Yorkshire Wolds Cycle Challenge Day 1

The Yorkshire Wolds Cycle Challenge is a two day, 144 mile ride along the route of the Yorkshire Wolds Cycle Route. I’d entered as I’d seen signs for the route whilst riding the Sundown 60, an event I enjoy riding, and wanted to see more of the beautiful scenic route. So it was that on Saturday 29th July at 8:37am I set off from Norton College in drizzly conditions.

It wasn’t long before the first of many short sharp climbs appeared as I road through quiet lanes to Kirkham, where a left turn took me through Westow and some more climbing up to Leavening. This was a place I knew well from the Sundown 60 – it is a stinker of a climb up to Avro, although at least I didn’t have the preceding climb to get up to Leavening that the Sundown 60 has. The roads are narrow here, with a couple of bends, and there were quite a few cyclists toiling up along with me. I heard a car behind just before a bend, and it was making a horrendous screeching noise every so often. Eventually it came up to and passed me, I realised it was a van pulling a trailer and by the smell that it left in its trail I knew that its clutch probably didn’t have a great deal of life left in it! Shortly after this a lady asked me to look at her gears as she had trouble getting into bottom. I passed on what I saw to her and her husband, but whatever the issue was it seemed to resolve itself. Further up the climb I overtook a couple, one of whom was hauling a little dog in a kiddi trailer. I joked that they needed a set of six huskies at the front, rather than pulling one behind! At the end of the climb I came to one of my favourite parts of the Sundown 60, a long, smooth, sweeping descent into the village of Thixendale with lush green pastures rising up on either side. The drizzle had eased by now, but I still kept my rain jacket on to keep the chill out. 

The climb up to Garrowby Hill out of Thixendale

At Thixendale I left the route of the Sundown 60, turning right for a long climb up towards Garrowby Hill through another picturesque little dale, passing the Robert Fuller Gallery (robertefuller.com) – a renowned British wildlife artist and film maker. At the A166 on Garrowby Hill I crossed onto a cycle path before turning right for a 15 mile stretch of generally downhill riding. At Huggate another right led to a delightful single track road that led to Millington Woods, where a steep switchback took me back up and through to Millington, and the first checkpoint at The Gait Inn. Here I stopped for a toilet break, and had a couple of my energy bars, resisting the tempting smell of the burgers on offer! Continuing on I cycled along quiet roads through Kilnwick Percy and into Pocklington, dipping in and quickly out, passing the rugby club and heading out to Burnby, passing the slightly malodorous household waste site. 

More climbing lay ahead leading to Londesborough, and then a left on Intake Hill. Whenever I see a “Hill” on my computer directions I groan inwardly, expecting the worst, but this time it was a pleasant downhill that took me to the A614 where I crossed unimpeded by traffic into Market Weighton. After 37 miles of lovely, quiet Wolds roads, Market Weighton was busy, particularly the High Street where a roadside banner advertised Giant Bradley Day, which piqued my interest, it turned out to be a day celebrating the life of William Bradley, born in Market Weighton in 1787. Known as The Yorkshire Giant, he was one of Britain’s tallest men, reaching 7’ 9”. Heading out of town on Spring Way, the route ran alongside the Market Weighton to Beverley Rail Trail, a shared use path running along the track bed of the former railway. Unsurprisingly this was one of the flatter sections of the whole route! After four miles I turned right at an impressive bridge taking the Rail Trail over the road, and headed south to Arras to cross the A1079. 

The bridge carrying the Market Weighton - Beverley Rail Trail

After another mile the route went off road onto a mainly grassy track, with the odd section of gravel thrown in for good measure. It was narrow and overgrown in places but rideable, and I made my way along the mile long section with relative ease. At the end I rejoined the road for a nice downhill blast into North Newbold, where the second checkpoint was. After checking in, I set off again straight away as I was feeling good, pausing a few hundred yards later to take a photo of the rather nice Norman church, and to take off my rain jacket as the day was much fairer now with the sun putting in an appearance. 

