Lumpy club run

There were no ride leaders for the Ilkley club run today - disappointing that in a club of about 400 members we can't rustle up three or four people each weekend who can commit to turning up, but hey ho.  So, with a slight hangover I felt I'd better go and lead a B ride.

Vic and l'Herb showed up at 7:45 too, so I thought I'd better go.  Fortunately I'd kept up my water consumption last night as my beer intake continued, so the hangover wasn't too bad and had pretty much cleared by the time we got to the old bridge.  The original plan was another plod up to Kettlewell and back, but I decided that we could do something slightly more interesting and go up to Greenhow via West End and come home via Grassington.

So it was that ten of us set off towards Askwith, at a fairly healthy pace.  It seems that every time I lead a ride I get a load of pseudo-A Groupers out for an "easy day", and so it was again.  I was the last up to the top of the moor road climb, and was pretty much hanging on most of the way to Greenhow.

We turned into the wind, and the usual blast along to Grassington turned out to be pretty tough, so I was grateful to have some strong lads to sit behind.  At Grassington we turned south and the going was easier through Burnsall and Appletreewick.

The last bit up from Bolton Abbey was hard though, as we were back into the wind again, but we were soon home with 48 miles on the clock and lunchtime still an hour away.  Nice day.