Yorkshire Grit - 20 January 2019

A calendar event at last!  Having almost forgotten what to do with a real paper Brevet card and what it's like having other around me I was looking forward to the trip south.

Gathering at the Start

With the newspapers proclaiming a deep freeze I set off into the darkness of the morning with a slight chill in the air arriving at the start with plenty time to tuck into a bowl of cereal that organizer Dean had laid on.


Eventually start time came around and we shot off into the dawn, the start of the ride largely downhill saw Robbie and I flying along trying to work out a good pace, I also over cooked it a tad at a few junctions and the greasy roads didn't help much with that.

Trying to hang on to Robbie on the flat

I was struggling to find a good pace that I could hold and after Croft a slight rise in the road saw me struggling to hang on to the pace while Robbie managed to hold on, so when a group of riders he knew passed at a decent pace that he reckoned he could hold, he set off to catch them.

Gentle rises have always been a weak point for me, most riders will find a long 3% hill to be nothing, but for me it's the worst, not steep enough to slow everyone else down but enough to sap all my speed, I like my hills a tad sharper, but then that's what I'm used to in the Fife hills.

As always in the gap there always seems to be very few riders around, the fast groups are way ahead leaving the full value riders to carry on at their own pace, rarely holding it together in groups so you're naturally more strung out.

Our first control was an Info Control at Topcliffe, where I caught up with Scottish Borders Randonneurs Ian and Jason who having hung onto a fast group had decided to take a break from the pace.  Taking longer than really necessary to write down the answer to the question they cracked on ahead but I passed them not long after and I didn't see them again on the ride.

A church, somewhere

Unfortunately this part of Yorkshire as well as being very flat is not too hot on scenic value so plugging on was the order of the day; soon though the air was filled with the smell of melting chocolate as the Nestlé plant on the edge of town arrived.  From here we were routed along the cycle paths of York, I missed a few turns but worked out a route from my Wahoo's mapping so didn't need to retrace, however it wasn't long before the pedestrian traffic increased and then as I was preparing to pass someone the dreaded sound of air escaping from a tyre filled my ears.  20 minutes spent changing the tyre while also making sure people were aware there was glass around and I was on my way again.

Dunnington: New Café, Good food

Along the York Cycle Paths the speed was much lower as pedestrian and particularly dog traffic made pushing on unreasonable.  Eventually though the road to Dunnington and the first full control was reached where impatient Sunday drivers obviously in too much of a rush to dig into their Roast Beef Lunch got in the way a bit.  In Dunnington where we believed there was only a Costcutter by chance many found a new Café that had opened during the week!  The Old Butcher's coffee shop served up a smashing "Butcher's Breakfast" sandwich and slab of cake, much recommended.

Robbie was there with Leighn and Carolyn who had decided that with such good pace made south they may as well have a leisurely lunch which they were just finishing as I arrived.

With a belly full there was only 17kmn to the next stop at Bilbrough Top services, to get to there we had to snake through the southern edge of york mixing between quiet A roads, residential roads, crossing the race course on a variety of different surface boards and the ring Road's Cycle path.
At the services a gaggle of riders were standing outside McDonald's but I had no need for another big feed so soon grabbing some sweets and liquid.
Now the ride started to climb seriously in a long drawn out, false summit laden drag through Tockwith to Boroughbridge and then onto the new A1(M) support road which I was expecting to be as deserted as the B7076, sadly it wasn't as the reduced number of junctions in the A1's upgrade meant the numerous villages along the way are now served from the support road.

Aiden disappearing into the distance

Somewhere along here I came across a large group of VC167 riders watching a puncture being fixed, I gathered they'd been there a while as I hadn't seen any of them since the start, and eventually Aiden caught up with me on the trike and we rode together for a while, I was expecting the big group to catch up but they never did, even Dave C who like Aiden had decided to carry on before the rest of them arrived at the finish after me.  Before long the long drag slowed me down and Aiden disappeared into the distance, I saw him about 1km away stop to put the lights on and then I saw them disappear over a false summit and that was it until I passed him at "Rest Stop" on High Brough Moor which was selling hot food.

Darkness falls near Scotch Corner

The routes summit was finally reached at Scotch Corner services, and the plunge back into Darlington in the dark was only broken by the branch into the control at the Barton Truck Stop (World Heritage Site), as World Heritage Sites it's maybe not quite St Kilda or the Forth Bridges but the selection of sweets were second to none and a number of Cadbury's Creme eggs were dispatched in succession.
As I left there was still no sign of any other riders around me, and in plunged into Darlington with an average speed of 20km on the clock meaning I'd be slightly over the 10 hour mark, if only for that puncture and a less leisurely lunch!



A good route for January and PBP qualification on a relatively mild day, the flattness was the eye opener, I've entered the Great North Road down this way for a 400km ride and it's similarly lacking in elevation profile so it looks like I'm going to need to get out on Tentsmuir and get some speed back in my legs, it'll be useful all round I suppose.