North Newbold's Norman Church

In another half a mile at South Newbold another two mile climb led to an excellent four mile gentle downhill stretch to Walkington and the outskirts of Beverley. Here the route took to more cycle path into the centre of Beverley, passing the Minster on cobbled streets, then followed roads to leave again. Beverley was a huge culture shock even after Market Weighton, with more crowds and heavier traffic, including one young driver whose hi-fi volume seemed stuck on eleven! 

Beverley Minster

Two miles of cycle path alongside busy roads took me to Cherry Burton where I turned off and normality resumed. From Cherry Burton it was just ten flat miles to the overnight camp stop, and I rode on nice quiet roads through Etton and South Dalton to reach Hutton Cranswick. A short piece of cycle path took me over the busy A164 Beverley Road into the town, past the railway station and then left into Maggison’s Turnpike. Half a mile further on I turned left into the Hutton Cranswick Sport and Recreation Association and the campsite. I checked in, picked up my food vouchers (very important), pitched my tent and had an unexpectedly good shower before scarfing down burger, chicken wrap with cheese, potato salad, coleslaw and finishing off with gooseberry crumble. Oh, and a couple of beers to avoid cropset! 

The campsite

Gold dust!!

It had been a tough day at times, but certainly very enjoyable with plenty of beautiful little hamlets, lots of greenery and nice quiet roads. The weather had started off wet, but the ride ended in sunshine and warmth. Sadly later that evening the rain returned and set in, causing the live band a few issues in keeping their electrical equipment safe, however I couldn’t really complain. After a few more beers and chatting with fellow riders I got into my tent and fell asleep listening to the rain on the tent, hoping for a good night ahead of the second half of the ride the next day.

Laureen's Ride - cows, alpacas and llamas

I'd seen a few signs for Laureen's Ride whilst I'd been out on my bike around the Knutsford area, so I recently decided to look it up and see what it was. I'd assumed it was a charity ride, for some deserving charity, however I was slightly disappointed to find out that it was just a ride named after a local horse riding resident who created it while recovering from a broken leg. It is billed by Cheshire West and Chester as "ideal for horse riders with friends or family on bicycles". We'll come back to that......

It sounded appealing, and somewhat different to my usual rides, so I planned a route to link into it from home. I set off along the Trent and Mersey canal towards Middlewich, starting on nice hard packed gravel towpath which turned into hard grass track after the Plant Lane bridge. This continued after the lock at the Mill Lane bridge, with the hard part of the track becoming quite narrow in places. It wasn't too bad to ride on with my mountain bike, the only alternative was to ride on the brick blocks on the side of the canal, and I wasn't prepared to go for a splash in the mucky water! Reaching Middlewich I was a bit nervous of the swans that I knew inhabited the canal in large numbers by the Kings Lock pub. Fortunately there were only a couple, and none of them felt like attacking me as I rode past. After the pub, I passed Middlewich Chandlery and left the canal, heading up through a track to an industrial estate where a left took me to the roundabout on the Holmes Chapel road, where I went straight across and then right along the very familiar road through Byley to the Three Greyhounds pub. Here a right, then left, took me past Shakerley Mere, over the M6 and on to turn right into Townfield Lane. A short while later I turned left into Sandy Lane and joined the route of Laureen's Ride.

This took me along typical country lanes, paved but narrow with occasional potholes. After a mile or so of this, the route turned onto Sandy Lane, not sandy at all but more of a cinder style surface that morphed into a typical farm track - grass in the middle with dirt / stone tracks either side.

There were also numerous gates to be negotiated, and at one of these I came to a rather bumpy stop and noticed that my computer was beeping loudly. Looking down I noticed that the Incident Detection feature had kicked in - this basically will send an alert out if it thinks you've had a fall on your bike. At the same time my phone was making worrying alarm sounds via the computer's app. Fortunately it gives you thirty seconds to cancel, which I hurriedly did - I didn't want to scare Sandra for no reason! Sandy Lane eventually came to the main road near Radbroke Hall, and here I turned into Stocks Lane to turn left down a drive signposted Colshaw Hall Farm Access Only. This was a decent paved surface which turned left and right through farmland to join onto School Lane near Lower Moss Wood, where a left turn took me onto a bridleway. This was more of a dirt / grass track, again going through some lush farmland with wheat growing.

