Part 2
9th August 2008
We decided to do the ride again because a lot of us hadn't done it last time. A very good turn out this week, Darren, Ash, Sean, Paul, Dave, Craig, George, Myself (Des) were joined by Baz (tri-athlete) who has been out with us before but was sporting a new Specialized mountain bike, welcome to the baggy short brigade Baz even though you were wearing your lycra!! Darren had expressed a wish to the rest of us if we could set off a little bit earlier this week, we may as well have turned up at 10-00am as usual because he decided to do his pre-ride maintenance as we were all waiting to set off.( your supposed to do this at home before you set off Dazza) The weather was absolutely bloody awful to say it is August but we still enjoyed the ride. I kept harping on about how steep Mastiles was from the Kilnsey end but all I kept hearing was bring it on, piece off p**s etc. I think it sorted the men from the boys as Craig took note of is lad George faltering on the assent to power his way past him to take the much deserved yellow jersey & take the honour of King of the hills. When we eventually reached the road at Hetton, Ash struggled to come to terms with the technical terrain (flat tarmac) and went down like a sac of spuds (sorry no reference to you Darren) at first we thought he had broken his ankle because of his clipless pedals, but all he had done was land heavily on his backside, concern turned to extracting the Michael after we realised he had been pulling wheelies (so much for being a top trials rider Ash!). On the descent from the rear of Swindon Quarry George decided to soak everybody (not that we were soaked already) by bunny-hopping in every available puddle, I’m sure he will pay the price for this in the near future. At the same stage of the ride Daves brakes were brakes no more he was hanging on & hoping for the best using his feet to try and slow him down. At the end of the ride we just rode our bikes into the river where a water fight commenced (how old are some of us? But it was good fun). Due to a wedding in the Fountaine Inn we had lunch in the Craven Heifer where the banter & the mickey taking continued.
Part 1
Four of us this week, Ash & myself (Des) from the Mudpackers & two lads from Team Penguin, Sean & Stu. We set off from Linton with the weather being cloudy but dry, this didn’t last long because it chucked it down for the majority of the ride. A short ride on a minor road brought us to Threshfield where we picked up Malham Moor Lane and the first stiff climb of the day on a very rocky path where we passed the mine workings on Threshfield Moor, when we came to the road (Skirethorn Lane) we went straight across and crossed over Green Haw Hill, this brought us to the bottom of Mastiles Lane (Kilnsey end) where we turned left to be faced with the hardest climb of the ride up Mastiles Lane (lung buster). When we reached Mastiles Gate we turned left towards Bordley, we had a run in with a very angry looking Bull on this section we had to take a detour around the perimeter of the field because none of us fancied passing it on the lane. At Bordley we took the bridalway towards Malham passing Lee Gate before turning left up to The Weets (another steep climb). There are a couple of of bridalways leading off The Weets, we picked the one to Hetton on this occasion, crossing across Hetton Common and past Winterburn Reservoir then a small steep climb up to Moor lane where we turned right down into Hetton. We turned left onto a minor road towards Cracoe, just as we entered Cracoe we turned left passing under the railway line and passing New Laithe, again a slutchy steep climb up Linton Moor before a fast rocky descent back to Linton, where we rode straight into the river to wash off to the amusement of everybody watching and feeding the ducks. After a wash and change of clothing lunch was had in the Fountaine Inn where we had freshly run over duck (only joking). Stu due to being Knackered gave us a pathetic attempt to eat his burger & chips.
The ride is about 18.5 miles long with around 16 miles being off road, stiff climbs, good descents, plenty to test your technical ability and in our opinion a very good all round ride. Due to the amount of off road leave youself around 3-4 hours for the ride.
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