Eight Knights plus one guest Gary, met up at Market Cross at the earlier time of 9am. Following our usual route through town towards Weel Bridge we encountered little traffic and with the wind at our back progress was swift 🚨🚨🚔 too swift for some it seems. “Do you know what speed you were doing sir?” Jon asked incredulously before adding “22MPH!”.”Honest guv, I was only following the wheel in front”. Easing off the pedal (a little) we continued our journey to Tickton and Leven where Chad joined in the fray as we headed to North Frodingham, Beeford then Great Kelk and Little Kelk.
Stopping on Moor Lane we took the opportunity to reserve our table at the Pot Still cafe at the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery. Shortly after, we reached Burton Agnes…..and here endeth the flat lands. As we skirted round Burton Agnes Hall we headed into unknown territory for most of us except for Karl who must have picked up the scent of coffee ☕️ wafting in the air and set off like a foxhound in search of his quarry with the rest of the pack baying at his heels. After passing Rudston we continued north towards Reighton before the final run into Hunmanby.
During lunch Karl enquired “You haven’t recced this route have you?” referring to Hunmanby Hump. “How bad can it be?”. We soon found out. No sooner had we left the cafe when we came face to face with the “WALL”. Not quite the North face of the Eiger but a stiff little tester reaching 12-13% climbing 32m in just 360m. Suddenly there was a whirring of gears, like the sound of the paparazzi trying to capture the the appearance of a supermodel, as everyone scrambled to find a suitable climbing ratio. With lunch still lying heavily in our bellies there was not going to be any racing up this hill.
The next section was once again flattish but directly into the wind as we rode through Wold Newton, Butterwick, Weaverthorpe and Helperthorpe where we eventually turned south west to Sledmere and back to more familiar roads. After tackling Limekiln hill and over the Monument “bump” we were “rewarded” with the lovely long descent into Garton on the Wolds. From there, we followed our usual route home via Kirkburn, Bracken and South Dalton.