A cool start gave way to another gloriously warm sunny day - that makes two really sunny warm club rides this year, aren't we doing well! For the start I had my gillet and arm warmers on and took a little bit of gentle ribbing for it but I didn’t care as I was suitably warm; everyone else was wearing full summer gear right from the start, hardy people these NCC'ers. Only seven of us out today, probably depleted with it being Fathers day but no matter we still had a good time and with there only being seven of us it doesn't take much rememberingto name us all, Anthony, Sarah, John, Andrew from Weaverham, young Martin, Martins pal and Myself.
Off we set from Stretton in an anti-clockwise loop that took us over a few hills. We’ve not had a hilly ride for some time and speaking for myself (this is my blog after all) I wasn’t quite sure how nice the hills would be to me as I am seriously lacking from on-the-bike time. Since the Cheshire cat in March I have had nothing to train for and these last few weeks I have been able to get out only on the week-ends and if I have been lucky one ride during the week. So off we set heading through Frodsham and if you have been reading my blog you will know that I usually get a stitch coming out of Frodsham on one of the semi hilly exist however today I managed to avoid it but it was only delayed until we hit Alvanley hill.
Did I mention that I had my new helmet camera today? No? well I did but (yes there was plenty of butts and legs) this little device has no means of playback or viewfinder to check the results of your filming, you have to wait until you plug it into your PC once back home soo today my camera’s aim was out by just a little bit resulting in an hours worth of butts and legs :/
After Alvanley we had a run through the two small hills of Delamere and onwards through Kelsall bypassing ’The Yeld’ as it had road closed signs on approach. The next hill and also the biggest hill of the day is Chapel Lane in Willington. Naturally the two young guys shot off up the hill followed not far behind by John. For a retiree this bloke has some serious strength in him, I on the other hand plodded up the hill puffing and panting all the way up. This hill starts with a gentle straight rise then you hit a right hand bend to see the road rise alarmingly up, it’s at this point seeing this that I’m sure I heard one of the young guys utter an unprintable expletive! So it’s up this hill 100 yards or so to a left hand bend to see the road still rising as it disappears around a further left hand bend so more hard grinding up to this bend only to see yet another left hand bend ahead! As you grunt past the last bend marked with an armaco barrier you are hoping that it’s all over but it’s not quite finished, the road is still rising but not as steeply and all that’s left now is to ride around the sweeping right hand bend where the youngsters and John were awaiting at the very top. If only they were aware that the café was just 50 yards further on they would not have stopped and waited however I and the rest behind me knew so carried on to get first in the queue for food lol,,,
That was mostly it for the hills, just one more after the café stop just past Acton Bridge and then a few miles and an hour later we were home. So summing up, today started cool(ish) and warmed up to a really nice summers day, tans all around. The climbing was hard at times but thankfully there were not many hills. No incidents on the road, a nice cake at Summertrees café, one flat tyre and home by 12:45 to spend the rest of the day in the sun…
Great day today.
My stats
40 miles, 2hrs 36min, Av Speed 15.4 mph, 2258 ft climbing
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