The track passed through Ash Farm and became a paved road leading to Seven Sisters Lane, where I turned right to cross the A537 Chelford Road onto Marthall Lane. I knew there was a left turn ahead, as I'd checked out some of the route on Google Maps beforehand, and sure enough it soon appeared. A paved driveway brought me to a narrow bridleway gate onto a grassy track, which was clearly feeling the benefit of the rain as in places it was quite tall, and you could feel soft patches where the water must have accumulated. The track bore round to the left and I came to a gate where the bridleway went up a bit of a climb with little to give an idea of where the path was other than a narrow trail of beaten down grass.

I struggled up the climb and at the end found myself back on road for a short while before diverting left onto another bridleway. This again was a narrow track through farmland, with a sign asking people to keep to the hedges around the field. It was turning into a harder ride now, the way was not obvious again, the ground was sporadically boggy where water had collected and cows had churned it up. I came to a gate into another field where cows were grazing, and trudged through the very boggy ground to the other side. I followed the hedge to a point where my computer told me I needed to go right, and then saw that this would take me along the hedge where cows were grazing! I decided to move out into the middle of the field to pass the cows, and as I was walking through the field I realised that ones of the cows had taken an interest in me, and was following. I shouted at it to stop it, but when I continued so did the cow! I shouted again, which now got the attention of the other cows, who clearly thought something interesting was going on, and moved towards me too! So I shouted again, and carried on moving, wondering if being knocked over by a herd of cows would trigger my Incident Detection. Fortunately I was walking quite quickly through the field, and managed to get to the hedge so if the worst happened I could keep that at my back. As the hedge veered to the left, I moved out of sight of the herd, and they must have lost interest. I came to another gate, getting through it quickly and breathing a sigh of relief. The going was better now, and I could ride again, and the bridleway took me to a road that lead to the Bulls Head pub in Mobberley. The route joined the Knutsford to Wilmslow road for a short while before turning left along Church Lane, passing the cricket club, the lovely St Wilfrid's Church, Mobberley Ice Cream Company, and then turning right onto Lady Lane before coming to the perimeter of Manchester Airport. 

Here I paused to take a photograph, watching a plane taking off and noticing a buzzard high up in the air. The track then dropped through a wooded area, becoming boggy again in places, before rejoining the roads on Ostler's Lane and heading south towards Knolls Green. Here the route rejoined the Wilmslow road for a short time before turning left onto Moss Lane and through to pass the Plough and Flail pub. After the pub, the route joins a stony / dirt track, passing Lindow Court Park, before rejoining tarmac at Moor Lane to head towards Fulshaw Park, where it turns left into Rotherwood Road. This turns into another stony / dirt track, uneven in places, but which goes through some lovely woodland.

The track narrows towards the end, and with the stony track being replaced by lots of old bricks, and vegetation encroaching. Eventually though, by Mossways Park, this becomes tarmac road again, and brings you out into Morley Green by the Cheshire Smokehouse. I continued on towards Wilmslow and turned left into Nansmoss Lane, following this to the junction with the A538 Altrincham to Wilmslow road. This is a very busy road, fortunately there is a wide shared path running alongside, and I followed this for a short while to cross over onto a road which took me to the Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate Country Park.

Although the road was a dead end, there were the occasional speed bumps in it to jolt over. I came to the Mill and found that the route took me up a flight of stone steps, then a gentle incline to leave the grounds and head into Styal. Here I turned left onto Altrincham Road, past the Ship Inn, where people were sitting outside in the warmth of the sun enjoying a cold drink. Sadly I had no money with me! At Holly Lane I turned right, and then left onto the Restricted Byway of Wilkins Lane, another stony / dirt track. On reaching the end at Moss Lane I turned left to follow the road back to Altrincham Road, and then right onto the old Altrincham Road, no longer open to traffic. This took me back to the airport perimeter, and past the Southside Manchester Viewing Area.

