It was fine but windy today and as the roads were dry I figured that there wouldn’t be many more days before the best bike has to be put to bed for the winter, so the Corratec it was.

Ten of us set off from Skidby with a few faces missing but the numbers made up to ten with a few new ones.

Those up for a ride today were young Andy who really does now need to put those “lily whites” away under a pair of leg warmers before he catches his death…, Josh… with a new gear cable, Matthew… still nursing his collar bone back to full strength, new team member Graham Morgan, Simon Pickering, Neil Dean, Shaun, Scott Hamilton, Jacob the gadget man and myself.

If all these and those who were missing today came out on a regular basis we’d have more than fifteen HTRC members out on their bikes together… wouldn’t that be good?

As it was windy we figured on having a back wind home.

Neil was after a lunch stop at Fridaythorpe but we agreed on going around an old 70 in 7 route I used to do in another life.

And so we set off via Little Weighton, Walkington, Cherry, Etton, South Dalton, Middleton on the Wolds and then left towards the top of Nunburnholme.

We found that the surface at the bend on Warter TT course has been resurfaced so maybe it’s time to reintroduce this leg bender to the series?

From Londesborough we went straight down the descent to Shiptonthorpe.

It was here that Graham, Josh and Matt cut their day short and so we were down to seven.

A short leg on the A1079 followed before turning left and through the lanes to Holme on Spalding Moor and onto Bubwith.

It won’t be long before we’re back there for the TT series in March.

Then it was onto Howden and California Gardens for lunch.

For a few, this area of East Yorkshire proved to be a New World they apparantly hadn’t seen before and the cafe proved to be a welcome break from the wind.

We could have done our Christmas shopping or at least bought the trimmings.

It was all there, the trees, the glitter, the cards and the lights.

It’s a shame it’s still only October.

The route home was via the banks of the river, the parklands, part of the Giberdyke course and the tileworks to Ellerker and Brantingham where the group split with Neil, Shaun, Scott and myself going over Brantingham back to Cottingham.

Another good ride of over 75 miles, the lack of climbs compared to previous weeks more than made up for by the wind.

The mostly back wind from Howden made for a quick ride home.

Richard Guymer