Sat 28th Jan 2023 "Brrr, it was not supposed to be this cold!"

That was the general consensus as the nine of us met up at Sainsbury’s Monk’s Cross.  I was pretty sure it was supposed to be around 5 degrees but it was only 3 degrees just before 10am.

Not to be deterred, we had a briefing, focussing on “taking it easy” – not least as I was on my new bike (did you know I’ve got a new bike!?) and, of course, the chance of micro-climates as we were heading north into the hills and on to the Moors.

A brief spell on the York ring road and we were off through Strensall and Sheriff Hutton, Hovingham and then to the first excitement of the day – the ford just outside Kirkbymoorside.  There was some trepidation as to how high the water would be but in the event it was a bit of a damp squib.  More fords to follow later!

Pressing on through Gillamoor and up Fadmoor, with the temperature still hovering around 2-3 degrees we made out way up the steep bank to Blakey Ridge, where visibility was really rather poor.  Undeterred, we hung a right and then left down a single track road towards out first stop at the Yorkshire Cycle Hub café.  The views would have been amazing, if we could have seen anything, but then, with only a slight mis-hap turning into the café, we settled down to a brew.

Continuing on, I managed to pick a terrible place to do a u-turn.  Not my fault about the u-turn (well maybe) – my excuse is that my satnav didn’t zoom in and then crashed meaning I missed the right turn towards Street.

By this time the temperature was a balmy 7 degrees as we then did a loop around Esksidedale and Grosmont before heading through Egton Bridge and down Wheeldale, past the Roman road, to Stape.  Passing through Cropton, home of the Great Yorkshire Brewery behind the New Inn, we had a brief stop for fuel in Pickering before ending up at NY500 for cheesy chips.

Lastly, some of us headed back to York via Amotherby and Thornton-le-Clay – going our separate ways, with a friendly wave from Lawrence on the A1237.

A great day out for my first ride of the year.

As always (and I keep telling myself this) but leading a ride really is pretty easy and fulfilling.  If you’ve not done one – give it a go, everyone’s very supportive.  And, as we all know – u-turns are mandatory at least once a ride!

See you all next time!