I left the airport perimeter and rode through a lovely meadow down to the Bollin Valley Way, at the end of which I turned into the Airport Inn Car Park, and crossed the A538 to ride uphill on the shared path. At Morley Green Road I turned right, and followed this to pass the Cheshire Smokehouse and from there retrace the route back past Mossways Park and along Rotherwood Lane to Fulshaw Park on the outskirts of Wilmslow. Following various roads to Upcast Lane, I turned right onto a bridleway opposite Lindow Cricket Club. This was an easy ride along a decent gravel surface, and at the end I turned right onto Clay Lane which turned into a stony dirt track and passed a field of  alpacas and llamas. One alpaca was sitting proudly atop a mound of dirt!

The track changed here into a narrow dirt singletrack, squeezing between trees and fence and with roots and boggy bits making it hard going. It soon returned to a wider farm track though, before reaching a road again, eventually threading through to the Wilmslow to Knutsford road. Here I headed towards Knutsford for a brief spell, before turning left onto Warford Lane and then right onto the wonderfully named Noahs Ark Lane, nice and leafy but sadly no animals two by two! At the end in Warford I turned left for Great Warford and then back towards Little Warford. Just past the David Lewis Centre I turned left onto a bridleway which started out as an easy riding stony / dirt track, however just past the centre it turned off through what looked like a tree nursery, with a barely discernable track at the edge of the field to follow. A little further on this passed through some woodland and here the track became very boggy, so much so that it was necessary to push the bike through the muddy sections. I soon got back on tarmac, much to my relief, and came to the outskirts of Chelford, where I turned right, crossed the main road and headed along Pepper Street, and turned right onto another bridleway.

At the end of this, I rejoined the road and turned off on an unnamed lane to reach Sandhole Lane, where a double decker bus was being restored in a garage across the road. I turned left onto another bridleway which went through a field that had been mowed, so no previous evidence of where people had gone. My computer directed me straight ahead, but I couldn't see anything obvious so followed the hedge to leave the field, but my computer was beeping at me to make a U-turn. I noticed another entrance to the field, followed that and managed to pick up the bridleway again. It became very narrow again, and also very bumpy underfoot (underwheel?) where many horses must have trodden passing through. It was becoming a real struggle and fight to keep the bike going with enough forward momentum, and I had to stop and hike several times, even when I had left the fields and had joined what seemed to be a normal track. Eventually I came to the end of the bridleway on Stocks Lane again, and followed the road left and then right to cross over the road towards Goostrey. 

After a mile or so I came to what would be the last bridleway of the day, and turned right off the road. This immediately became a very claustrophobic, narrow track, with the vegetation seriously in need of a bit of management. In addition to this, the track didn't go straight but meandered, so surprises were often thrown up around a corner, including lots of muddy little areas around exposed tree roots that demanded a full focus to get through. Eventually the bridleway widened and turned into a paved road that came to Boots Green, where Laureen's Ride continues straight on to cross the A50 into Townfield Lane, which is where I picked it up earlier. As I'd now completed the route, I turned left to head into Goostrey. 

At Goostrey I crossed straight over onto Hermitage Lane, which has some truly awful sections with many clumps of shallow potholes. From here I rode into Holmes Chapel, ignoring my planned route on another Restricted Byway (which had more to do with fatigue than anything else - in hindsight I wish I'd done it), and from Holmes Chapel down the A50 to Brereton Green, where I turned right onto Back Lane, left onto Ward's Lane into Sandbach and back home.

