Friday, November 21, 2008

16 Nov - Cracoe

This was a grand day to be out in the Dales. A rare day of brilliant sunshine and light winds. I made the most of riding alone to take in the pleasant sights all around on a trip from Keighley - Skipton - Eastby Brow (lovely climb, if taken slowly; great descent too, if taken quickly) - Barden Tower - Appletreewick - through Thorpe - back to Cracoe for a grand buttie - then finish through Gargrave & the back road home.

Every now and then I met up with some fellow Condors - Melv, Robin, Steve & Johnny. One of them would kindly drop back the 100 yards to wait for me so we could group up and then they could drop me again on the next rise. Still, I'm learning the quiet pleasures of the solitary cyclist and look forward to the next trip ...

Monday, November 10, 2008

Condor Cross - thanks!

Comment: Pictures of all Condor riders on the British Cycling web site. I'm not sure if you can use them gratis or not. If you do post any of them please, pretty please, don't use the one where I look as if I've slipped through a space time continuum, to find myself confused, on foot, in lycra, on a muddy hill with a muddy bike.You may recall that Pete posted a variant of that one a few weeks ago following the Three Peaks!Vanity, I’m afraid, is a vice that doesn’t diminish with age! Richard (the Vicar) Burnham

The condor cross was this Sunday just gone. All the usual crew helped out, so a big thanks to all involved. Gordon's trailer for the finish-line and timekeeping station this time came complete with a great rain cover so we had somewhere to huddle out of the rain showers. It was much admired and then duly appreciated.
In horse-racing terms the going was "soft" - tending to "quagmire" in places. Did anyone manage to get any pictures of our riders in action? Although I spent most of the day looking down at the lap-scoring sheets and just noting down a frantic stream of numbers I did glimpse at least Andy Marshall, Steve Cavell, Robin Holt, Johnny Perry, Richard Burnham and of course Grimpy all go past (at various speeds and in varying states of pain). The official results will be on the YorkshireCycloCross.org.uk website shortly here.
We had a massive turnout for the kids races thanks to Chris Young dragging them in from all the local schools. So many that we ran U8s, U10s and U12s in separate races. Fantastic news for the sport. I hope they all enjoyed the day.
And he must have promised free beer or something because there were 70 entries for the Vets race. Pete Horne and Trevor Lever had their hands full at the signing-on table.

What else have you missed? well a good mtb run from gargrave to malham and back last week. up past bell busk, otterburn, dacre lane, langber lane on a climb that went on forever eventually to the top of scalebar falls above settle - then turn right on stockdale lane to the top of malham cove and down to the boot cafe for bse (bacon sausage & egg) sandwiches. I was still full at 3pm - no need for lunch when I got home. anyone up for a muddy run this weekend (16th)?