A Baker’s Dozen CER riders gathered at Maggies on a warm, sunny, but blustery day. Ken and Dave Matthews were just there for coffee. Kevin was back having finished a stint of work – good to see you back! Neil was going to lead a posse of briskers towards Chester so that he’d have the wind behind him on the way back, just as you’d expect from ‘the whisperer’.
I’d rooted around in the CER archives for a ride down to Ellesmere
on the basis that a north-south ride would expose us only to side winds from
the west, although it turned out that the wind had a northerly element to it
which would not help us on our return journey.
The ride came from 2020 and had been devised and led by
Steve Haywood who, sadly, had to stop cycling a while back due to illness.
Steve specialised in finding delightful little country lanes, so it was no
surprise that we headed out of Holt and down tiny lanes to the west of the
River Dee. These are often flooded or muddy if it’s wet, but today they were
dry and well surfaced.
After about five miles we joined the B-road and then the
A525 and zoomed down into Bangor-on-Dee. The road over the old stone bridge was
closed, with big concrete blocks barring traffic. Of course, we were able to
wiggle our way through on the bikes! But lo! On the other side of the bridge,
the Royal Oak pub was closed and boarded up. That’s another of our lunch stops
down the drain.
Pressing on through Bangor, we toiled up Millbrook Lane and
headed towards Duddleston Heath, crossing the A539 between Overton and Penley.
A couple of miles further on we reached Ellesmere and the Boat House café.
We were soon seated and various food and drinks were
ordered, including fish and chips, sausage rolls and a pizza. This led to
discussions about pizza toppings and the choice of decaffeinated tea. According
to Fiona, Yorkshire Tea is the best decaf and who am I to say otherwise!
Suitably fed and watered (or even over-fed, maybe!) we headed
on the main road towards town, but took the first left turn up the side of St Mary’s
church. The road is called ‘Church Hill’ and what a hill it is! Much grumbling
from the peloton about this as we headed over the Llangollen Canal towards Lee.
There, we turned left down a small lane which runs alongside White Mere. Chaos
ensued as a stream of traffic came towards us, causing cars going our way to
have to pull to the side to let them through. It turned out that the main road had
been closed and this little lane was the diversion. The loop we had done was just
that – a loop for the sake of adding a mile or two. Dave H complained, but he’s
the ‘loop master’ so he should know better!
Safely across the A528 the traffic disappeared and we had the lane to ourselves as we cycled past Colemere to Lyneal. The lane from there to Welshampton was not great, with a rough surface and lots of sand and gravel making life a bit difficult. The next few miles were similarly rough and gravelly, prompting complaints (mostly) from Fiona.I don’t remember them being this bad when we rode them six years ago. It was along here that we stopped for the photo – thanks Elwyn.
Reaching metalled surfaces, but roads full of potholes and
bad repairs, at Worthenbury, we quickly polished off the remaining few miles
and arrived back at Holt with 41 miles covered. The wind had caused fewer problems
that anticipated and the route got the thumbs up, at least for the run down to
Ellesmere.
Another good day out with great company and fine weather,
with temperatures in the low twenties, rather than the scorcher we had last week.
Thanks should go to Steve H for the route.
ST
