We ride with Yorkshire Lass CC
A club exclusive to women, Yorkshire Lass CC riders have a keen appetite for adventure
On a grey Sunday morning we meet at Wetherby, where rain is forecast. This has not dampened the spirits of the 30-odd women who have turned out. The bunch of jovial Yorkshire Lass CC riders, all in stylish royal blue club kit goes some way towards brightening things up.
Before hitting the road, the groups are organised according to ability, from the pacey moderate group, down to the leisurely ‘pootlers’. There is also a ‘twixt’ group — those that are stronger than the steady group but slower than the moderates.
As the club is known as Yorkshire Lass, this means that women come from a wide catchment area including York, Leeds, Harrogate and Hull. In the moderate group I talk to Angie Forster, originally from Merseyside, who has come over from Market Weighton, in East Yorkshire. She normally cycles the 20 miles to the meeting point, but as the weather is poor she has driven across.
“I am married to a Yorkshireman, which makes me an honorary Yorkshire Lass,” she jokes. “Yorkshire is priceless. There’s nowhere else I’d like to ride. I fell in love with the Dales when I did the Way of the Roses, and I enjoy riding in the Wolds too.”
Forster has done a number of long-distance rides, including Ride the Night in London, the Wolds Way, and the Tour de Yorkshire sportive. It all started three years ago when she took part in a 100km charity bike ride in aid of Friedreich’s Ataxia, after her sister died from the disease. At that point she became hooked, and stepped up from being a commuter cyclist to becoming a club rider.
Taking up the challenge
In the twixt group I meet Jane Boylan, who has participated in challenge rides in the UK and abroad. The 63-year-old says, “I joined Yorkshire Lass CC as a way to push myself a bit more than I would when going by myself. I’ve been cycling for years, and do it to keep fit and lose weight. I really enjoy challenge rides abroad as it’s the chance to see scenery that you wouldn’t see any other way. I rode in Vietnam last year. It was 500km over five days on flat roads, but riding in 36 degrees made it challenging!” That is quite a contrast to the current conditions as we pass through the Vale of York.
The weather forecast hasn’t deterred riders as we see many along the lanes. One lone male randomly joins the moderate group. He doesn’t look the part, but he just about keeps up, even if he is not pointing out the holes in the road! Eventually the women gradually crank up the pace and unceremoniously drop him.
Soon, the threatening rain clouds dump a light shower onto us, but, thankfully, it is
short-lived, and gives way to sunshine.
Today’s ride is less challenging than some of the other rides the Yorkshire Lasses do, partly because a few of them are taking part in a ride down the east coast of Brazil in a couple of weeks, and also group leader of the moderate group, Kate Horsfall, is just back after a chest infection. Despite her condition, she comfortably sets a 16mph pace as the mainly flat route crests a few climbs around Angram and Askham Richard, then passes through the pretty village of Bilbrough.
Timing is everything, and our refreshment stop takes place at Thorp Arch, in the closing stages of the ride, in time for us to get a snack before returning to All Terrain Cycles ahead of the next bout of rain.