Compare your PBs with fellow club members — get essential motivation for those short solo training runs
Introducing the ‘Goodmanham Grovel’
Back in 2008 we had the popular ‘Gardham Grind’ (see below for route and PBs). We’ve now replaced it with the ‘Goodmanham Grovel’.
Whist the Grind is a fantastic route, it had two serious flaws: no time for a warm-up for Beverley residents (it started straight from North Bar) and three crossings of the busy A1079, a bad idea when you’re against the clock.
The ‘Grovel’ takes care of all this. It’s a mostly left-turns route on quiet roads, starting just near Bishop Burton. At a smidge over 32k (19.9 miles), it’s longer than the Grind and if you crack the hour, you’re pretty much doing ‘evens’, (20mph) which is a nice benchmark. And with 295m of climbing it’s 10m higher than the Grind too. Its blend of long straights with lengthy but gentle-gradient climbs should give ‘rouleurs’ and climbers an equal crack. Be mindful of the wind: the ‘out’ — and much of the climbing — is into the prevailing wind; whilst the ‘back’ is flat and often wind-assisted.
The route and profile are here, complete with a bit of commentary. Hit the timer as soon as you start out toward Cherry Burton from the north side of the A1079, and stop it again at the same point (by the ‘Give Way’ sign) on the return.
Post your time on the forum and it’ll get added to the leaderboard. You may wish to include comments and excuses e.g. ‘There was a howling westerly gale’ or ‘I got held up by Wilsons Wheels’.
The bar has now been set very high indeed by PFS, who has taken 40 seconds out of Young Paul. Sub-50 is now the ambition for the fast lads.
p.s. Entry to the Grovel (or the Grind) is not restricted to VCB members – we’ll post any honest-looking time!
p.p.s. This is not a time trial in the official sense of the word. Whilst VC Beverley is affiliated to CTT so you can do proper time trials as a club member, this is our own, unofficial ‘have a crack at your own/someone else’s PB’ route. At your own risk, be nice to other road users, it’s not a race, blah, etc.
p.p.p.s. Thanks are due to 2009 Club Rider of the Year Klaus, who introduced this route.
| Name | Time (hr:min:sec) | Date | Weather | Comments / Excuses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | ||||
| Pete Fielding-Smith | 0:51:22 | 27th June 2011 | Warm | "21.5mph avg out, 23.1 overall. Stung by a wasp." |
| Karl Downes | 0:51:52 | 10th August (approx) | NW wind | "Got held up by a trailer of bales" |
| Paul Rymer | 0:52:02 | 20th June 2011 | N/A | "Not bad considering we did 75 miles yesterday." Stats http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93717853 |
| Paul Drop | 0:53:38 | 1st September 2011 | Much winder than last time | "would like to get under 53mins by end of september" |
| Paul Drop | 0:53:48 | 25th August 2011 | Good | "Finally managed to get it under 54." |
| Paul Waddington | 0:54:36 | 2nd September 2011 | Brisk WSW wind | 10 secs off my 2010 PB. Gutted. Where do I start with the excuses? Windy, bit fat after 2 weeks hol, possibly not optimised riding position on new frame, yadda yadda |
| Paul Drop | 0:54:51 | 11th May 2011 | Headwind all the way from Holme on the Wolds to Goodmanham | "i can shave some time off but still pretty pleased with my time." |
| 2010 | ||||
| Chris Holland | 0:52:20 | 2nd June 2010 | Perfect conditions | No aerobars this time, just honest pedal bashing |
| Paul Waddington | 0:54:26 | 8th June 2010 | Grim. Cool, gloomy, very wet roads, 10 mph easterly | Could maybe have knocked it under 54 if it hadn't been for those meddling two-abreast horses on the drop to Goodmanham Dale. Also had to dodge pesky runners. |
| Klaus Ersfeld | 0:55:32 | 31st May 2010 | Very good conditions | Burning legs! |
| 2009 | ||||
| Pete Fielding-Smith | 0:53:22 | 22nd Sep 2009 | Good, stiffish westerly | "The man's a machine!" Steve Cooper (and everyone else!) |
