North Cheshire Clarion club run 21 March 2010

Today's ride was billed as a flat 40 miler in contrast to last weeks hilly 40 miler and yes it certainly lived up to it's billing, flat definitely flat, oh on second thoughts I think there was maybe one tidger hill along the way (or perhaps I imagined that bit).

Thirteen of us set of from Stretton eleven members and two guests heading east in a clockwise direction heading for Tattenhall as our intended cafe stop. Tattenhall was beautifuly glorious today with a strong hint of spring in the air, it made for some fantastic riding through the beautiful quiet parkland with it's old majestic trees lining the road and hardly a car in sight. Arriving at Tattehnall we found the cafe closed so we headed into town and ate at a Booth's supermarket cafe, it did feel a bit weird being Lycra clad amongst the happy shoppers however we were not the only bikers eating there so it appears that this is a popular cafe for this strange multi coloured breed of folks with the duck like gaits...

After Tattenhall and the supermarket cafe we headed west and then north back to Stretton, some-times the pace upped until the call of 'PACE' or 'TAIL' echoed from the back but that was few and far between, most times the pace was slow enough to have a good old chinwag along the way.

Approaching the last half mile from the finish I think I made the mistake of muttering 'race on', and this seemed to flick some sort of primeval competitive switch as immediately off shot half a dozen members in the drops absolutely bombing it, I was fifth behind Phil J but he made the mistake of dropping back a bike length or so from the guy in front of him and I saw this as my opportunity so a surge of POWER saw me in the gap and then on the roundabout I was able to get into second position now behind Phil M who was giving it mega POWER and I couldn't quite catch the bugger... It was a fun sprint though...

Here's a photo (click to enlarge) I took as we travelled on the empty lanes of Tattenhall Park and just as I was about to be engulfed by the peloton - some mean looking dooods in here (apart from the smiling Stu and Giles keeping an eye out for kamikaze squirrels - hmm does he have an itch?....)

I did say that the ride was flat and only a short ride today so in order to bump my miles up I rode to the start point and those 15 miles there and back accounts for 800 of the near 1400 feet of climbing. Boring fact of the day but it does highlight how flat it was...

Lots more pics of today's ride here

My Stats
57.76 miles, 3hrs 51min, Av Speed 15 mph, 1393 ft climbing (Bikehike)