14 July 2008

 The 2005 ride took place a week earlier than normal due to the disruption that would be caused by Royal Ascot moving to York. Everyone knows that the Saturday before the Bike Ride is always a lovely day, so we would fool the weather and get a glorious day. No such luck. The morning dawned dull and cool with just a bit of damp, and the forecasts were not wonderful.

The interest in this year's ride has been overwhelming. At the beginning of March we were receiving nearly 100 entries a day and we ended up rejecting many potential entrants as the event was soon full and closed.

We ended up with a record 1,553 starters and the day passed off very well. The atmosphere was buzzing at the start as riders prepared for the off and we managed to get everyone through the first few miles without any accidents, which made a very pleasant change. Lunch was very well received at Terrington, with the hot pasta again being very popular. We moved the hot drinks out of the hall this year into the marquees with the rest of the food. This change was a great improvement, and thanks to Farnell InOne/Sodexho for arranging the equipment to facilitate this.

The only real problem on the day was the closure of the A64 for several hours in the morning due to a serious accident which meant that all Eastbound traffic was being diverted up past Castle Howard and onto the Bike Ride route into Malton, which became completely gridlocked. This only affected the faster earlier riders and the traffic disappeared again after lunch when the A64 re-opened.

The bulk of the entry arrived in Filey between 2 & 4pm as normal and the service team were kept very busy this year supporting the back end of the field who had fallen way behind. The weather at Filey was blustery, cool and overcast, but it did not deter the entrants from enjoying a welcome cuppa and a chance to share their stories of their day.

The Northerly wind made the end of the ride very difficult this year, so congratulations to all who completed this very challenging event.

We are hoping that we can beat last year's record sponsorship total, which would put the icing on the cake of another great day out in Yorkshire.

See below for the link to the 2005 Bike Ride photos, comments and presentation report.