Dewsbury to Grinton lodge. A beautiful route to a secluded YHA lodge with stunning scenery
[Music] the 5th of July and Safaz is not in his cycling kit. I don’t know what we’re calling this. It was supposed to beif it was supposed to be 15 go to the dales. We’re down to down to the infamous five. There’s lots of slack bladders. That’s all I’m going to say. Fair with the cyclist. Snow slack bladders. Right off we go. Entering Deucebury Ring Road. Uh 70 mi 75 mi today. About 3 and a half 4,000 ft of elevation going all the way to Grinton in North Yorkshire just close to Katrick Garrison. I think just west of Katrick Garrison. But anyway, started off with about 15 registered cyclists. Whittle down to five of us. So, uh, yeah, let’s see how this goes. Saturday the 5th of July, just for my friends in Algeria, happy Independence Day. Charity rides will know this. Well, we’re on Westerton Road. Usually our first checkpoint. We’re going to be about 30 mi to the York Route before just before Tavern Cross. We turn off left towards Abford, I think. But you’ll know most of this stuff. Passing Swillington and weather’s getting better every minute, thankfully. Um, I know we had a whole load drop out because of the weather, but you can’t always allow for it. We probably get very wet tomorrow, but we’ll do with tomorrow when we come to it. So far so good. We are 14 miles in one. Gregs, where are we? Gaffer now. This is about to die, so it’s perfect chance to change the battery as well. Is Ger, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. And let’s go. All right, let’s go check in driver. Keep him busy. We can get my work. You look at this. Absolutely gorgeous. All these dramas about weather. Just got to get out and hope for the best. New road. I don’t think we’ve ever done this before. Abford Road. It just turns off left and it seems like quite decent. I’ll tell you in a bit when I’ve seen more of it. But seems like a decent road. Quiet enough, wide enough, a lot more comfortable than the one we normally take. This is the only bit for about 2 mi where you’ve got 50 mph road with no cycle way. It’s a quiet road coming up to this big roundabout. And you’ve also got this um gutter. Not really a bike lane, but at least less confident riders can get in there. But not bad so far. Hey, jump on. Just as it’s always nice when a cycle way is where it said it would be. So, here we are. Badly designed roundabout crossing. Quite frankly, I would rather have been on the roundabout than using the uh cycleway crossing. But anyway, then you’re on to this. This is a cycle path. It comes here, spend common lane and you got access to this cycle way here. Perfect. [Applause] This is the cycle way on the side of the A1 skirting both sides. I think it’s 5 miles on the right hand side of it um if you’re going north and then 5 miles on the opposite side. Um, I think it’s straight on, I think. Sorry. Straight on. Yeah. Yeah. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Is it that way? I think this is it. Sure. Yeah. And let’s have a look. 5 mile mark. There’s just this little bit of gravel. Probably less than quarter of a mile. Easily do it on a road bike, but may may change conditions if it’s raining. But lovely so far. I think just at the top there, we’re back onto the cycle way. So, no issues, no dramas. [Applause] The Aldi on the right hand side as you exit Weatherbe is probably a better stop than the Sainsbury’s. But anyway, we’ll change that next time. Room. Fantastic. Great roads, good surface, plenty of room for cyclists. Kind rolling roads as well. Look at that. 32 to 40 Weatherbeby onto Nesbra. Very kind. Very, very kind. And just passed Ezra. Now on to Ripon. Great roads, quiet, lovely recycles. Let’s crack on. Never disappoint. Rain or shine, it is forever stunning. Look at this. By the way, what’s happened to all this rain? beautiful road which dissects the uh way of the roses and uh takes you into Burough Bridge and one of your one of my favorite sandwich shops. Anyway, right onwards ripping route here. We’re in Sainsbury’s seven miles in. He’s fetched them some sweets and he’s fetched us some crisps as well. on the tunes. What about the tune? Oh, the tunes make all the know if you can see over there, but wow. Blessed. It’s community fun day. Isn’t this great? Don’t know where we are, but I’m sure we’ll find out. We are at the 53 mile mark. You ready? Go go go running. Come on. Who’s chosen one? Oh my god. Gray is like on fire. Just now. Look at that. How beautiful is that? Just behind me, you got Steven Ash. [Applause] [Music] How pretty is this? I think we will definitely be doing this route again. