Right. I want you all to be very, very grateful.
I got up at 6.30am (woke up, couldn't get back to sleep). By 7.20 I was out of the door. It was grey, but dry.
It stopped being dry in Stockton on the Forest.
I was too early for the Balloon Tree Cafe.
It stopped raining for a bit, as I sat in the cafe in Pocklington, having my sausage sarnie.
I remounted.
It rained again. And the lovely tailwind I'd had all the way over was now in my face.
Anyway, recce stats are:
York to Pock, via Stamford Bridge, 20 miles, 1hr 35mins - about normal for me. That's with a tailwind, but in rain.
Pock to York, via Sutton on Derwent and Elvington, 15 miles, 1hr 20. Into the wind, with rain - I was just about keeping to double figure speed. Also includes a little bit of faffing about on campus, you'd think after 10 years I'd know how to get to this computer room by bike, but they've dug the road up and I had to come in a different way, and all the cycleroutes just fizzled out or ended in doorways.
So, we should just about get back to York in time, if we don't have such a bad wind, or if we can take advantage of being in a group. The Road back after Elvington isn't the nicest, but I think it's better than the A1079. The short stretch of the A1079 we do have to do is ok.
If anyone really wants to take the main road back, then can, but I'd prefer not to....
And thank you to the BMW driver who patiently waited for me to clear the roadworks on the Barmby Moor Road (my light went amber just as I passed it, and it took me so long to get through into the bloody wind, his had gone green...)
I'll dig about online and see if I can find the route to the finish...