There’s a lot of sportives in North Yorkshire this year. A really, really lot of them. And that’s good for the local economy and good for cycling. And there’s a lot of opportunity to relive the highlights of Stage 1 of the Grand Depart and hit the great climbs of Buttertubs et al and their equally awesome neighbours. But if you want the connoisseur’s choice then head East and hit the lesser-ridden gems of the Yorkshire Wolds.
Hammering through 35 miles of Yorkshire sleet and rain to make it to Harrogate by 9 am, the question of what on earth possessed me to attempt a 70 mile, hilly, partly off-road mini-tour on a school night was at the foremost of my mind. It had all seemed like a great idea on paper. How could a fast and light adventure be squeezed in mid-week whilst still fitting in a day’s work either side? How easy would it be to travel fast and light on the new breed of do-it-all bikes? Could you have as much fun on and off road without compromising performance at either end? Finding out seemed like a good idea.
So the Bank Holiday has finally come to an end and it has been fairly significant for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the Giro D’Italia came to a close with a predictable but most deserving winner, but perhaps even more important was the fact that rather surprisingly (for a Bank Holiday) we enjoyed the best cycling weather of the year so far – ok so with the ice age like conditions we have be enduring recently it wasn’t hard, but still very welcome to finally get sun drenched as opposed to the more common kind of drenched.
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