September review

Been a fairly good month:

Distance covered: 215.28
Days ridden: 9
Middleton CC: yep - to Tatton Park
Events: Manchester 100 in 4:14:07

Again I've not done any hill reps, but have exceeded most months on the climbing scale bar that of January. A few evening rides have been added to the 'rota' so that'll guarantee around 30 miles each week depending on the weather of course!

I need a new route!

I went on my usual after work ride to keep up the miles. By the time I was kitted up it was so dark I needed my lights on before I even left my street. By the time I got to my destination it was black black and my poor lights couldn't break the blackness, so I sadly returned the same way I went out, completely bypassing Park Bridge. I need to sort out another route bout 10-15 miles long, nice and quiet, where I'm not riding blind. Might hunt one out tomorrow. Anyhoo, I completed tonights 13.08 miles with an average of 15.2mph. ¤ Sent from my mobile phone ¤

Drizzling Daisy Nook

On a damp and drizzling Monday morning I decided that a 'recovery' ride was due. It was a simple ride to Park Bridge and Daisy Nook and back home. Not sure how much recovering was done seeing as I'd completed the 15.05 mile loop at an average of 15.1mph. But hey ho!

Ooer missus!

Just done a google search and it turns out that I've done more climbing than is needed to climb Everest! I've done approx 10,000ft more climbing than it takes to get up that huge mammoth of a mountain.

It may be even more seeing as mapmyride isn't too great on the elevation front. I shall, over time of course, plot all my routes onto bikehike and adjust the elevation stats on the sidebar accordingly.

September club run

Septembers MCC club run had a good following including 2 guest (potential new members?) riders - myself, Paul, Simon (crimmy),and Joe being the members and Joby and Chris being the guests. Gaz came along for a smidge of the ride, but had to head to a family thing so couldn't complete the ride sadly.I was leading this ride, but had managed to leave my dongle with the route map on it at my parents so relied on memory except for the added bits that I'd either not ridden before or had only ridden once therefore my memory wasn't overly clear on the route. Joby and Chris had kindly put the route onto their Garmin units.After everyone met up at the Velo and Joby's monkey had his picture taken at the entrance (it was his daughter Lily's request that the monkey come out with us) we set off out across Ashton Old Rd, Hyde Rd and Stockport Rd to head past the Bike Docs and out through Rusholme and Didsbury and on to Wythenshawe Park where the route followed that of the Manchester 100 that myself, Joby and Chris had done at the beginning of this month (Chris being the braver of us as he did the 100 mile route): alongside the park, onto Shaftsbury Ave and then through Hale before turning off at Ashley to get onto the lovely long drag of Ashley Rd to the entrance of Tatton Park where we had lunch.

After stuffing our faces and refilling bottles we set off back to the Rostherne entrance of the park turning left to head into Knutsford. At this point my memory was a blank and the boys' Garmins had also gone rather wrong as they'd directed us the wrong way down a one way street! A bit of hike-a-bike was called for before mounting again and setting off on our merry way along Mobberley Rd, where I was surprised to find the lay-by void of the snack van that is normally tucked away there.

Joby tried to send us the wrong way but we managed to find the right turning and headed along Broad Oak Lane and another Mobberley Rd back into Ashley. The route diverted off again onto a bit I haven't ridden before and, again, the boys' Garmins gave up the ghost as they claimed we'd gone way off course. We hadn't though as myself and Chris were discussing whether to come this route or not due to a sharp hill out this way.The road swooped around between fields before a sign actually warned us of the descent that we knew we had to go down before getting the same gradient back up the other side - a lovely 11%er. Fab! I took the lead down the descent before Joby came tear-arsing alongside me and he got the head start up the hill. I was on his tail and Chris was on mine. I told Chris to go round me as I was quite happy to just pootle my way up this one - I didn't want to risk hurting the pelvis so chose not to really attack it. Soon a dark blur and a hum passed by as Simon just shot by. He really does make climbs look so bloody easy. No prizes for guessing who'll be winning the club hill climb this year then!

Once over the top we waited for Paul and Joe to catch us up before going for the death-defying right turn onto Wilsmlow Rd and under Ringway runways (sadly no planes were taking off as we did so - the sight of then travelling across the road is awesome. They're so bloody massive!!). Joby had the time of his life in the tunnels; he really has no life by the sound of it! Myself and Simon were bombing it through there, tucked up and ripping the road to shreds.

