An excellent turnout
gathered at Rose Farm, Utkinton in the sort of weather that makes it tricky to
know how many layers of what thickness to wear and whether to pack a rain
jacket.
It was good to see John W out and about and hopefully starting to come through the other side of his recent travails.
Pre-ride talk featured Neil describing the challenges of DIY carbon fibre repairs, a comparison of C2C routes and collective gasps at the recent exploits of Roy's younger, fitter, madder cycling colleagues. Roy also provided a comedy moment when he couldn't remember which of his 30+ bikes he'd ridden here today.
About half of attendees had their own things to do and departed, whilst Neil led a small group on a Mods+ ride which sounded a bit too challenging for some of us. That left Trevor, Roy, Ever-Ready Ray and myself (Matt the Trike) to come up with a plan. As nobody had a better - or indeed any - alternative to my suggested 80km/50mi ride to Barton, we agreed to set off that way, albeit with a few minor tweaks ...
Dave M, although not riding with us, suggested that Manor Farm would be a better lunch stop than the "posh" Cock O'Barton, a shortcut lopping off the Wettenhall leg was agreed to placate Ray's fear of too many miles, a quieter route from Bunbury to Beeston was suggested by Trevor, and we abandoned the entire Farndon/Lavister section in favour of a more direct path to Waverton, with the net result of reducing the ride to an easy-going 58km/36mi ... apart from all that, we stuck rigidly to the originally planned route!
It's traditional for CER rides to start in a farcical manner and today's was no exception. Before setting off, Roy had to fix a puncture, having packed inner tubes with insufficiently long valves for his aero-wheels, and then I missed the first turn due to computer lag, forcing us all to u-turn past a bemused lady in a Mercedes who'd been waiting patiently for an overtaking opportunity.
An easyish pace allowed for plenty of conversation, which included the state of the roads (as always), Roy's cycle projects and tales of past glories, Trevor's grandchildren, how to get the best photo of Beeston Castle, and the latest sports-washing plans of Ineos billionaire sociopath Jim Ratcliffe.
Lunch was taken
indoors at the campsite cafe of Manor Farm, where the four of us must have
looked slightly out of place amongst the young families of campers. At least
Roy's dad jokes helped give us a little family authenticity. The food was good
and unexpectedly vegan-friendly, and the water lillies provided a pleasing
backdrop for our group photo.
It was at lunch that
Trevor suggested short-cutting through Waverton which, amongst other benefits,
would avoid me escorting Ray back to Utkinton. So it was that we doubled back
towards Tattenhall then endured the crater-strewn Pump Lane to Churton. A
downhill dash through Aldford on the main road followed by a tailwind-assisted
scoot through Saighton brought us to Waverton where we bid good afternoon to
Ray, slightly alarmed at the prospect of navigating for himself. Having checked
that Ray could manage three instructions all at once, we left him to solo back
to his car at Rose Farm and headed off in the direction of Guilden Sutton. I
peeled off at Christleton for home, whilst Trevor guided Roy to Mickle Trafford
and his route back to Ratcliffe's Runcorn.
The weather gods treated us to a little bit of everything throughout the ride but it was decent enough to be labelled "good cycling weather" as we managed to dodge any significant headwinds and all but the lightest and shortest of showers. A short but satisfying ride in the end and one in which Ray finally earned his "cycle navigation" cub scout badge! (@Ray, you did actually make it back didn't you?)
See route map and/or gpx file download
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