Cleethorpes 21st December 2025

Cycling UK Louth Sunday ride to Cleethorpes 21st December 2025.

Ride Report: John Rickett.

In Scotland its dreich, but could also be oorlich, further south its haar or mizzle. Whatever name is given it describes damp, gloomy, chilly and generally uncomfortable weather.

Undaunted, Ty Harness, John Parish and John Rickett met at the Meridian Centre at 10.00 for a ride to Cleethorpes. The good news - it was not freezing but the mist in the air sometimes breaking out into light rain, kept the edge off the temperature. Christmas must have come early to the residents of Louth as the leisure centre was just about empty, the lady in the cafe said it was quiet but they'd probably stay open until 1330 so at least we had a warm cup of coffee to look forward to on our return.

The flat route of Brackenborough, Covenham, Fulstow, Tetney and Humberston had been downloaded onto satnavs and with a gentle south-easterly a decent pace was kept up all the way to Cleethorpes. There seemed to be plenty of cyclists on the roads, not everyone had taken to the skies or ferries for the festive period. It had been decided that Daracottes coffee shop would be the destination but on arrival we were greeted with shutters firmly closed. There was an alternative, the Riverhead coffee shop on St Peter's Avenue. One of us had difficulty finding it even though the signwriting above the door was big enough!

The place was pretty full but luckily there were three small tables outside and as we were dressed for the conditions it wasn't really a hardship to sit outside. A decent array of cakes were on offer but bizarrely an additional charge of 20p on the coffee is levied for sitting outside, surely 20 pence worth of additional shoe leather isn't worn away carrying the coffee through the door! Although warm when we arrived it didn't take long for the damp conditions to start making it feel cool so the return journey commenced, this time taking the North Coates turn off at Tetney and then through Grainthorpe and Yarborough before picking up the outbound route again back to Louth.

Arriving at the leisure centre just before 1.30, the centre was found to be still open but the café, apparently, had shut an hour earlier. Never mind, we had completed about 39 miles, stayed relatively dry and given our hearts a mild workout at the same time - another flag waving exercise for Cycling UK Louth platoon successfully accomplished.