A Ride Round Rievaulx

Ah, caught you out this time. Since my infamous Grinton to Castle Bolton ride last summer, the only mountain bikers to brave my subsequent rides have been Paul, Pete and Gary. So I thought up a fiendish plan pretending that Liz was to lead this ride therefore ensuring a better turnout and sure enough a total of ten gathered at Sutton Bank car park on Sunday 5th. February.

Hopefully it hasn’t been too obvious but I’ve been suffering from Writer’s Block recently, so I was very pleased when Neville and Billy made their return (remember Gary’s eventful Hamsterley ride). The only newcomers this time were Duncan and Mathew his eight year old son.

We had an easy start to this ride heading to Old Byland by road interrupted momentarily by the bridleway that heads north from Cold Kirby. At the end of the bridleway was a rather irate farmer who was wittering on that when you are travelling along bridleways you should be no more than 4ft. 6” wide, now I know I’ve put a few pounds on over the winter but I didn’t realise I’d let myself go quite so badly. Luckily Len was with us to teach him some manners.

A mile east of Old Byland we took the bridleway to Tylas Farm. At this point Duncan decided Matthew would struggle to keep up with such a highly proficient group of mountain bikers, if the truth be known a three year old on a trike could keep up with us lot! So as Duncan and Matthew headed to Wass to join up with Mother and Daughter, who were out on their road bikes, we headed north to Tylas Farm passing Tylas Barn on the way. This must be the most impressive looking barn I’ve ever come across and I’ve seen a few barns in my time I can tell you. At the crossroads just before the farm we turned left along Birk Bank. This was quite a good track through woodland with just the odd patch of mud to keep us on our toes.

This bridleway brought us back on to tarmac, the problem being the tarmac was below 18 inches of water. It was marked as a ford on the map but it looked more like a lake. As ride leader I felt it my duty to warn them that if they attempted to ride through it they would only end up with wet feet and catch their death but did Nigel and Paul listen, very irresponsible.

We now faced an horrendous climb to the aptly named Murton Heights. Shortly after turning right at Murton Grange, we turned right again on to a very good track through Cliff Wood. It was quite fast going and it wasn’t till we reached Rye Dale that we noticed Billy was missing. With thoughts of Hamsterley going through his head, Neville gingerly returned up the track to find Billy. We waited a while but there was no sign of either, perhaps Cliff Wood is the mountain biker’s equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle I thought. Undaunted I went in search and found them busy fixing a puncture.

On our return to the Tylas Farm crossroads we went straight on, then over Bow Bridge for our lunch stop at Rievaulx Abbey. Pete, rather inconsiderately, decided to lay his bike down right in the middle of the car park, unfortunately for him he was still riding it at the time.

I had originally planned an easy ride back from Rievaulx, mainly using roads but as every one seemed in fine fettle, out came the map. I found a bridleway to take us back to Old Byland, Pete agreeing it didn’t look at all muddy on the map! WE WERE WRONG. By the time we reached Old Byland we were all glad to be able to complete the ride by road. Remember that old cycling rule, “never set out with the wind behind you”, unfortunately it slipped our minds. It was a hard slog back to the cars, with only the thought of tea and cake at the cafe keeping us going. Yes you’ve guessed it, the cafe was closed for refurbishment.

Thanks to everyone for turning out and contributing their bit to an enjoyable day. If you haven’t given mountain biking a try you ought to, it’s a good laugh, especially when you’re hopeless at it like us lot.

TIP FOR THE MONTH: Fit a very small diameter wheel to the front of your bike then you will always be cycling downhill.

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A Ride Round Rievaulx

Dave Neesam