On a very windy but mostly dry morning 5 of us set off from Rawdon to meet Chris & Ian at Pool for a ride to Askham Richard.

On arriving at Pool, Stewart was also there to join the SRAN, the 3 of them including Nathan & Hamish setting off in order to make an early return.

Chris who was carrying a back injury, said he would see how he got on before committing to the full ride, Nick also planning on returning from Wetherby due to shortage of time.

Following a message from Ian not to wait, Chris, Alan, Nick & Steve headed off.

With a good tail wind helping us all along, Ian caught up.

We are such a well organised bunch ! LOL.

On arriving at Kirkby Overblow Chris elected to return home his back not feeling good. The remaining 4 pressing on to Wetherby.

While pulling over onto the footpath in Wetherby to say goodbye to Nick, Steve also decided to return as he was also not feeling well at this point. Moving off the footpath to let a local through, she gave no thanks, but commented, ‘You cyclists block the roads, you might as well block the Pavements’. An attitude we don’t normally come across thankfully. So that left just 2.

Powered by a strong tail wind we made good progress to Askham Richard, just in time to meet the SRAN leaving the cafe.

Having the cafe almost to ourselves and following the special offer of a coffee, bacon sandwich and a large piece of cake for an unbelievable £6, (Ian declined the cake) we set off back into an horrendous head wind. The forecast had indicated gusts of up to 40mph and it certainly felt like it. I personally was feeling that the extra fuel provided by the cake might be needed.

After a 30 mile battle with the headwind on the return and finishing with 63 miles and 3550 ft for me, similar for Ian, 45 miles for Nick & Steve and 32 miles for Chris, I was certainly glad to get home out of the wind.

Looking back on it later, I weirdly enjoyed the tough day.

Cheers Alan.