| Chris Holland | 0:53:23 | 26th Sep 2009 | Too knackered to comment | We live to fight another day, anyone else trying to chase Pete down? (I reckon his time is safe this year... PW) |
| Steve Cooper | 0:54:22 | 12th Sep 2009 | Near perfect conditions | Full on race pace |
| Gary Trees | 0:55:26 | 19th Sep 2009 | Lovely day, headwind going up the hill | I will be having another crack at it before the bad weather kicks in! |
| Paul W | 0:57:18 | 6th April 2009 | Stiff ESE breeze, cool, grey | Hard work, particularly trying to cultivate an 'aero' posture into the wind on the way back. Leaving off the long-sleeved jersey might have gained me another second or two... |
| Ben | 0:59:50 | 10th March 2009 | Strong NW wind | It was a steady 1st half but the 2nd half more then made up for it!... a true 100% effort, i was f**ked by the end. |
| Sam Dyason | 0:59:59 | 6th March 2009 | Calm and warm - lovely | Had to dig deep up the final climb to get it under the hour! |
| Two-up (2009) | ||||
| Paul W and Ewen | 0:54:06 | 10th Sep 2009 | Lovely. 10mph NNE wind | The fact that two of us took only 22 seconds out of Chris's first time just goes to show quite how storming his time was! |
The Gardham Grind leaderboard 2008
The Grind is a fine 30k/18.7 mile circuit that starts and finishes on the York road just past North Bar. It takes in 285 metres of ascent, including 6k of continuous climbing if you do it anti-clockwise, so it’s a good workout for a 1 hour-ish ride. Route details are here. However please note that its A-road crossings make it less than ideal for a balls-out effort, so it’s been supplemented by the Grovel (see above). It’s still a great training route though.
Here’s the leaderboard from 2008. Anyone beating Steve Cooper’s record, please get in touch!
| Name | Time (hr:min:sec) | Date | Direction | Weather | Comments/excuses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve C | 0:50:49 | 5th June | Anti | Moderate ESE wind | "Full speed ahead and ballsout. I will get it under 50. Viva la VCB!" |
| Mark O | 0:51:08 | 20th April | Anti | Wet and blustery | "Superb for road race preparation" |
| Paul C | 0:52:34 | 31st May | Anti | N/A | "Catching Johan!" |
| David P | 0:53:20 | 31st April | Anti | Wet and showery, easterly wind | "Feel the need to add that this was done on my time trial bike " |
| Paul W | 0:53:41 | 4th June | Anti | Light westerly | "Perfect conditions, no delays. It'll be tough to improve on this one." |
| Sam D | 0:54:05 | 19th May | Anti | Moderate, cool breeze from NE | "That's it-I've reached my genetic fitness ceiling" |
| Brendan | 0:55:20 | 4th June | Anti | Light easterly breeze, average wind speed 3.0 m/s, temperature 19.5 degrees Celsius, 1019mb of pressure, 44% humidity, no precipitation | "Weather conditions very good " |
| Lee | 0:55:47 | 20th May | Anti | N/A | "Got a stitch at 13.3 miles but that wasn't going to stop me " |
| Ben | 0:55:50 | 26th May | Anti | Strong easterly | "Struggled with the big easterly wind in my face on the way back, about 30 seconds of stoppage for cars, really enjoyed the route. " |
| James W | 0:55:50 | 13th July | Anti | Medium-strength westerly | N/A |
| Klaus | 0:57:22 | 14th August | Anti | light south-westerly | "First time try. How can it be that it seems to go mainly uphill on a circular route?" |
| Darren | 0:57:23 | 20th June | anti | light westerly | "Was planning for an easy ride out after lots of running this week but got to the north bar and thought it was about time I had a go!" |
| Max | 1:00:03 | 8th June | Anti | Glorious, 2mph westerly | "Small delay caused by 'neolithic' Sunday hat-wearing, show dog-transporting Astra driver who pulled out on the Westwood" |
| Steve G | 1:02:01 | 23rd April | Anti | N/A | N/A |
| Will Mawson | 1:05 | 29th August | Anti | Fairly strong winds | None provided by the rider - but potential VCB member Will is 16 and has only been road riding for 7 months, so excellent effort! - Paul W |