After much anticipation, the day of the Great Yorkshire Bike Ride had arrived and the day would turn out to be a memorable one for sure.
We had 16 members signed up to ride and everyone of us look resplendent in their club colours. Most of us opted to ride to the start at Wetherby, so we met bright and early outside St Aidans School at 7.30am on a damp morning. The forecast for the day was not good, with rain and cloud expected. Despite this we rolled out of the school and made our way to Wetherby Racecourse in good spirits and at a leisurely pace. Before we knew it we were signing in and collecting our lunch vouchers and race (sorry I meant ride) numbers. After a few team photos it was off to the start line.
We gathered behind the line and were given a stern talking to by the official starter about riding code of conduct. We rope went up and we were off!! What lay ahead was a further 70 miles of fine North Yorkshire countryside between us and Filey, and the waiting Cappuccino Cycling Club Team Bus…whoops, I mean Coach!! As most of the ride was flat the initial pace up the old A1 was brisk, with us passing many riders, before we were stopped in our tracks by a Rob Jackson puncture. After a swift repair, we were back on our way before turning right past Marton-cum-Grafton, through Great Ouseburn and onto Aldwark Bridge, where we had to make way for a Maserati.
From Aldwark it was onto Easingwold, before continuing back out in to the country lanes through Crayke, Stillington, Farlington and Sheriff Hutton. Soon after Sherrif Hutton was the first proper test of the day, Terrington Bank. A fairly short climb, but one with a fairly steep gradient. After re-grouping at the top of the climb it was then a quick descent into Terrington village for our lunch stop at 10.45 in the morning! The lunch stop was extremely well organised with plenty of food, that was until Duncan arrived and tried to eat the entire contents of the sandwich tent!
The ride after the lunch stop the continued into the more rolling roads of the Howardian Hills, past Castle Howard and Coneysthorpe, before arriving into Malton. The large number of cyclists going through Malton seems to slow the traffic down somewhat, but after negotiating the streets we were soon back in open countryside before hitting the second real test of the day, Horse Course Bank at Settrington. This was a much longer climb, but the result was that it brought us out on to the top of the Yorkshire Wolds, where we were greeted by great views out towards our target of Filey. From here it was downhill all the way. After getting out legs back, the pace really picked up as we passed through West and East Lutton and Weaverthorpe at an average speed of around 25mph.
As we approached some cross-roads with 10 miles to go we looked back up to check to see if all our riders were still with us and we were shocked to see about 30 other people in tow and the back of our group…amazing!! The route then continued through Wold Newton, before CRASH!!. One of the riders in our extended group had hit the deck. After finding out that he had support, we then continued for the final run in to Filey. After a small hill, we then descend into Filey and formed up in our group and followed the marshalls and signs that would take us to the finish line at Filey Country Park. As we approach the line we caught our first glimpse of the CCC Team Coach…absolutely awesome!
Anyway, we all crossed the line, congratulated everyone on a great ride and grabbed a cuppa to celebrate. We were soon joined by Martin and Chris who were a few moments behind the main group. Think it was there retro steel style that slowed them down a bit. We all then made for the Team Coach for the return trip to Harrogate. The coach had been kindly laid on by Karl and his company Moseley Coach Sales and everyone was amazed that we were actually going to return home in a coach that had the club’s logo on the side. It was really drawing attention from other riders. We loaded the bikes on, got changed and made for a boozer on the A64. After a couple of pints came the revelation of the day….Malcolm silenced everyone and announced that he had really enjoyed himself. After picking ourselves off the floor we had another celebratory pint before making our way back home.
The day was a truly awesome day in club history, with everyone riding really well and looking great in the club colours. It was capped off by Karl’s amazing gesture of organising our own coach. Thanks Karl, none of us can thank you enough for sorting that out.
If anyone from the ride organisers are reading this, thank you from everyone at the Cappuccino Club for a great day out and we hope the money we raised is put to good use.
Chapeau to all that took part!!
For those that are interested, here is the Garmin readout for the trip from Harrogate: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93475747
Cappuccino Cycling Club 