So far we’ve had rain, ice and a bit of warm sun for our end of season group etiquette rides but we haven’t had the wind as strong as it was for the final edition. 7 other riders joined me at Skidby Mill having fought their way through the headwind to get there.

 

They were, Amanda Dean, Andy Carroll, Mike McAllister, Will Thomas, Josh Ravn, Rich Guymer and Danny Posnett – who explained that he’d gone in the red just to get to the start.

 

 

 

So, with the crisp air blowing around like a mini hurricane, what better place to go than the exposed flatlands of the Holderness plains and work on our skills in combating the wind. Despite the wind it was a corker of a day. The sun was out and the roads were bone dry for once, which meant I didn’t have to spend an hour afterwards cleaning my bike.

 

We kicked off by going through Cottingham and on towards Beverley via Dunswell Lane. Mike was on the front here and was going at a fair pace as we came towards Beverley. We then joined the previous sessions route towards Leven, but with the frost no longer around, we managed to take the cycle path running parallel with the A1035. No problems here, other than Mandy nearly taking a wrong turn and a dog on the loose.

 

Once we passed through Leven we carried on towards Hornsea with Andy and Danny now on the front. The wind was well and truly behind us on this section and the pace was understandably high around 24/25mph.

 

After running alongside the Mere, we came into Hornsea and took a right marking the end of the back wind section. The wind was now a cross wind from the right and just before we came up to Hornsea Freeport we had the inevitable split. Mandy had been cut adrift leading to a slowing at the front of the bunch. We regrouped and powered on with me and Josh on the front. There must still have been a slight backwind as we were still going at around 22/23mph.

 

 

That soon changed though as we took the right turn in Aldborough to head back to Hull. The wind was well and truly in our faces although with Will & Danny on the front the pace was never going to be too slow. In order to work on our skills in the wind I decided to impose some ‘through-and-off’ with the group. We started off fairly well but the wind was clearly doing more damage to people’s legs than others. Mandy was giving it a real good go and did a few solid turns but on coming through to do her turn she got halfway up the group and realised she couldn’t quite make it to the front, causing Andy to take evasive action. Andy was next to suffer leaving the five of us to plough on.

 

We soon got back into the swing of things and the technique was very good. We did split though, with Andy, Mandy and Rich just getting tailed off a little around the Flinton area. We regrouped once we hit Jim’s training course however. Danny nearly came a cropper when he set off again, though, with a mouse/rat jumping around near his front wheel. Both he and the rat survived and we were back on our way.

 

Mike decided it was that time in the ride to take some videos/photos. Going along one handed at the head of the bunch looking behind was always going to be risky, especially in this wind. So it was perhaps no surprise the he ended up clashing with Andy who was on his left. He bumped shoulders, wiggled his handlebars but somehow didn’t fall off. Save of the season perhaps. Unfortunately I don’t think he got this on camera, as it would have been interesting to watch.

 

After this skirmish we ventured further west towards Hull and the wind was now having an adverse affect on the group with the pace dropping to around 15/16mph. We eventually got home and we even had just enough strength for a lead out for Will on Spring Bank. By the time I got back we’d covered 47 miles at an average of 18.1 mph.

 

Rider of the day was a toughie, so I’m going to give it to both Danny and Will for their show of strength in the wind coming home but to be fair it was a victory for everyone who came along and slogged it out against the conditions as it was far from easy out there.

 

This was the last ride of the series, so a massive thank you to all who came along. I hope you got something out of the rides and have some platform heading into the following 2015 season.

 

Take a look at photo supremo Mike McAllister’s pics via Flickr

 

Mark Walker
HTRC RR Secretary