Then came the first of a few off-road jaunts, complete with groans and moans from the boys (except Paul as he knew what was coming) as we got onto the Orbital Cycleway: a path alongside the runway fencing that is made up of gravel varying in size from dust to big chunks of rock. The boys were whining, but myself and Paul ripped away from the group as we'd had the advantage of riding on this stuff before and had the handling skills to cope with our speed.

Onto Styal Rd and once through the traffic lights at Ringway Rd, I opened up the gears, tucked up and blasted away from the group. Simon caught up and tried to be my pacer (or tried out-gunning me), but as he was gaining speed, so was I and ended up overlapping his wheel a little, so his pacing for me went a little wrong. Soon I was overtaking him and was his pacer, but I think I was leaving him behind a little. We eased up and a breathless Joby caught us up stating defiantly that he needs to get into training for the club track champs in December. I think he wasn't expecting the burst of speed from myself and Simon, nor expecting us to maintain it for so long. That and he absolutely hates people going faster than him!! Chris left us at this point as he lived nearby.

Back in Northenden and we cut through the back lanes to get to Chorlton Water Park for a loo stop and to ease any tired legs a little before getting back onto Wilsmlow Rd and onto the Fallowfield Loop in Fallowfield (funnily enough). As the boys hadn't been on here before I added this part to the ride to give them a taste of something different - and they loved it. Well, Joby and Simon did, dunno bout the others. After coming to the aid of 2 damsels in distress who needed a bike pump (mine came to the rescue), Joby's monkey came out again for a photo shoot (the girls looking rather embarrassed about it, but took it all in good humour), we continued on until we reached the end of the trail; well, as far as we were going on it anyhow.

A quick jaunt through Abbey Hey and Openshaw and Joby was leaving us to get the extra mile sin to make it officially the longest ride he's ever done, and myself, Paul, Simon and Joe were turning off to go our separate ways too: Joe and Simon had the fun of Berry Brow to climb, but seeing as Simon had been out on the bike since stupid o'clock another hill wasn't exactly gonna stop him!

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=21324
Lovely day, cloudy and a little chilly but not too bad.
Miles: 48.7
Average speed: 14.3mph
Average speed for the sprinting: 28/29mph
Climbed: 1091ft

Playtime!

Usually I work on a Friday, but I did a shift swap so I worked yesterday instead meaning I could go out to play today.

After obtaining some Gore arm warmers from Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative on Wednesday morning with the money raided from my piggy(literally) bank, I thought I'd give them a try out on a chilly morning ride.

Twas meant to be a 10 mile loop that I never got to finish on Tuesday night, but it ended up being a ride to the Pike instead.

I set off along the most direct route to Ashton (direct bar the contraflows of course) and braved the street of pain to get to Cranbourne and St Albans for a nice climb before heading to Grotton and Mossley (more climbing). For some inane reason I decided to get to the Pike the harder way - up the steep side of Mossley Cross and up Broadcarr rather than the slightly easier but more drawn out 6%er of the other way!
Down into Lees, across Abbey Hills Rd and back up the Brow and I was flying through Park Bridge through the chicane at the bottom of the hill and across to Daisy Nook where Everest had a rest and a swan looked like it was recuperating in one of the ponds before shooting back home to a pint of milk to guzzle.
Stats - view route
Miles: 18.58
Average speed: 15.2mph (not sure how I managed that considering)
Climbed: 1044ft

Things that go bump in the night

On Monday I decided to borrow a phone (clumpier than mine) from my bro so I could go for a ride after work on Tuesday. It was a rather basic phone, so wasn't really worth my telling anybody about.

Work was nicely busy on Tuesday and I was looking forward to the evening ride. Mmmmm, oh how I wish I'd stayed at home!

The ride was going really well with an average speed of 16.7mph as I travelled into Ashton to do a loop through Park Bridge. Heading along one of the main one-way streets to get to Ikea I was in the outside lane seeing as that one was going in the direction I wanted. I passed a couple of side streets then as I was coming to another side street, a car had paused with it's indicator on for turning right. I though nothing of it as it had many lanes to turn into; as the whole of the rest of the road was clear I assumed it'd be turning into the nearside lane, then make it's way into whatever lane it wanted.

