Toy Story

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Michael gathered his ‘toys’ in his makeshift ‘den’ at Etton (aka bus shelter). As he surveyed the assembled ‘crew’ he noted there was one missing. Just as he was about to begin a search party the final ‘toy’ ‘Roboto’ arrived. “Just before we go” said Michael “I’d like to introduce you all to the newest ‘toy’ ‘Teela'”. He then went on to outline the ‘activities’ for the day including an ‘assault on Bagpuss’. (He’s a very ‘naughty cat’)

The bunch set off towards Holme-on-the-Wolds with ‘HotWheels’ setting the early pace closely followed by ‘Han Solo’ and ‘Teela’. While negotiating our way through Lund ‘Skeletor’ got overexcited and managed to ‘throw a chain’. With no damage done, the lively bunch of toys continued to Middleton-on-the-Wolds. The going got a bit rough as we turned onto the climb up Warter road. Having jostled, bumped and shoogled around the numerous potholes the toys finally arrived at the top. “Come on!” cried Michael excitedly as we headed downhill to Dalton Dale.

Following a short break in the sunshine, the ‘toys’ set off at pace with a generally downhill run towards Warter with ‘Buzz Lightyear’ turning on his rocket boosters to post a fantastic top speed of 75.7 km/hr (47mph). Things calmed down somewhat when the gradient changed through Warter and the ‘toys’ faced a steady climb towards Kilnwick Percy. Michael once again couldn’t contain his excitement and started to push on before he’d reached the ‘real’ climb. Soon enough though Baggaby hill appeared in front of us looming like the sight of huge beer belly. 🍺 Cheers Michael! Taking the climb at our own pace, there were some who sounded like Darth Vader before eventually regrouping at the top. “Well I’d like to say I enjoyed that” said Skeletor with a rictus grin firmly across his face.

The pace picked up again as we headed down towards Pocklington. While working our way through the town there was a brief confusion about which way to go with some having a dance all the way round a roundabout. Once onto the Allerthorpe road, Barbie and Ken put in a superb performance to grab a QOM for Barbie.

Arriving at the cafe we found it was crawling with cyclists like ants around a termite mound. The queue snaked around so far it was difficult to find the end. Despite the long wait to order, the service was still very quick.

Leaving the cafe behind, we headed for Everingham and Harswell. Along this section there is the club time trial. Once again, Michael full of energy, tried to muster up some support for the TT effort. Unfortunately with the wind against nobody else was interested. “Well I’m doing it anyway” he declared joyfully. As we approached the start at Everingham Michael shot off leaving his ‘toys’ behind. There was a brief call of “Wait for me” as ‘Han Solo’ and ‘Hotwheels’ chased after in vain. Wind? What wind, Michael managed to post a very impressive time of 7:57 giving a speed of 37.7 km/hr (23.6 mph) and secure the overall best time this year. What might he achieve with the wind assisting?

Things began to settle down after that when the ‘toys’ adopted a more gentle pace as we continued to the Cliffe road. At this point ‘Johnny Seven’ left the group to return home via Sancton while the rest split into smaller groups for the dash to Common hill. Further splits in the group occurred at South Newbald with some opting to return home via Walkington heads while others took on the final frontier of Trundlegate. Overall we had a great day out with beautiful sunshine and light winds. What’s not to like?

October Revolutions

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Well that’s October rolling in already bringing along with it some distinctly autumnal weather, which of course has curtailed a number of the recent club rides. However all is not gloom and doom with the sun putting in a welcome appearance for this Fridays ride to Allerthorpe.

Eleven Knights plus one guest rider gathered at Etton under brilliant blue skies with a few scudding “mares tail” clouds. The dress code for the day was more like morse code, a few longs and a few shorts with the temperature just in double digits. The group set off towards Kiplingcotes passing “Grannies Attic” on the approach to our first major climb of the day, Arras Hill. Not too steep but soon had us all spread out with just a steady incline around 2-3% then ramping up briefly to 5% before leveling off near the main road.

After regrouping at the top we set off once more towards Sancton. Unfortunately the road was strewn with shingle and mud from “tractoring” and unlucky for Chad as he picked up a puncture just before the final descent. At this point the “breakaway” were too far ahead to notice. The rest of us waited while Chad set about the repair. Just as we’d set off to continue, Colin, Graham and Chris appeared having just climbed back up the hill to see what had happened. 😁

Leaving Sancton we headed for North Cliffe then along Sand Lane to the Market Weighton road before turning off to Harswell. At this point Ed must have been feeling pangs of hunger as he shot off the front like a donkey chasing the elusive carrot. He was not alone though as Seadog chased him down clinging onto his tail. The final leg of the outward journey took us through Everingham and Bielby then over the Pocklington canal to Allerthorpe Lake park.

For the return journey we retraced our steps back over the canal but then turned towards Hayton. After crossing the busy main road we headed to Burnby followed by the steady ascent to Londesborough before plunging down then up the other side of Intake Hill.

After a final regrouping we continued towards Market Weighton picking up the Spring Road to Kiplingcotes and back to Etton and home to end another enjoyable day in the saddle.