What a turn out today at Maggies. I counted 21 heads and may have missed a couple in the toilet or outside ogling at Ivan’s flashy new bit of kit- Lol.
Both Steve T and I had a Mod + route and being as I had ridden from home, his was too far for my sickly body. I was therefore resigned to a ‘Billy no mates’ ride, when Fiona and Elwyn suddenly changed their minds and decided to join me (obviously thought they would miss out if the didn’t join me -Lol) And then, just as everybody was forming up, Shane jumped ship from Steve’s ride, when he heard my route would get him back home earlier, as he had a deadline.
So
it was, that ‘the one’, became ‘the fab 4’- Lol, Lol.
We
set off down to the Dee Bridge, with the fast boys close behind, which stayed
that way for a good 10 miles. Clearly Ivan’s ebike is not so quick, but looks
good though (They must have zigged when we zagged, as we never passed them &
yet they passed us twice- Lol)
We
were now close to Chorley, heading for Ravensmore, on my enhanced route to Berries
Cafe in Wrenbury.
Fiona was now having a go out front, up a small hill, as I was doing nothing on the uphill bits, due to me still carrying a bad chest. We were still tapping it along on the flat though, which meant we settled into a few miles of really steady pace until we turned south into a minor cross headwind, which saw Fiona on the front, calling for Elwyn’s help, after 30 seconds. However, I encouraged her to get on with it, as the crosswind! was very light- Lol. A few seconds later Shaun took the lead for a mile or so, until they both shot past my next planned turn, fortunately they were close enough to hear my cry of “left”!
Now on the road to Ravensmore I got back on the front ( just can’t trust them at the front- Lol). For the next mile or so we had some good banter with Fiona over what constituted a headwind and knowing the direction of it, after her stint on the front. Meanwhile Elwyn was oblivious at the back, doing his thing, as he does- Lol.
It
was only a couple of miles later when we pulled into Berries cafe (previously
The Park Cafe)
The
new owners have put their stamp on the place, which prompted me to ask why they
had removed the roof from the rear decked area. It turns out that the previous
owners took the roof and decking with them. This meant that the new owner had
to install new decking and plans to do the roof at a later date.
Lunch
was very good, especially the tomato red pepper soup. Prices were reasonable as
well.
Lunch and chit chat over, I mapped out our return, which was again, not conventional, mainly due to Wrenbury Road from the Swan at Marbury, being atrocious these days and that’s after extensive pot hole repairs
.
It was a pretty flat return route that quickly saw us nearing Tilston, which meant Shane left us at Kidnal, as we turned left into Whitewood Lane. After a couple of more bends we turned left toward Shocklach and the expected tail wind dash into Farndon. However, I decided to try and sort out my gears that had plagued me for the whole ride. I couldn’t select any of my top 4 gears, yet all the others indexed perfectly. I must have stopped at least 5 times and made fine adjustments, to no avail,
which
meant my dash became a cruise. Fiona and Elwyn carried on and simply abandoned
me- Lol.
They
were waiting for me at the bottom of Wetreins Lane, where I said goodbye and
left them to ride through to Holt and Lavister beyond.
I
got home with 56 miles on the clock and an AS of 14.8 mph, which surprised me
considering the easy pace, especially the Shocklach stretch, for me at least.
Clearly the route suited the light south easterly wind.
Anyway,
another great day out, good lunch stop and great company. We did however,
notice the missing ‘Chuckle Brothers’, as it was such a peaceful ride, who knew
all that bird song was out there- Lol.
Till
next time folks
Neil.
PS:
I found out later that Fiona had a personal best and her fastest ride this
year.
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