It had been a mostly fun and interesting day, and with all the new roads to me it had at times felt like a typical Scotland trip. There were probably three sections of the route that I'd avoid if I did it again, and you can probably guess which these were. You'd need some very fit and strong family and friends on bicycles if you were going to drag them along on your horse ride, but maybe when the route was conceived the grounds weren't as churned up from the amount of rain we've had this last year or two. At the end of the day, it had been a pretty decent day on the bike.

The (No) Sundown 60 2024

Must admit I didn't have the usual level of anticipation and excitement for the Sundown 60 ride this year, following the loss of Sandra's mum at the end of April. Losing someone you love leaves a huge gap in your heart, and it does take away your mojo for a while. However, the weekend came and so I packed up the car with the usual camping paraphernalia and set off to pick up my son, Scott, who had decided to join me this year. It was quite a nice day when we set off, and considering it was a Bank Holiday Saturday the traffic was fairly decent and we made good time to the A64. Here the weather changed to overcast as we joined the heavy traffic heading towards York and the coast. 

The sat nav had a change of heart here, and rather than sending me down the A64 after York, where I knew there'd be long queues, it offered a chance to go via the A166 even though that was closed at Stamford Bridge, suggesting I'd save fifteen minutes. I'd diverted along here last year, due to heavy traffic, so had an inkling of what to expect, however when we hit a queue of stationary traffic a little later it didn't look great. Nothing was moving for a long while, but when we did eventually get going again we came to the reason why - three way traffic signals at road works with a very narrow (7 feet!) possibly traffic calming measure. Judging by the number of scrapes along the side plenty of drivers couldn't navigate through carefully enough, no wonder traffic wasn't moving!

Once through we made good time to the Wold Top Brewery where I followed the signs for camping through the brewery and onto the camping field. After being kept awake until the ridiculously early hours by inconsiderate campers last year, I headed straight across to the far side of the field to set the tent up. The first thing I noticed when I got out of the car was how chuffing cold it was! A week ago the forecast was for a sunny day with a clear night, perfect for a good sunset. Now it was likely to rain later in the day, indeed the field was damp and there had been heavy rain in North Yorkshire a couple of days beforehand. I'd been debating over choice of clothing for the ride earlier in the week, but it was between short sleeved and long sleeved tops - I'd discarded the idea of thermal bottoms. I was now beginning to regret that decision, as even with my long sleeved jersey and base layer it felt chilly. Ah well, I'd surely warm up on the ride.

A new feature of the event this year was to set the riders off according to expected average speed. Previously I'd held back to set off amongst the last, but as the first group to go were the 12-14mph group we found ourselves in the very first group to set off (I would have loved to make 14mph for the route). After a selfie we set off, Scott nearly riding into the back of me, and after the usual nice downhill out of the brewery we headed west through Wold Newton towards Foxholes, being passed by cars and some of the faster cyclists who'd set off after us. I wondered how many of them realised it was sixty miles and we had a tailwind start. 

At Foxholes we crossed the Scarborough road, and the traffic calmed down after this, although there were still groups of faster cyclists coming through. After one such group had gone past, I heard a shout from behind "I'm just going to wheel suck for a while". It was a lady cyclist, so I shouted "No problem" and made sure I kept a reasonable speed so that we didn't drop her. I had to call Scott to slow down a little a couple of times as well, as I knew what the rest of the day would bring and knew we had to keep some energy in reserve for the latter stages. Soon the lady behind pulled out past us and I noticed she had Little Miss Chatterbox on her jersey, and remembered her from previous years! The route climbs gently from Wold Newton to Duggleby, at which point there is a mile long climb. We passed Little Miss Chatterbox on this and at the top enjoyed a good downhill to North Grimston, after which the road continued generally downhill. We were often passed by the faster riders, many of whom had really noisy freewheels. I'm not sure why they made so much noise, as my Shimano freewheels are quiet and my SRAM one only makes a little clicking. I wondered if it was a "look at my expensive bike" audible badge, as it did seem limited to some upper range bikes. Whatever the reason, it would do my head in if I owned one of them!

