Delayed Post: Scarborough Shores!

The highlight for June - the Scarborough Shores gravel ride.

Sherwood Forest glorious gravel was tough for loads of reasons - my longest ride on gravel, the weather was all over the place (sweating, hailstones, super early morning start in the car) but this was tough in the opposite way - longer, steeper, and far more solo riding.

I travelled up to Scarborough by train the day before, staying at my friend Will's for the weekend, a good friend and housemate from university. Will was chaffeuring me around, so real luxury for a non-driver! Weather good, no hiccups.

After a very comfortable nights sleep, a prepared breakfast and a drive to the start, I felt pretty refreshed, despite a small niggling cold (which actually turned out to be Covid).

The ride itself - brilliant. I started out riding well within myself to get through the initial blast of the winds along the coast front, before we started climbing into Newby towards Hackness. The route itself started out a fairly half-half mix of road and off-road sections, with a very steep 15% climb after the first feed stop.

After that, we were firmly into mixed off-road terrain (near Low Dalby) towards Langdale End, and onwards towards Whitby. As I set off fairly early at the start, with many 'early' people doing the medium route (and me the long), I ended up riding solo for a lot of miles, enjoying a mixture of the woods, open plains and the moors while also wishing I could sit in a wheel from time to time to take respite from the wind. This section had a cutting headwind which made the ascent and final topping off of an 8-mile gradual climb through the moors tough (and tougher than I hoped!) but satisfying to complete and made the descent (out of the wind) like a warm hug. I hid in the draft of two friends (doing their first Glorious Gravel ride) for a while, before the route turned back towards Scarborough. The view of Robin Hood's Bay was worth the slog for sure!

From there, the route moves along the old Cinder Track (a disused railway track - Moors to Sea route on a map) which was technical in places - both through mud, concaves, dog-walkers and other cyclists.

Once back into the Scarborough New Town, we finished the route with a climb back to the beginning (up Quarry Hill). Many could've done without it - a finish on the beach would've been nice!

We settled for a beer and a hot wrap, a clean shower and then to the pub for the Champions League final. Great weekend.