This Friday’s ride was a long awaited return to the Ginger Cow cafe which is now only operating as a “pop up cafe”, on this occasion Friday and Saturday. The forecast was for clear blue skies and the warmest day of the year so far and with light winds, it was ideal cycling weather.
Matt was so keen that he was first to ‘pop’ up with a message asking if anyone else was planning to ride. Like the opening of a cork on a bottle, a number of messages popped up in response. Seven Knights initially signed up to join the ride until Captain Flip-flop ‘popped’ a spanner in the works by calling off only to rescind that decision an hour later prompting a comment from someone “Bloody hell, I don’t know if I’m coming or going”. Shortly after, Raymond cried off leaving just six in the group ride.
We set off from Manor House at 0945 heading towards Cherry Burton and Etton. The next leg took us via Kiplingcotes to Goodmanham and Market Weighton. Shortly after, on the way to Londesborough there was another ‘pop’ as the Pugwash’s rear tyre ‘let him down’. Pulling over into a layby we set about the repair. When the tube was removed, Matt noted a previous repair and started to make derogatory references to Pugwash’s Scottish heritage. This was not helped when the replacement tube also had a patch, then to compound the stereotype the gas canister turned out to be empty. “Yes, you’ll get a few more uses out of that” they all suggested sarcastically. Fortunately I did have another and we were soon on the way once more.
From Londesborough we headed towards Burnby and Hayton. When we reached the crossroads of the A1079 main road the group split in two. The time gap since our last visit clearly showed when the “following” group started to head towards Bielby Lane. Fortunately the other half remembered the correct road to take while the rest played “catch up”.
Suitably refreshed, it was time to ‘pop’ to the loooo’s before continuing our way to Everingham and Harswell. After a short hop along the Market Weighton Road we turned towards North Cliffe before a pacy run up to the Sancton turn off. At Sancton James, on a rare Friday outing, started to turn up Sancton hill before being redirected along the main road to Newbald.
Seems nobody fancied Trundlegate as we played “Follow the leader” and headed home along the easier Beverley Road. A superb day in the saddle with a faster pace than normal for a Friday ride. Now back home and ready to ‘pop’ the cork on one’s favourite fizzy.