MTB - last of the summer whine

Tomorrow morning ... 8am ... The Co-op carpark Hebden Bridge, on mountain bikes, ending up at Heptonstall cafe a few hours later.

Here are a couple of pictures from the ride. As you can see it was mostly flat and easy. A stalwart Condor friend Mr Dyson joined us, together with Graham, a whippet-thin young runner friend of Robins. In case you're in danger of getting them confused from that description, Neil is the one in the yellow Imps jersey.
From this hellishly early start we rose from the Co-Op to London Road and up to the Pike, through the rock garden and over the back to the White House at top of Blackstone Edge. The moorland crossing involves plenty of dips and dodges, and had us jumping off our bikes with joy & elation several times (see photo - it doesn't look so steep or boggy in a picture does it?). A fast & flowing descent dropped us down to the Canal at Littlebrough, though Robin insisted on a dead end detour to the local golf club first - maybe that's where every Volvo driver secretly wants to be on a Sunday morning? A butty stop at the lay-by was welcome, followed by a return ascent to London Road and a final thrilling descent  under our original wheel tracks to Hebden Br. (you go through a tiny arched bridge under track that we used on the outward leg, with the option of then off-piste riding through the woods to follow). Graham hadn't done this one before and was suitably impressed. Neil hadn't done this one before and was suitably and sensibly cautious by taking the on-road option for the last part. All happy and only three of us had any blood/wounds/scratches at all by the end so a good day in the hills.

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)?