It’s been a while since we managed to get out for a decent Sunday club ride. In the absence of our ‘glorious leader’, Michael stepped up to the ‘plate’ to suggest a ride to the Ramblers Rest at Millington. Five Knights turned out at Etton for a lumpy outing. Given that some of us had not many miles in the saddle so far this year it was an ambitious ‘warm up’.
Our route took us first to Holme-on-the-Wolds then to Middleton. At this point we turned onto the climb along Warter road. We were soon reminded why we don’t use this road very often as the surface was more akin to a ploughed field at times. Eventually we reached the B1246 road. Our joy of the downhill cruise was soon over after passing through Warter where the road began to rise steadily towards Baggaby hill, a climb of around 1.6km (a mile for old schoolers) at an average of 5% and touching 15-16% briefly. To top that off, we turned towards Huggate and continued another climb of 0.8km averaging 7% reaching a max 12%. Kudos to Colin for posting the best time on the day.
Once ‘over the top’, we turned down into Millington Dale. Any thoughts of trying the ‘freewheel challenge’ were soon dismissed as we faced what felt like a howling gale along along the valley with James and Sean taking the brunt of it while the rest of us tucked in behind. Cheers lads. After a final little climb near Millington woods we arrived at Ramblers Rest ready for refuelling.

I’m not sure what inspired our choice of sustenance but there was definitely a ‘whiff’ of Blazing Saddles about it. Perhaps we were hoping for a turbocharged ‘blaaaaaast’ up the hills on the way home. We certainly could’ve done with some assistance as we hit Nunburnholme hill for the first time this year. Whose idea was that anyway? On this occasion Sean showed everyone a clean pair of heels, reaching the top over a minute ahead of the pack.
Following a brief respite we set off again towards Londesborough and another climb up Intake Hill leading to Market Weighton. Thereafter we followed the more gentle inclines of the Kiplingcotes valley back to Etton. I don’t know about the others, but I felt ‘toasted’ and had to gently ‘spin the legs’ for the final few miles home to stave off twinges of cramp. Still, it was a rather enjoyable ride including some ‘new’ routes.