It's the Weekend

This week I managed to get two days in the saddle commuting.  This in my eyes is pretty piss poor, however I did have a valid excuse of having to visit the dentist on one day and it pissing down the rest.  With my Llanberis trip looming and given that the other half was doing the "Hell in the middle" cross country run in Cannock, I decided therefore to join the Saturday club run.  This involved a cross town dash, up the A49 to reach the Swan pub in Winwick.  Doing this on a Saturday morning in heavy traffic is an art form in itself.  Deep potholes, idiot drivers and impatient bus drivers were the order of the day.  Fantastic...
 

The Swan, Winwick

I arrived just before the 9:30 push off.  As I coasted into the carpark I was greeted with the usual smiles and nods from the members I knew, but there were also a lot of people I'd never met before. Sure there was the usual leaders such as Giles and Sarah, but everyone else bar one I didn't recognise.

As the Saturday ride is designed to be an intro to new members and people who haven't ridden in a group before. I gathered that these people must be new members.  In-fact after chatting to a few I found that some had never ridden in a group before and were really looking forward to joining the Sunday run when their confidence was higher.

That's the good thing about the North Cheshire Clarion.  You don't get dumped into a group with faster more experienced riders and then get dropped.  Instead you have a sort of nursery run which allows you to build up your skills and become faster, which by then you are ready to join the harder Sunday runs.  That's not to say the Saturday runs are just flat runs.  Far from it.  You can expect climbing and fast descents and town riding, together with close group riding around the windy country lanes that zig zag around Warrington.

It's grim up North

The sun was out, albeit low in the sky and above us a nice blue sky.  This was going to be a nice short ride of 25ish miles, heading north to Newton-le-Willows, Windy arbour and Orrell.  As is usual with Saturday rides, this ride would be cafe stopless.  Therefore no cake...BAH!   The run was split into two groups, one lead by Sarah and the other Giles.  One would do a clockwise and the other Anticlockwise.  I choose to group with Giles.  We set off into the traffic and headed North.

For the next 2 hours the ride was great, traffic was heavier than usual, but this was probably down to the nice weather.  There were times when the sky darkened and some pretty nasty clouds rolled overhead, but they soon passed and we were once bathed in nice sunshine again.  I try not to complain too much about the weather, but the sun was way too bright today.  I wish I had brought my sunglasses because for some of the ride I couldn't see a thing.  The sun, reflecting off the wet roads...blinding me....quite fun on some downhill sections.

Don't look them in the eyes

The route took us through Wigan, Haydock, Orrel and Windy Arbour.  Up and down some nice hills.  Through some nice areas and some real dodgy ones. As we waited at some lights I noticed a group of rough looking yoofs eyeing up our bikes.  If I had doors I would have locked them. We rode past a busy market to which I was informed that If your bike was ever stolen in Warrington, you could come here the next day and buy it off a stall.  Nice place....filled with intelligent, good looking locals...hmm maybe not.

The End
 

Tasty

We soon all returned back to the Swan and I rode off back South down the A49 to Appleton.  I got back, showered, stored away the bike and cooked the best thing you can ever have after a bike ride. Sushi. 

There is nothing like home made sushi to refill the tank.  Although I think I made too much and, as I type this, am feeling pretty sick.  I think having nothing but crabsticks and cucumber didn't help.  Oh well..



Tomorrow is a standard 50 mile normal Sunday club run. Hopefully it won't rain, but given how the weather has been this past week I'm not placing any bets for a nice day.

Here are my ride stats for today