The reality was so much different from the thought. Instead of turning into the nearest lane, the driver drove straight at me (despite indicating for a turning) and sent me flying and only turned once I was sprawled on the floor with my bike sticking out of the windscreen.

As has happened so many times in the past, whenever I've had an incident of any variety (usually being cut up) the police were on hand to sort the situation out. Turns out they were right behind the knob and saw it all happen. They, like me, couldn't believe it. The driver claimed he didn't see me.

This all happened at 7pm. It was still light so no street lamps were on, I had my lights on my nice pale blue and silver beastie, I wore tights with nice little reflective bits on, ditto my shoes and gloves, my jersey was my club jersey (white base with one blue and one red sleeve and red and blue flashes across it), my helmet is a Lampre team edition so is blue, white and bright pink. Erm, which bit of me didn't he see? My ass? My boobs? Did he want to see my teeth? Or maybe he was a throat doctor and wanted to see my tonsils as I screamed at him with a trail of choice expletives?

Both myself and the officers were amazed that the arse couldn't see me - they could and they were looking through another car!

After picking my bike out of the car and checking it over (perfectly fine she is - one tough beastie, my Everest), I got a lift to the local A&E where xrays were taken of my wrist: base of thumb may or may not be cracked, the docs can't be sure if the line on the xray is recent or from when it broke in November. Makes no difference to me as it's not too sore and I refused to have any form of splint on it (I refused a splint in November too). Other than that I've pulled (maybe torn) muscles between my shoulder blades, but have happily been carrying on as normal.

No doubt the arse will get a slapped wrist and told not drive for a month, or something else stupid. I'm convinced he couldn't drive in the first place, so that's hardly going to stop him is it?!

I've been out to play since then with no ill effects so all is good. Hurrah! I'm thinking that maybe I've been Joby-jinxed?????

Mobile misery

I'm not happy. Not a happy bunny at all. In any way, shape or form. My one and only phone (as I don't have a land-line) has died a horrid death (well, is still dying if I'm totally honest).

As of 10:32pm yesterday, despite being fully charged up and being in an area with an excellent network coverage, the phone decided to not allow me to make any calls, send text messages, access the net or access my contact list. Software that was installed on it by the manufacturers has gone walkies thus meaning that half the stuff is missing. Stuff has also deleted itself - like my whole calender list of appointments, anniversaries, birthdays etc.
Only had the thing for exactly 2 months (to the date).

After a stupidly long time to wait before speaking to an advisor, after they'd done their technical questioning and data info, they initially thought the battery had gone faulty which would explain some but not all of the problems. After more thorough questioning they realised it was terminal and are replacing my phone for me. Biggest downside is that I'll be phoneless until Wednesday night. AAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!! Not good. I won't ride without a phone for safety reasons, work can no longer contact me about anything until I'm in on Tuesday, the UKBA cannot contact me to say if I've a job with them or not.....cringe.

It'll be hell...........

Rerun of dusk desires

After finishing at the shop yesterday evening I set off for a ride using the majority of the route as that on Dusk Desires.

I had a headwind that was strengthening which made it a little hard going and standing up all day at work didn't make matters any easier on the legs, so I was expecting to struggle big time and was pleasantly surprised when I got home to find I was actually quicker than last time.

I followed the same route out with a slightly different return leg involving coming back through Ashton itself and a fair bit of dual carriageway to ride on before the delightful fight to get into lane on a 3 laned one-way system.

Stats - view route
Miles: 11.9
Av speed: 14.7mph
Climbed: 369ft

Rockingham

N.B There will be more photos added to this post at a later date, once I've filtered out the bad ones!

I set off with my bro Paul and the Droylsden Photographic Society to watch Robin Hood's Pageant at Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire.

After a 3hr coach journey we arrived in Rockingham and wondered where the castle was as we couldn't see it at all. I was amazed at this seeing as from its locale it's possible to see 5 counties on a clear day, so I presumed that'd mean the castle could also be seen from the road. But no! All the trees on the roadside had created a screen that was impenetrable to the naked eye.

We decamped from the coach to be met by a guide who told us a little about the history of the place: built almost 1000yrs ago and has been in the same family for 450yrs now, with a couple and their young children being the current occupiers. The castle itself was open to visitors (although lots of places were out of bounds seeing as there're family areas), the grounds were wholly open and there was the pageant going on in the grounds. After that we were left to our own devices and just had to be back on the coach at a certain time.

