Crew: El Pres, PTD, Butty, Dunc, Lee, Stunt
Route: Backeddisbury Lane, Zag, Teggs Sheepfold, Grassy Descent, Teggs main face, Leathers, Witches cottage, Hardingland, Crooked Yard Road, Bull Hill Lane, Lidgetts Lane, Endon House to War Memorial, Oak Lane, “horsey double track”, Canal, Middlewood, Tythy wiggles, chez Stunt.
Conditions: Clear skies, no wind, sub zero, treacherously icy in places
Notes:
With the first Thursday of the year being only the day after New Years Day, there were many who were otherwise engaged (or not wanting to brave the arctic weather). There was also the small matter of if anywhere would be serving food!! Through some alignment of circumstance Stunt was in a position to host – so with numbers sorted, and Pizza’s procured (and left over NYE beer collected from the Lurgified Pete) all that remained was an RV and route – to which Dunc had opted to initiate.
With a classic bottom of the zag start (as the last couple of rides had headed over to sponds) the challenge was to find a route that would:
a/ not be icy death – roads dry and gritted right up to the point at which the zag starts – then sheet ice – PTD takes an immediate dab before his brain can process our cries of Black Ice!!
b/ get us back to Tythy without having to go through town.
Dunc was running late but managed to post a suggestion (but which way round was the loop?)
Discussion of the assembled was favouring a Teggs start, and once Dunc arrived we discounted a Nessit side of the forest as being all up and no down, and settled on a up past the Leathers to Witches cottage.
Now all we had to do was get on our bikes (glassy swathes of the lane were shiny black ice) and get moving up the zag!
If this was the shape of things to come we were in for an “interesting evening”! weaving warily we get to Windyways unscathed, and head down the road to Teggs footpath, and up the frosty field to the sheepfold. Where a low red sliver of moon was waning in the distance, and Orion was drunkenly angled opposite as he rose.
Here PTD suggests we head right down the grassy descent parallel to the wall, it’s fine he says “I have local knowledge as I did it the other day”. Moments later, midway down he’s off on the glassy stuff frozen solid on the narrow path. – TNR Stats – PTD – off before the ride starts, and off within 30 minutes of the start of the ride!!
The rest of us opt for the frozen grass instead which is plenty grippy!
The main decent of Teggs is dry with a very rideable line down the middle (recent rain erosion??) even the track under the trees and over the stream is wet rather than icy – so big smiles at the car park.
Decent conditions all the way up – even the little road to the gate has been gritted, and the fire road is dry.
Time is ticking – not so much for a deadline, as time spend in the cold, options to climb the first part of Charity and cut in under the trees to Narnia are shelved, and we opt to turn left at the cottage and head straight across to Hacked way lane (a bit icy in places) and then Hardingland – some ice, but enough stones poking through as to not be a problem.
Going past the farm the lane got worse as we got to the bridge – some dismounting and tiptoing around the edges needed to stay upright.
The original saddlers way plan discarded as “suicide” so the long slog up Crooked Yard was the only option – early signs are encouraging – the RH side of the lane is literally red with grit, and despite a lot of water it’s kept the ice at bay. Higher up there is less grit and more ice, a few short patches to roll over in a straight line, but nothing too bad.
Now warm again and regrouped at Walker barn the main road is slush in places with major run off from the fields. We cautiously descent (with good reason) and end up on the footpath as being the best option to get to Bull Hill Lane in one piece.
Here all is good again, and with Lidgetts also gritted a short climb gets up to the views (and a repeat of the Boxing day westerly mast sighting – Moel y Parc near St Asaph N Wales no less – over 50 miles away)
Down past Endon house with a rare descent of the lane, saying hi to some runners, then familar territory through the horsey farm and crunching the ice on the puddles to the canal bridge (was it starting to freeze??) and on the middlewood way to Rugby Drive, and thence past the shops an into the Dorchester way estate.
Ah the delights of a heated floor (also good for warming boots and gloves), cold beers, and a selection of Pizza’s cooking in the oven. Even Woody the cockapoo was on friendly behaviour!
With so much energy expended on keeping warm (and excess fayre to be consumed) a cheesecake course is followed by a quintet of posh cheeses and accompanying apricot jelly and biscuits, all washed down with port!
All too easy to slide into the zone, tales of the trials and tribulations of electric car ownership, and getting 3 phase cables into the Shrubberies (cable guys good, meter guys bad!!), geekiness re chilblains, and a general desire to put off the inevitable need to get back out in to the cold to get home.
Eventually it had to be done, having kicked off the TNR year in style – plus firsts for “Coldest night of the year” and “fastest off” 😉
All riders confirmed home safe.