There was a huge turnout of CER members at Meadow Lea café on a warm and sunny morning. A cyclist from another club offered to take a group photo which can be seen elsewhere on the blog. The large number of riders brought its own problems, as managing Easy Riders is like herding cats!
I had brought a 42-mile route to Church Minshull and Trevor had a route to No Mans Heath, whilst Matt had yet another route to Buckley. Ivan and Clive looked likely to form the first fast group ride for some time. To forestall a prolonged discussion about who was going where, I corralled Steve Hu, Alan and Andy to make up a foursome for a mod+ ride.
We set off at 10.30 whilst the others were still getting organised, heading north and west passed Manley Mere, up Sugar Lane and down Dark Ark Lane before joining the humpy road through Delamere Forest. The run through Norley took us along Bag Lane at the end of which we crossed the A49 before turning towards Sandiway. Crossing the A556 we followed Whitegate Road which took us to Winsford. Getting through there was fairly straightforward as there was only one of the towns infamous roundabouts to negotiate, which we did without mishap.
From there it was a straight run along the B5074 to Church Minshull and The Badger pub, where we arrived just after 12.00 having covered 23 miles. As we were early, the pub was quiet and we were soon served with lunch, the battered haddock sandwich being the universal choice – and very nice it was, too. Lunchtime conversation revolved around tourism and poverty in the Caribbean islands, the Tour de France and other topics. Andy gave us a physics tutorial on fissile materials and Steve Hu made us recite the Periodic Table (which he knows by heart, having been made to learn it at school as a punishment for an unspecified misdemeanour).
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| Background St Bartholomew's Tower, dating from 1702 Photo by by Steve T |
As we set off from the pub, it became evident that our swift arrival at the pub had been at least in part due to the tail wind which we’d had the benefit of, but had not noticed. Our route back was north and west, directly into the wind. This became most noticeable when we left Wettenhall heading for Eaton. We relied on Andy’s passable imitation of Wout van Aert to shelter behind, with Steve Hu taking one for the team at one stage.
From Eaton, we took the steep hill up to Portal Golf Course, crossing the A49 and heading towards Utkinton. Turning left into Wood Lane, we headed towards Duddon. Just before we got there, my bike computer showed me the chequered flag and declared that we’d reach the end of the route! Fortunately, we knew the rest of the route without needing guidance, so we pressed on towards Waverton, pausing only for well-deserved refreshments at The Walk Mill Café.
The familiar route through Brown Heath and Guilden Sutton took us back to Meadow Farm Café, where we arrived just after 3pm. 42 miles covered at an average speed of just over 14 mph on a warm, dry and sunny day. Classic CER riding!
See route map and/or gpx file download
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