthorpe Lakeside - Stuart Marston - 8th June

Well quite frankly it was mostly wet!  I know some of it was quite dry too so we set off with a will led by Stuart which was either his first lead or mebbe the last one was a long time ago?
The important thing is that although the conditions were not of the best is was still a good ride in the route itself. 
Right out of Squires and then left down Sir John's lane (wonder who he was?) then across the Lotherton road and the A1M, we processed through Aberford and also crossed the A64 and the A1 again at a stroke on the roundabout.  Flowing around Bramham and through Tadcaster we turned up Wighill road which has more of the wiggly stuff up to Wighill itself and then Cattal.
Crossing the A59 and briefly joining the B6265 Boroughbridge road we crossed the countryside to Easingwold on the splendid flowing and wiggly roads in that area. Clark's Bakery in the Easingwold high street is indeed a haven for tea, coffee and cakes beloved of so many bikers, a decent sized car/bike park around the back completes a cracking destination in my mind.  So we did the right thing and refreshed ourselves with the goodies on offer. ;-)
Somehow we managed not to take a Team piccy!  DOH.  The full team was Stuart, Ian, Tim and yours truly, a compact band :-))
The thing about the weather up to this point is that it kept changing it's mind, curiously some of the roads were actually dry and progress picked up, but rain and mud are not the Favs of bikers ;-(
Despite this we forged on and took some of my Fav roads through Crayke, Brandsby and Hovingham, the road down from the B1363  (Stillington to Oswaldkirk road, a local classic), down to Hovingham, is one of my all time Fav short runs.
Out of Hovingham we took the 'back road' to Malton crossing the A64 again, then hung a right and whizzed down the Buttercrambe TT, never fails!  Crossing the Bridlington road, A166, we rode yet another flowing road via Full Sutton and Fangfoss to Pocklington and crossing the A1079 Hull road we swished to Allerthorpe Lakeside.
Here they have water sports of various kinds and I think we all felt that we had experienced our own water sport most of the day, oh yes it really was raining now!
Ho hum, but it was still a very good ride and as I have been heard to say more than once "if you don't chose to ride in the rain, what are going to do when one day it catches you out?" :-)
Thanks Stuart for such a brave effort and for Tim who doggedly brought up the rear!
Sorry about the lack of piccies, but here's the route:



Tootle pip
Pete