On the weather front, another month of sunshine, showers and below average temperatures. Riding wise, quite cautious best sums things up, taking it easy, saving ourselves for the C2C at the end of the month. (Separate report to follow)

The first ride of the month saw us in Silton Woods, hesitantly mincing along the downhill course, stiff-backed, brake-squeezing, ever fearful of the pain-inducing ground. This was followed by a slog up Kepwick Bank, despite lots of riding this year, we were all reduced to soiling granny’s ring in the battle against gravity. Our reward was a descent of Atlay Bank, sweet singletrack and rhododendron choked gullies. Satiated, we made our way back onto the Drove Road via a horrendous carry/push up the bridleway behind Brickshed Cottage, each of us surrounded by a sweat guzzling cloud of flies. Thankfully a bit of breeze higher up soon scattered them and headed northwards on The Drove Road. The eagerly awaited descent of The Mad Mile was marred by a pinch flat which slowed things down marginally.

Our second ride of the month turned out to be the shortest ride of the year ( so far), a mere eleven and a half miles, rained off but not before we’d flung ourselves down some of Guisborough’s finest tracks. It’s a tedious ride from Hutton village back to Kildale when it’s lashing down. Soaked through, bedraggled and unseasonably cold we were saved from incipient hypothermia (in July?) by the Glebe Cottage soup pan.

Another Square Corner start for the third ride of July, straight to the Dale Head singletrack which was in surprisingly good condition despite the showers we’ve had this month. Fun over, we headed upward through Low Cote Farm, across Arnesgill Ridge, before descending to Scugdale and a tarmac blast to Swainby and it’s welcoming cafe. A return via Clain Wood steps and Cod Beck reservoir soon had us back at Square Corner.

Dare we imagine summer has begun? Warmth, sunshine, blue sky - in July? What’s the country coming to? Two miles along the Drove Road, bunny hopping a drainage hump, I sat back down and felt my saddle tilt, I glanced down in time to see the saddle bouncing down the track and a jagged shard of metal thrusting with evil intent toward a most precious part of my anatomy. The seat post had snapped where it enters the frame, luckily none of it had entered my frame and there was enough left attached to the seat to continue the ride, albeit pedalling like a BMX rider, a bit painful on the thighs but managed another seventeen miles, so it can’t have been that bad. The ride was Thorodale, Arden Hall, Coomb Hill, a splendid lunch in the garden of Hawnby tearoom, a thigh-burning ascent of Murton Bank, Sneck Yate, Drove Road, a brief detour to check out a track in Boltby Forest, along The Drove Road to Whitestones, a descent of the newly resurfaced, filling-loosening track on Locker Bank, down to the Dale Head singletrack and back to Square Corner.

A full week since our last outing, a full week of rain, today was promisingly bright however as we skirted puddles on our way up Carlton Bank, looking at the water damage to the Gliding Club track, attempting to memorise the most rutted sections for our (hopefully) much speedier descent later in the day. Continuing the upward theme, we ascended Barker’s Ridge, then found our way to the Bilsdale Mast, the pleasantly technical doubletrack which used to lead from Miley Howe to the mast has been transformed into a veritable highway, speedy but rather less fun than it used to be. We rode along similarly sanitised tracks to Low Thwaites where we turned right and followed the bridleway down the moor to Snilesworth, a ribbon of singletrack flowing down the hillside, cutting through heather and bilberry with some occasional sections passing through head height bracken, reducing visibility to the fragment of track immediately ahead of the front wheel. Judging by the constant stream of profanity issuing from the greenery we surmised our visually challenged pensioner was finding this section a little trying. Freeing ourselves from the North Yorkshire triffids, we sampled some fruit that may or may not have been gooseberries, from a bush by the roadside at Snilesworth before following the same road toward Osmotherley, turning right after Chequers to above Sheepwash where it turns into a nice slabby downhill. We made our way back to Lordstones via Clain Wood and Scugdale, reversing our way down the gliding club track, the damaged sections turned out to be no problem to riders of our ability. Actually we forgot all about them and just blasted through. Speed is your friend and all that.