After another climb and steep downhill to a road junction we passed Kirkham Abbey, crossing a lovely bridge over the River Derwent and beginning a half mile 10% climb. We passed a couple of cyclists on the narrow road, but got stuck behind a couple spread across the road towards the top, after which we turned left on Riders Lane, crossing the York Scarborough railway line for a second time. At the end of the lane we turned left and began our return to the brewery over Howsham Bridge. This marked the start of a five mile stretch which climbed over 700 feet! The gradient varies, but it is hard at the start and even harder three and a half miles later after Leavening. We passed Ryedale Vineyards just before Leavening, and passed the even more tempting Jolly Farmers pub at Leavening too! Despite the effort required, we were rewarded with some wonderfully panoramic views over the Wolds. Eventually we reached the high point of the ride at Aldro and were treated to a lovely three miles descent to the feed stop at Thixendale. I love this section of the ride, the smooth road flowing between steep sided pastures with sheep grazing (though no Highland cattle this year). Too soon we were in the village and pulling into the village hall, thronging with hungry cyclists. 

It was a good Yorkshire spread, with Yorkshire tea, ginger parkin and Seabrooks crisps. After replenishing our energy levels we set off again. The usual post cafe stop chill kicked in when we got going again, although Scott had cleverly packed a gilet and popped this on (he still had bare arms though!). We rode along on a rough, occasionally badly pot holed road towards Fimber, where after a short steep climb we were treated with a nice downhill to cross the Beverley Road at a roundabout and begin the climb up to Sledmere. Although a longish climb at two miles, it is a fairly forgiving gradient throughout, and we soon found ourselves passing Sledmere House and Gardens. At Sledmere we turned left following the Yorkshire Wolds Way cycle route. We saw several signs for this on the ride, and I'm due to ride the Yorkshire Wolds Way Cycle Challenge at the end of June, cycling the full length of the route over two days. The road from Sledmere was a good one, being generally downhill for around four miles to Helperthorpe, picking up the road on which we'd ridden outwards. 

We retraced our steps back towards Wold Newton for a couple of miles, feeling the wind that had pushed us on the outward leg and which now was wearyingly in our face. Before Butterwick we turned right, for a mile of climbing up to the B1253 where we turned left for a little more climbing before crossing the Scarborough road and passing East Riding Crematorium. On a good day you can see the North Sea from here, needless to say we didn't see anything. We'd felt a couple of spits in the air, but as yet nothing had come of it. A little further on we turned left towards Octon, and at a bus shelter we stopped for an energy gel, and for me to water the weeds. We remounted, and shortly after the spits started coming with more frequency and so I stopped to don my rain jacket. At Thwing we turned north for a cracking descent to Wold Newton. We technically broke the speed limit along this road, fortunately there were no speed cameras to catch us.

At Wold Newton we started the penultimate climb of the day, a mile up towards Fordon at 4 - 8%. There were a few more cyclists around us here, some of them stopping for a rest before the climb, some of whom we overtook. After the summit we dropped carefully into Fordon and turned right on the road leading to the brewery. Scott said at this point to leave him if he stalled on the final climb of the brewery drive, but I told him he'd be fine. We turned into the drive and immediately headed upwards, crested the worst part of the climb and took the last little incline which felt almost like a flat road after the earlier section. Here I pushed on the pedals and sprinted away from Scott to pass through the finish line first - you have to crush the youngsters spirit don't you! We signed in, got our beer and food tokens, looked at the queue for fish and chips and decided to have the beer first! 

After a well deserved pint, we went back to the car, fetched our clothes and got showered, then joined the by now shorter food queue and sat with our fish and chips in the spitting rain. Finishing our tea, we had a few more beers and whisky under the covers as the spitting had turned into a very damp drizzle. We didn't bother checking the sunset times as there was absolutely no chance of seeing any kind of sunset.

All in all a pretty good day, followed up by a full English at Redcliffe Farm, then a trip to the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery before returning home, fondly(!) remembering what a ball ache it was driving from Scarborough to York on the A64!