Once more unto the beach

And so the gruelling (?) training schedule marches on.  The weekend of 3rd/4th July saw Fred and I out on the roads of North Yorkshire again, for the second of our three planned riding weekends. For me, it was a first chance to try out Diana (its a Dawes bike and I can’t resist a pun), my new steed.

As ever it was not easy to get onto the road for 7am, but once we were off and rolling we made good progress.  Fred had planned a route around the North York Moors which would give us some difficult hill climbs, including the infamous Sutton Bank.  Infamous in our family at least, as the hill down which my Mum’s old, green, Citroen 2CV started to roll backwards when we were out for a Sunday drive one hot summers day in 1994.  Needless to say, it’s a pretty steep hill.  

Saturday’s route:

<br /><small>View Training Ride in a larger map</small>

It was a great route: over the moors, past Rievaulx Abbey (one of my favourite places in the world), and through some beautiful dales.  Fortunately we had the weather to match.  In truth the only issue that we had were some technical problems with my lower gears, which kept on slipping.  This would not have been a problem, but for the fact that it only really started to happen as I was climbing up Sutton Bank.  This was less than ideal as cars kept speeding past me while I wobbled dangerously, rather too often.  In the end I decided that discretion really is the better part of valour and decided to push Diana the rest of the way up the bank.  King of the Mountains Parkes, however, made it all the way up the bank in an impressive show of stamina.  This looks likely to be a sign of things to come in the Rockies.

We had to make it back to Carlton for 5pm in time for our first (and possibly only) bit of media coverage as we had and interview scheduled with the local magazine “Now & Then”.   In fact we managed to time things almost perfectly and arrived back at base camp (Fred’s house) at 4:55.  A pleasant half-hour interview and a rather more difficult photo session (note to self: I cannot cycle, look back over my shoulder and wave at the same time) was followed by a barbeque and early night ready for Sunday’s trip.

Sunday was a rather more routine ride (again over the Moors), across to Whitby (i.e. the beach…) and back.  It is a route that we have cycled a number of times, but that did not prevent me from taking a wrong turn and leading us on a 2 mile de-tour with two significant additional climbs.  Once again, though, we made good time, and although the route was familiar the journey was brightened up by a number of things:

1. Two stops (there and back) at the excellent tea room in Castleton (need to find out the US equivalent of a toasted teacake);

2. Meeting a bunch of guys who were just finishing the coast to coast (a ride which we did last November) and helping them to plan their final miles to the North Sea;

3. Fish and chips in Whitby – always worth a trip;

4. The bizarre collection of Morris dancer’s in Whitby.  Now I like a Morris dance as much as the next man, but these chaps took it to a whole new level, face-paint and all.  A number bore more than a passing resemblance to Papa Lazarou from the League of Gentlemen.  As anyone who has been there knows, it takes a real effort to stand out in Whitby as an eccentric.  They achieved it with room to spare.

The ride back home was made more difficult due to the strong wind which blew against us the whole way (there had been not even a breeze on the way over, so we hadn’t enjoyed the benefit of a wind-assisted ride in the morning).  But upon parting ways at Kirkby, to head back to Stokesley and Carlton, we could reflect on a successful couple of days.  Our fitness does undoubtedly need more work and my bike needs to have a few teething troubles ironed out, but things are coming along.