There was sunshine ☀️ after the rain ☔ so the song says and so it proved. Wet roads and bright sun greeted the seven dwarfs at the later starting time of 10am. Sneezy suggested heading out to Newbald and……. (atishoo) Hotham then North Cave, South Cave with cafe stop in Little……. (atishoo) Weighton.
Following our usual route over the Westwood the initial pace was taken up by Bashful until the slope headed skywards allowing Dopey to take to the front. His turn was short lived though as first Doc closely followed by Happy squeezed past to create a mini breakaway.
The merry band regrouped at Manor House before Dopey resumed the lead on the road up to Newbald. Bashful having overcome his initial shyness, headed to the front again accompanied by Doc, Happy and Sleepy as we cruised down into Newbald. Tis the season to be jolly or so it appeared as we came across a running group all dressed up in ?Santa outfits?. Must have been elves in training!
Sleepy leading the one man breakaway
The peloton featuring, Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Doc & Dopey,
The dwarves continued on to South Newbald where the discussion turned again to the cafe stop. Sleepy suggested an alternative which had been spotted on previous rides where a large sign welcoming cyclists had been displayed. As we would be passing anyway it was decided to give it a try.
On the way to Hotham, Grumpy started flapping his wings to indicate he was stopping, unfortunately the road at this point was covered in previously unnoticed sheet ice ❄️causing Dopey to hit the deck. Dopey can confirm Mathew’s assertion that the road is quite hard if you hit it. No damage done though, only to his pride.
After passing through Hotham, we entered the park estate leading to North Cave where we were greeted by the sound of church bells ringing out from All Saints⛪. Our souls being more in need of physical sustenance rather than of the spiritual kind, we ignored the call to prayer and continued on to South Cave.
Our destination was soon on the horizon. Situated next to the car and van hire was a furniture and antique shop recently converted to include a café, along with ample bike parking outside. Together with another cycling group from Cottingham we almost filled the place. With some rather tempting things on the menu it may be a place to come back to without the bike. Most of us settled for the usual light bites with the exception of Doc who opted for the pancake stack. Dinner table chat covered the potential sections for next year’s sprint and King of the mountains and other prizes. However it was soon time to move on before we were mistaken for antiques and put into the storage hall.
The return route saw the happy band heading through South Cave before tackling the Beverley “clump”. The pancake stack did not seem to harm Doc as he made the best time to the top, just goes to show why he won the “Spotty Pants” award 2018. After all that effort it was time for the reward with a long downhill sweep on Comberdale Hill and Bluestone Bottoms. The final leg on the way home taking us to Walkington and back to Beverley.