Plains, Peaks and Cake

Well this weekend was pretty good.  I attended a company doo at Carden park.  Drank a lot of free beer, whiskey and cocktails and then paid for it on Saturday with the hangover from hell.  Then on Sunday I took part in the St Roccos Cheshire plains and peaks cycle challenge. A 60 mile ride through the country lanes of Cheshire, visiting towns such as Knutsford, Alderley Edge, Macclesfield and then back to Warrington.

Pretty darn good ride in some pretty nice weather - which is good considering that past week consisted of rain...rain and more rain- and plus it was for a worthy charity as well. Surprisingly all of the entry fee went to them instead of it lining the pockets of some organisation.

So I decided to ride in the 60 miler instead of the 100 because I just wanted to see how quickly I could do it in.  And given that the route was to be "relatively" flat - the 100 miler being no so flat - I jumped at the chance.  I think I also entered it because it was essentially starting outside my front door.  Which is a bonus when most of these events mean a 5 am wake up.

The start to a great day out

So, on Sunday morning I rode out to Broomfields leisure centre to get my number and start time.  At 8:20 the carpark was pretty full, with an array of nice bikes leaning against the Sheffield cycle stands that all  appeared to be growing out of the car park.  I parked my bike and joined the rather long sign-on queue.

After 20 minutes I finally got my number, signed my name and time on the signout form and returned to my bike, here I met Sarah, who was also doing the 60 miler, and Josh and another NCCer whom I can't remember. We all cycled to the top carpark for a ride briefing and then were given the go.

The going was very very good.  I left Josh and the other guy behind and got into a pretty good pace. Ahead I could see a peloton forming so I decided to join them.  This increased my speed somewhat and the 7 of us ate up the miles up and before we knew it we had reached Knutsford.



First stop


There was a flower show on at Tatton park so the traffic situation was quite heavy, however there were just so many of us that no cars could would dare overtake us.  Drivers were paitient and would only  pass when safe - which means passing without knocking anyone over.  This really made a change to the impatient bell-ends that we would encounter during most club runs.

I don't think our speed dropped below 20mph for about 29 miles.  The riding was just perfect, signals were passed down, warnings from the rear about cars were shouted and we developed a honed chain gang lead swap which worked perfectly.  Great fun.  However as with most good things this came to a brutal end as we hit the foot of the wizard hill.

At the top of the Wizard

Here the group fragmented.  A clanking of chains could be heard as even the fittest dropped gears into a ratio that allowed their lungs not to burst open.

I remember this hill being pretty damn steep after riding it with the NCC a while back.  But this time it seemed a lot easier than before.  Ok, I was in the lowest gear I had and my legs were burning, but  I was passing people and was still in my seat. 


Perhaps the track session had done its magic after all?


At the top was the first stop.  A Vauxhall Vectra with two St Roccos teeshirts hanging from the boot lid.  Endless bottles of water, bananas and flapjacks were on offer. Very nice.  I loaded up on some flapjacks and refilled my water bottles.

The next 39 miles were essentially a club run.  With most of the roads ridden on being the roads the NCC would use each Sunday.  Familiar territory which made for some nice smiles when I knew when a fast downhilll would be.

I managed to group up with about 11 other riders and we formed another regimented peloton.  Here the miles zipped by however by this time fatigue was definitely settling in and by the time we reached Northwhich a lot of the riders were dropping back.  My weekend of excess was also catching up on me as my legs burnt on the final climb up into Warrington.

It's all about the cake

I returned to the leisure centre and signed back in.  Free massages were on offer together with coffee, tea and cake. However as I made it clear before in my blog it's all about the cake.  I sat there and watched the nice ladies giving massages for quite a long time and tucked into two large slices of madiera cake and coffee.

Who said cycling could be boring?

The organisation of this event considering it was manned by volunteers and was essentially run by a charity was second to none.  The free food and facilities at the end were great.  Signage was good and the whole day put the Cheshire cat to shame. A tthoroughly good way to spend a Sunday.


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