As the show wasn't about to start for a few hours Paul and I made our way through the grounds and gardens stopping to take lots of photos (I took almost 200 here and Paul took many more as he had a new memory card to fill up) before we entered the castle itself. Naturally, cameras weren't allowed to be used within the castle nor were mobile phones. The place was stunning. Dark wooden panelled rooms with huge fires, exquisite pieces of art and furniture. Simply gorgeous. This is the first castle I have been in that wasn't a ruin and I was blown away by how amazingly beautiful it is.

There was one area where cameras were allowed and that was an area called 'The Street' - a gorgeous view seen below -

Both Paul and I braved the narrow steep spiral staircase (which seemed to go on forever) to the top of Salvin's Tower where the views of the counties could be seen along with the Roman Rd leading away from the area. After scrambling back down the stairs (Paul dropping stuff down them and I had a fight on my hands with a rope hand-hold and a tripod) we set off for the pageant itself. Sadly, there weren't as many people watching as I expected. Maybe I was expecting similar crowds to that of when I recreated the Battle of Naseby with over 1000 other re-enactors and twice as many crowds watching in May 2008. Either way, the crowds got involved, the enactors were great and you could see that they were loving every minute of it, and so were the horses involved.

We didn't get to see Robin marry Marion as we had to be back on the coach for the second stop of the day - the Arts festival at Market Harborough. At this point I'd drained my camera battery so the photos I took here were all done on my phone (apologies if they're a bit rubbish).

There were many street artists performing including Ant Orkezdra, The Hole Job, Slinkie Love, Gordon the Cycling Panda, Sleepwalkers, Big Rory and Ochie, Inside Out and The Gorillas.

Market Harborough itself is a lovely market town with beautiful architecture and a stunning market hall situated right next to the gorgeous St Dionyus Church.

All in all it was a great day with many, many photos taken that I know have to trawl through to seek out the bad from the good and great. There will be more photos to be posted on this post and also on my other site avixpics, so please view them. It may take a while to get them up so expect them to be there after the weekend.

Dusk desires

At ride o'clock I decided that as the weather had been fab all day I'd get out for a ride that'd take me through dusk into night and hopefully see an amazing sunset. I wasn't to be disappointed.

After shovelling chowder down my throat for fuel I set off along my main road into Ashton setting a good pace due to the lack of traffic. Even making it through the rapidly breeding contraflows without a sniff of a problem (although from now on I probably will have problems!).

After making my way through Ashton town centre and the side of Ikea I suddenly decided that I wanted to head over to Park Bridge and the farmland over there as it'd be quiet and isolated, which is what I wanted seeing as I was in a contemplative mood. So off up Wilshaw with it's evil hump to get over and past Ashton golf course to get to Alt Hill Lane turning opposite Twirl Hill Lane.

I stopped to admire the view (what a view!) and spotted a bird of prey silhouette in the glowing skies as it hovered over it's next meal before rapidly swooping and gliding off victorious. Sadly my camera phone hasn't got a powerful enough zoom to capture its beauty, grace and effortlessness.

Climbing and descending through Alt Village was a dream. So much different than when I ride through here in the daylight. Although I had my lights on I was relying on memory for the road conditions and turns too and it made it more of a fun ride for me. That and the sheer isolation I got once I was in the valley bottom.

Once back into reality (sadly) I built some speed up as I shot along to Waterloo and made my turn-off onto a great twisting descent with stunning listed cottages abutting the road. Once past farmland I decided to go all guns blazing and got onto the outer ring (for some reason I very rarely use the front big ring, I always stay on the inner one) and put my foot down for some pacy flat riding.

Pretty soon I was turning off at Droylsden FC and winging round Fiveways before my lovely jaunt the wrong way up one-way systems - it's great when the roadworks mean you can do this! Especially when you see the faces of people who don't quite realise that this has happened.

Then home and a lovely radox bath before rubbish tv into the early hours.

Stats -
Amazing. Lovely and warm still.
Miles: 11.95
Average speed: 14.5mph
Climbed: 374ft

Shepley shuttle

How gorgeous does that view look??? That is where today's ride headed to.

