I'd offered a little while ago to lead a brisk Christmas ride from Tattenhall to the Pant. Not knowing how the weather would be on the day, I had prepared three routes – a direct run of 15 miles, a longer loop of 35 miles, and one in the middle at 22 miles. So this is the one in middle at 22 miles.
I wasn't altogether happy with riding all the way out to Tattenhall, thence to Pant, and thence to home after lunch in the gloom as this would have been 50 miles in sub-zero temperatures – but this is what John W did of course! Under some pressure about being careful on the roads, I hit on the idea of asking Ken if I could park at his house and then ride out with him to Tattenhall for coffee at Alison's. This would mean that on the ride out to coffee from Rossett, Ken and I would each have a ride-buddy in case anything untoward happened. Ken was happy to oblige me.
So I arrived at Ken's at 0900 with -7.5C showing on the car's outside temperature gauge. Ken offered a cuppa so that we could defer starting out for 30 mins or so to allow the weak sun to “warm up the air”. We set off out of Rossett to Farndon then to Churton where we decide to take Pump Lane towards Coddington. There was little evidence of serious icing; the real problem was the deteriorating road surface of this lane. So riding cautiously, we end up a Chowley Oak, crossing the A41, and thence into the warm arms of Alison's cafe.
There were quite a lot of Mods already there – some in civvies who would join us at lunch. John W arrived at 1100 after the Mods had left, now making the Brisk Triad for the day. Ivan was hoping to come, but a nasty chesty cough prevented him from joining us on his bike.We set off back towards the A41, then running south on it for a mile or so before taking the shortcut up the Old Coach Road and then up the hill to Duckington. We were glad of the hills today to warm up our legs. The roads were actually surprisingly clear as we enter the gridlocked Malpas High Street. Out on Wrexham Road, we decide to just take this all the way to Bangor-on-Dee as it was well salted with extremely light traffic.
A burn along the A525 to the new road into the Industrial Estate finds us riding the long uphill road around Caia Park. It's now 10 mins from lunch and we take extreme care over the icy footbridge onto the Old Wrexham Road and the Pant. The pub is very busy but there is already a Brisk Formation drinking team at the bar aka Ray, Nick, Ivan and John M. Richard was planning to come but the lure of a dental appointment back in the Lakes was too much for him to ignore.
You know what it is like in crowded restaurants when the adjoining table is being loud and boisterous. There were 18 of them! - some in fancy dress of cycling attire! Good to see some “old” faces that we haven't seen for a while though.
The Pant looked after us royally with the food being very good indeed considering how busy the kitchen must have been. Time was marching on as the the Mod group were now leaving around 1500 with certainly three of them riding back to Tattenhall. Our brisk group decided to leave around 1545 with a certain electric trike, piloted by Matt, taking up the rear as we zoomed down Marford Hill towards Chester. John W and Matt pedalled onto Chester as Ken and I broke off in Rossett heading towards his house.
It was only -1.5 C now, but I was glad to be driving back to Chester as the sun sunk below the horizon. So only 22 miles from Tattenhall, but 40 miles in total ridden in sub-zero temperatures; nonetheless a very enjoyable experience all round especially the warmth of the Pant and that first pint of Titanic Plum Porter.
See route map and/or gpx file download
CA
BTW: If the Mods were wondering what happened to their inclusive mince pie at the end of the meal, the Brisk Group had to decide how to dispense these out - and it was achieved!
No comments:
Post a Comment