Fanylion Mountain Bike Team
Official site of the Fanylion Mountain Bike Team. Includes mountain bike ride guides, gear reviews, bike maintenance, team reports and rider profiles of the Fanylion Racing Team.
Yorkshire Dales
April 18, 2008, England
Gates, Tea & Scones and Remoteness.
Clean white smooth lines, the smell of new rubber and precious metal excites me once more as it is time to ride my new bike. Yep – she is back, fully built up and ready to ride. Excited but apprehensive as the weather forecast given is totally crap, so having packed all forms of winter kit I picked up a amazingly ready Beard in Congleton at 7 am. Today, we drive North to Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales to rendezvous with Doug (Morocco Faction) and the ever faithful - core of the team - Shortbread. Mission: 40 + miles and 6+ hours in the saddle.
Taking the pre-ride photo at 9:24, the 60k + planned meant no Faff ™ whatsoever.
Leaving Hawes at 10:30, we take a stiff road climb up past Butterset and onto the Pennine Way. Thankfully the evil westerly wind is behind us so progress is good but soon Doug and Beard are dropped. Opening the first of many gates (apart from the wind this was the key feature of the day!) we take a wicked descent off Crag Side Road to Rydale and another gate. The descent giving the feeling of a descent out of the Lake District rather than the North York Moors with its baby headed rocks and boulders and the odd sheep. It was at this point the bike felt good and earned its first scar from one of the many rocks. Doug on his 35lb Ellsworth admired my descending skills but still Shortbread lead the MTB peloton to tarmac. Taking the big climb up onto Stake Allotments before a another cracking Lakeland type descent gave us some grins but soon back onto the tarmac B6160 road to Buckden and then taking a rocky bridleway down for a tea room stop. Sipping tea and gorging on scones in Hodgson’s day would have never happened but we all thought we had earned our “scone stripes”.
Back onto tarmac again up to Langstrothdale and back onto the Pennine Way where by this time Beard is looking rather uncomfortable proclaiming too much intake of Infinite Nutrition Rave Safe Mix = total bad guts. As we try to hide from the gale, Beard completely strips off behind a grassy tussock and does the business. I really don’t know how he survived as the chill factor must have been -10° as for the rest of us, the wind on top was cutting through every piece of technical clothing we had on. I was just glad no one was about to see a grown man naked on top of a moor in just a pair of SPD’s.
The final climb of the day was pure hell, take away the biting 25mph side wind and it would have been much easier. Each one of us were fighting a personal battle with mother nature whilst our inner demons were sat by a crackling log fire, laughing at us, sipping scotch in the warm glow. Every painful turn of the crank wasn’t made any easier as maintenance work on the bridleway had turned parts into a thick porridge like substance that made progress painful. My inner demon said that I didn’t want to be here, he was right.
The drop down to Hawes couldn’t come too soon as the day had taken its toll on the four of us. After a quick bite to eat we say our goodbyes to Doug and head off the The Station Head Inn in Ribblehead for some sort of meat product and beer. Bedtime was early for us as the weather deteriorated outside.
Sunday (more gates).
With a lovely fresh Terry Nutkins - a.k.a - Team Cove meeting us in Horton in Ribblesdale, the weather is pretty ok but dam cold. When is spring coming we thought as it felt more like December than April as we changed into our winter gear once more.
Trussed up to the max, we take to the tarmac again for a warm up session before hitting a stiff climb onto the Pennine Way to Churn Milk Hole and views of Peny-Y-Ghent. Shortbread and Cove are just ahead as more gates are opened. How many you may ask? We have lost count by this time. Descending to Litton tarmac takes over for a while with Cove trying to outpace an aging roadie which made us piss. 2 miles Hatton Gill then tough climb/carry to the exposed summit on Horse Head Moor where Mother Nature greeted us. Even the walkers were more miserable than normal as the exposed nature of the summit and low cloud/wind gave us nothing including them. Waiting for Beard, the dry stone wall gave us shelter. Dropping down to Langstrothdale was techy in places, not the techy rocky stuff we like but more of a - techy cut up by the 4X4/motorbike brigade.
Retracing our steps of Saturday’s ride we opened every gate for Beard as he looked in bad shape. I know how he feels as I have been there on many occasions and it is a dark place, almost black.-Jonny, it is time we were getting home now dear.
Back onto the Pennine Way the descent back into to Horton was class, more baby headed boulders and rocks throwing you off line. Shortbread was on form as usual whilst Cove punctured.
25 miles in 4 hours = tea and cakes all round and big mugs of tea. A good weekend was had even though Mother Nature tried in vain to stop it. As we say our goodbyes until the next Fany™ ride, we hope you will be there?
Bear.
Riders present
Cove
Bear
Doug
Beard
Shortbread
Enjoyment level
Ok