Having woke up to a gorgeously clear, crisp bright day I just had to jump on Everest and free her from the constraints of being a clothes horse. A crap journey through umpteen contraflows - I swear they're breeding round here - and I managed to swerve off into a side road that'd take me to a rapid descent before over the hump that crosses the M60, round a rather desolate empty mini roundabout and onto another rapid descent down to the Tame Valley before I decided to do some hill reps on the climb back out of the valley. It's not a huge climb: a mere 0.22 mile of 6% average and 8% max gradient, but it's a hill of sorts. After looking like a numpty going up and down this bit several times and turning at the little roundabout at the top I finally left the climb and carried on through Globe Lane industrial estate before the descent through Dukinfield and the climb up to one of the huge roundabouts in Ashton. Oh, there's nothing like a hgv up the ass to get you sprinting up climbs.

Whoever decided to plonk a roundabout at the top of a 19% section needs shooting as, more often than not, I'm caught out behind traffic and stuck on the ascent trying not to roll backwards into whatever is behind me!

Anyway, following this lovely bit of engineering is an excellent sprinty section; only 0.22 mile but you can build up good speed on it until you slam the brakes on cos the set of lights is always against you at the end of it. I maxed out at 27mph on it - think I was a bit slow leaving the roundabout.

After a stint on Ashton's finest one-way systems and narrowing roads I took Everest off-road through Daisy Nook where we made friends with a Scotty dog and got lovely and muddy and all shook up on the trails before getting back onto the main road and mountain goating up the 20% section that other cyclists seem to really struggle on. This really is the only 'climb' where I can consistently pass cyclists without even trying. Hey-ho!

More of Tameside's greatest one-way systems followed with nice sprinty bits.

After a game of chicken trying to get into the middle of 3 lanes to get round another one-way bit, I was passing by the best factory in the world - the biscuit factory. I tell you, I wanna live in one of the houses next to it cos the smells emanating from it? They're out of this world! Just very mmmmmmmm!!

All the while since leaving Ashton centre I had a bus behind me that kept trying to pass, but finding I was going too quick or the road got crummy so couldn't. He finally got the upper hand as we passed over the M60 again by the Snipe; he had a little more horse power than I do. i could see him chuckling in the wing mirror as he passed me by, only for me to have the last laugh as the hgv in front of me decided he wanted to go in front of the bus. So as the hgv started to cross lanes I swung around his ass and floored it to the sound of 'what?!?!'. I don't think the bus driver thought cyclists could go quicker than motors. Mwa-hah-ha!

Sadly I think Joby has jinxed me. Going through yet another one-way system, as another hgv passed closely on my right shoulder something in the road got sucked up in his draft and thudded into my shin. I now have an egg-sized lump right on the shin bone that started to go a lovely shade of puce as soon as it got hit.

I haven't a clue what hit me as I had no time to react really, what with a line of traffic behind me and going at warp speed myself. I guess I'm just lucky I was so close to the hgv or the thing may've hit me in the head or smashed through a windscreen behind me.

Anyway although my leg hurt like bloody hell, I still managed to sprint the rest of the way home: a good mile and half and managed to max out at 31mph. So I'm happy.

Even happier that I managed to stay above 10mph on the reps at Shepley.

I'm thinking that something is definitely going right. Maybe not as quickly as I'd like, but you know we can't have it all our own way all the time. Unless you're Joby of course, lol.

Stats - view route

Simply devine for September, warm, clear.

Miles: 15.31 (including 6 hill reps)

Average speed: 14.2mph

Climbed: 448ft (including hill reps)

Manchester 100 report

After a rude awakening at 6am by my alarm clock I jumped out of bed and immediately checked the weather (it was supposed to be raining today as it always does for the mcr 100) and found it to be cloudy but looking promising.

After getting all my bits near the bike to grab when Rafe arrived to pick me up I got a text from him asking if I was ready(?). Ready???? Eh, what's he doing here so early? Oh crap, I must've been faffing about too much as it was 6:45 and I wasn't even fully dressed yet. After racing about to finish dressing and making sure I grabbed everything I needed, I hauled ass downstairs and outside to the car.

Upon arriving at Wythenshawe Park and trying not to laugh too hard at the numpties driving cars with fully laden roof racks through (and I mean through) the trees myself and Rafe met up with Gaz, Joby and Emma and made our way to the start where Gaz had to enter and myself, Rafe and Emma went on a hunt for some toilets as we knew it'd be another 15 miles before the first feed station.

