So having had inclement weather on my last ride I decided to re-programme the original route for Saturday. My persistence was rewarded with the perfect cycling weather & 10 people turning out on my ride.
7 of us met in Richmond at the same time & place as the other SOC ride, which was really nice as we could all have a good josh & jape before we started our respective rides.
I say 7 but read 6 as your leader could not read messages properly. Luckily the left member is strong & had caught up before we had got to Marske via Clapgate where we also picked up Number 8.
We tackled Hard Styles which I think is as hard a climb as anything in the Dales. None of us were disappointed in this view 😜.
At Reeth we picked up Number 9 & following "The Prisoner" theme at Keld we picked up Number 10 who had been delayed "running guns out of Macao / dealing with a frozen fish order" 😂. So after lunch at the Keld Green Cafe we continued to climb over Lamps Moss to Nateby & then on past Pendragon Castle & towards the Moorcock.
As we passed the train spotters they didn't seem to appreciate our intellectual discussion on the Count of Cavour 🤔 There's no pleasing some folk especially as they had misread the timetable & they had inadvertently set their cameras up for an old dirty diesel‼️
Luckily we were long gone by then making sure we made it to the Firebox cafe in Hawes before closing time. Perhaps it was best the trainspotters didn't hear the discussion there on gerbils 🤦
After that it was a relatively short ride down Wensleydale which was downhill ..... except when it wasn't ‼️(Nappa Bank & Preston under Scar). Lucky for us Sir Geoffrey had the good sense to buy a tube of fruit pastels to sustain us back to Richmond. Well done that man👍
Over 70 miles & over 6,000 feet of climbing but more importantly a lot of smiles by those involved
AJS