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. And it’s not even the best of July weather. Oh, bit of a crosswind holding on for dear life now. Good job. I’m not running arrow like ashes. Got these weird arrow wheels that uh car rally. [Music] It was the same on the coast to coast. Uh, delightful stop. Lovely ice cream. Thank you, Steve. And now the last 18 or so miles, which are very lumpy, very windy, very exposed. Let’s see how this goes. At least the weather’s been kind. Yorkshire, beautiful county, beautiful people, great route, beautiful weather. What else do you want? [Applause] business, you know, just to gives you something in your stomach. It gives you the salt and stuff. And now the climb to Grinton. And this time we got seven miles, five climbing and then a two-mile descent to home. Looking forward to it. Nice cooking session and a carb ordered tea. Let’s go. Ouch. Now we have a between four and 5 mile climb which I don’t think the gradient in itself is too much to talk about. It’s just the fact that it’s constant climbing. So end of the day we’re going to have a steady climb. Spinning slowly but surely. contact, right? Yeah. What more could you wish for? Well, a good-looking one would be good, would you? Here we go. Pistol range shooting range. You got pistol range that side and then a long range here. Wow. And then that way you got Katwick Garrison. And it still hasn’t rained for views. Just ignore Saffrass’s back end. But other than that, very nice. Nice. Very good. They’re all firing. Look at them. Look at the guns on them lot. Is this road stunning or what? Sorry about the wind noise, but this is truly beautiful. Wow. If only it wasn’t so exposed cuz the wind is I’m so glad I’m not having arrow wheels on this bike. Struggling just to keep a line here. [Music] Wow. I think the weather is just coming in now. We’ve not had a drop of rain all day. Wow. Last mile and a half. It has been a beautiful day. Really, really blessed. And I wish I had the guts to take my hands off the bars and show you some of this countryside cuz it is stunning. But it’s very exposed. You can probably tell by the wind. And uh it’s blowing me all over the road. Let’s see if it’s a bit sheltered. I’ll show you. I’ll turn you around here. Get a lens full of that. How beautiful is this? getting blown everywhere. Get that. Will you definitely do this route again? Wow. And I’ve just felt after 74 and 12 miles the first drop of rain. Can’t even call it rain. It was just literally just a little bit of spit. I don’t even know if you can hear me. The wind’s so strong. I think I’ll keep the camera rolling for this bit. All right, we’ll kill that lovely bridge. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. What a beautiful day. Cheers. Cheap. Cheap. Nice of him to be so patient. Held back for quite a while actually. Probably about a mile. Oh wow. I am looking forward to a nice warm shower and some grub. Not that it’s been much of a sweaty day. The temperature has been just beautiful. Between 15 and 18°. That was my very terrible sheep impression. This road’s lovely. Smooth. Slightly more sheltered now. Right. Sign off. And And here we are. Gwinson Lodge. Wow. Isn’t this quite beautiful? Hello. Hello. Fancy seeing you here. Everyone around. Sure. I could tonight lodge. And I must say I am quite impressed. It’s not bad at all. Um, the weather has been so kind to us today. We did not have a drop of rain. And look at this for a backdrop of where we’re staying. Absolutely stunning. And it looks like it’s very popular cuz there’s a whole bunch of people camping there. There looks to be some kind of a festival or something going on over there. I will very quickly rush you through. I will show you in a minute actually, just so I remember next time. Showers. Uh, cuz I was very impressed by the facilities. Went to the lodge. Here we go. Uh, we got reception left. Rooms are up there. And we go, Grinton Lodge. And we’ve got the eating area here. And then two. Hopefully the lens won’t steam up. Lou and Steve cooking our tea. Look at that. We’ve got in there rice in there and uh coets. Thank you guys for cooking. salad. Right. Well, you’ve been cooking this. You’ve been cooking. Self-catering kitchen. Very good. And I’ll show you, like I say, I’m uh I don’t hold back on criticism if I have to. And I tell you what, the uh rooms are very impressive. I’ll show you that in a bit. Showers especially. But yeah, lovely place. [Music]