Then we were off following the same route I use on rides to Tatton Park and beyond, so I could easily warn of any hazards, climbs etc that were coming up such as the nice little 9% section near Hale and the long drag of Ashley Rd alongside Tatton.

Once out of Tatton we were heading through more familiar territory as we passed through Tabley, Bate Heath and into Great Budworth with a nice little steep hill to get up straight after a junction so no run up to it. Then on to Anderton and the canal for a rest stop for me and Joby while waiting for the others to catch up. It seems myself and Joby were so so deep into conversation and pootling along as we would normally that we kind of left the others behind. But we did all vow to stop at each feed station to catch each other up and so that we were still riding it as a team of sorts.

After Anderton Joby seemed to just shoot off and left myself, Rafe and Gaz behind. Emma shot past the rest stop anyway so she was ahead of us at this point. By this time we'd already done 20 miles and were all feeling good. Good that is until a steep hill loomed up at us. The very same hill where Joby had to catch a car. I led on up the hill with Gaz and Rafe following behind. About a third of the way up as it was getting steeper I began to hurt; not in my legs as expected but the darned pelvis again. I carried on and just dropped the pace a little to ease off the pressure and pootled up to 3 quarters of the way up when it began pinging. When the pelvis pings that's when I know it's gonna have a strop, and boy did it strop! I had to stop riding, got off, looked around and saw that Gaz had done the same: his hip was giving him problems too. It seems that this blasted hill had broken myself and Gaz.

Rafe kindly waited at the top for us and after a rest we were on our way again, headed for Winsford before turning back northwards for the return leg. At this point I think Gaz's hip got a bit too painful for him to keep the pace and sadly he dropped back from myself and Rafe. Somewhere we passed Emma but didn't realize it as we got to Middlewich and Joby was waiting alone for us. After some communications, we found that they were about 2 miles behind us. Not bad really considering the pain Gaz was in.

After finding the St John's guys for Joby and his scarily swollen eyes we had a very welcome rest for recuperation, food and drink before the last leg of the route. Bizarrely, there were no other feed stations for the next 25 or so miles so it was a case of carry what you can if you needed anymore sustenance.

From here on until reaching Manchester again it was, again familiar territory for me so I knew what was coming up as we passed through Peover and Ollerton into Knoll's Green and Mobberley. The route had changed a little from what I though it would round this section and included a couple of steep hills that caught quite a few people out including one poor guy who had a car stop suddenly in front of him causing him to come off his bike. I suggested he walk the rest of the hill for his own safety seeing as there was a lot of vehicular traffic on there as well as a lot of cyclists.

Soon I was on Styal Rd which is an excellent descent and I topped out at 36.4mph along here until I had to stop behind a car as it couldn't pass cyclists who apparently couldn't hear it behind them and were hogging the whole road pretty much. After yelling at them to get into single file and let it pass (it crawled behind them for ages) we managed to pass and I carried on quite happily until I saw Rafe and Joby again and waited for Gaz and Emma to appear, so that we could ride the last mile properly as a team. At this point I looked at my pc to see what time I'd done so far and found that I was close to beating my time for Mcr-Bpl (had a couple of minutes to get to the finish line to beat it). We all set off in high spirits that we'd almost done it without too many problems. And then hit traffic. It seemed that the world and it's wife were driving to the park and we made a paltry 2 minutes for less than a mile. At the last set of lights I looked again at the pc and found I had 40 seconds to get to the finish line if I was to beat the Mcr-Bpl time. Once the lights turned green we shot off again, overtaking the slow traffic and in the entrance to the Park (Joby overshot it at first), then we got out of the saddle and stomped on the pedals to sprint to the line.

DAMN IT! 40 seconds slower than mcr-bpl. but a hell of a good time considering I rode 40 miles or so in some considerable pain and the route was a hell of a lot hillier than that of the bpl run.

Mcr 100k Stats -

Cloudy, varying between warm and cold. Headwind on last few miles.

Miles: 61.07

Average speed: 14.5mph

Climbed: 1989ft

Time taken: 4:14:07

After noshing on a burger I set off for the ride home: 9.64 slightly uphill miles.

Total stats -

Miles: 70.71

Climbed: 2192ft

My only gripes for the event: the sabotage that happened near Peover (drawing pins in the road) and the foolish cyclists who ride with earphones in and can't hear the motorists behind them, thus causing huge tailbacks.