Richard took up my suggestion last Sunday and joined me for a tour of the North York Moors. Not a great weather forecast bu it stayed fine and dry for us all day with occasional bursts of sunshine. Having met at Sutton Bank we made our way to Helmsley via Rievaulx and then turned left for a circuit of Bransdale, I'd forgotten just how long and hard the road up to and away from Cockayne is. Next was over the lumpy roads to Farndale and up Blakey Bank onto the Ridge where we headed north past the Lion pub and then right and down to Rosedale where we had a cafe stop. I was glad I'd given the cake a miss as we were straight out of the cafe onto the Rosedale Chimney climb then the long steady descent back down to Ryedale.
I had planned an intricate tour of the lesser known back lanes once south of the A170 which took us through hamlets that time had forgotten including Coulton, a small village who's old water powered corn mill had featured on the BBC's Restoration programme a few days earlier - as you can see above Richard managed to p******* outside the mill so we were treated to a chat with the owner . From there we made our way to White Horse Bank via Byland Abbey. A great change of scenery for the day and we managed to finish a short time before the heavy rains came.
This Sunday Ravensthorpe CC are holding their annual 120 mile ride in memory of local rider Andrew Ridsdale who was sadly killed earlier this year whilst taking part in a time trial. The ride starts at 8am from outside the library in the centre of Mirfield. There should be a good turn out with several Condors already committed plus the Ritz Rebels giving their retro bikes an airing prior to the Eroica (Strade Bianche).
