Ride #6 – Goodmanham (33 miles, clockwise) – via Lund, Burnby, Warter and Huggate. This time-crunched ride is really just a pared down version of the longer “Red Kite Bike Ride” for those with only two to three hours to spare – plus stop(s).
On the day I rode this route I was tempted to visit the Fiddle Drill in Goodmanham as I’d not been since the most recent lockdown. As it happens, a great number of cyclists had the same idea – a snazzy Bianchi almost spilled out on to the pavement at the front of a long line of bicycles parked along the courtyard wall – so I continued on my way with thoughts of the Steak and Ale Pie at the Wolds Inn, Huggate spurring me on.
(There are other places worth a visit – eg the Wellington Inn, Lund; the Goodmanham Arms just a hundred yards down the hill from the Fiddle Drill, and Rachel’s Walnut Cottage Cafe in Huggate. However, a combination of threatening clouds and the lure of the solar powered woodland hot showers back at the campsite pushed me along with only a brief chocolate bar stop after Nunburnholme.)
The approach to Warter along Back Lane from Nunburnholme
Goodmanham Wold is an enjoyable long drag and the only significant hill on this ride is Cobdale Lane out of Warter. I do well to get under 10 minutes on this climb with an average gradient of 5% at just over 2km long. If you encounter any vehicles at all on this lane it is usually the little green trucks that buzz about on the roads around the Warter Priory estate. Get to the top then try to stay on the big ring all the way to the finish.
See the Goodmanham ride as an activity in Garmin Connect and as a Strava segment.