Tour de Tameside

I arranged to meet Gaz at 8am for a nice easy ride of the Floop and then my Park Bridge route. Last night he asked if we could drop the Floop and concentrate on Park Bridge. Not a problem!

Bang on 8am as I stepped outside Gaz had just pulled up on his sexy Ribble, we discussed saddlebags for a little while (I put on the Topeak wedge to show him, usually have my Scicon on Everest) and we set off.

Out through Fairfield past a heritage area (Moravian Settlement) and out to Littlemoss/Daisy Nook and the first 'climb' of the day to Oldham Rd. i could have carried straight over the crossroads but as gaz wasn't feeling 100% I opted for the easier and flatter route to save killing him. So, up Smallshaw past the evil Vicarage, then onto another longish gradual climb to Alt Hill Lane and the start of the ace descent through Park Bridge. I'd forewarned Gaz that the going would be treacherous round here due to the rain slick tarmac, extreme leaf litter, cow shit (several farms along here) and the field run-off. Boy, was it lethal! We took it real slow which took the edge of the greatness of the descent, but it did mean we got to live another day!

I pointed out one of my hill rep hills to whimpers from Gaz and a huge sigh of relief from him once I'd said we weren't going up it. Onto Daisy Nook where the sexy Ribble got dirty (poor Gaz) and round to the cafe. After being there for a few minutes an MTBer on a sweet full sus Trek arrived and after asking us where we'd been, he proceeded to regale us with tales of his rides and his mates steeds (even telling us that his bike was nearly 2k and on one ride there were 20-20k worth of bikes). At this point gaz disappeared into his own world (don't blame you!) and I just abouts managed to keep up with the chat. Bit strange though that an MTBer would just blather on at 2 roadies like that. We than got bearated by him for taking the roadies along the singletrack/canal path. Why? the beasts are more than capable of handling them!

Anyway. Up Joby's 'mountain' which Gaz seemed to make it look like hard work (soz Gaz), while I pootled up it. Back up to Oldham Rd and down through Ashton town centre to the huge (and often lethal) Lidl roundabout where we went our separate ways: Gaz straight on to climb up through Dukinfield; myself turning right to Park Parade and sprint training alongside a police car.

After beating the cop car from a standing start to the stupid one way system I swooped and swooped some more before another sprinty bit to another stupid one way system. More swooping followed by sprinting meant that I was getting in some good training for the track champs in December (can't afford to get on the track at the moment to train).

Final mile to home was taken as a sprint for me; tucked up swooping through the contraflows was a little scary at times, but I made it safe and sound.
Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=24235
Miles: 13.92
Average speed: 13.2mph
Max speed: 185.9mph (apparantly!)
Sprinting max: 23.8mph (thanks to the pc balls up I had to keep looking at the pc. It was most likely more than stated above.)
Climbed: 459ft

Team 100k ride again

After imbibing alcohol at L&J's reception on Saturday night an early morning ride on Sunday was very welcome to clear out the cobwebs and wake me up.

Joby and Emma (2 other members of Team 100k) met me at mine to ride the Floop and were easily persuaded to add on one my loops to the mix. After Joby arrived really early on the club ride he rode on, and after Gaz and Emma were bang on time for our pootle t'other week, I expected them early so waited outside for them. 9 o'clock came and no sign of them (was beginning to think they may've chickened out cos it was bloody freezing outside!), a text confirmed that they were running a little late. Rather than disappearing back upstairs to my flat I began to hop about on the spot to keep myself warm and no doubt made the passers by chuckle. I even endured a 'Hoy! Race ya!' from 2 scallies.
No sooner had Joby and Emma arrived and Joby was already making demands(!) - he needed a top up of his water bottle already. Either that or he wanted to try the borderland water.

I promised that the route would be easy and a nice slowish pace seeing as Joby was recovering from Swine Flu and Emma had ridden the night before.

After refreshing Joby (ooer) we set off towards the start of the Floop and I was greeted by a grumble from Joby about the gravel beginnings. Pretty soon, he was appeased by the remainder of the route which he'd ridden before as part of the return of the last MCC ride. Emma hadn't ridden all of this portion so it was fairly new to her. Pretty soon we were all on new turf as we crossed Wilmslow Rd to get onto the other portion of the Floop to head to Chorlton where the route ended by Corkland. We headed back the way we came as far as Abbey Hey before getting back onto the roads for my add-on.

Entering Ashton Old Rd opposite a beautiful church, the route headed through Fairfield and Audenshaw before passing the Snipe and entering Ashton town centre. Sadly, here, Emma headed off to go be with her chap leaving myself and Joby to ride the rest of the route.

Up Cranbourne and Smallshaw and soon I was pointing out Hartshead Pike on the right perched on top of the hill with the sun shining on it. Joby begged me to tell him that we weren't riding up to it this time. I could have been evil and said we were, but I thought I'd be nice, told him the truth and we swung off into Alt Hill Lane where the fabulous descent lay ahead of us: swoopy, stunning vista, narrow lanes. It's over way too soon sadly.

At the bottom Joby was again begging me to tell him that we weren't going back up the hill. As we were beginning to freeze our feet I told him we weren't and that we'd soon be able to warm up in the cafe in Daisy Nook. Strangely Daisy Nook seemed to be full to the rafters with hounds and owners. I'm thinking that there may have been a dog class on and we encountered them on their way out. Either way we got to the cafe where tea/coffee and hot radiators warmed us up.

I promised Joby that we wouldn't be going back via any huge hills, but failed to tell him that to get to the main road from the car park involved a very short but rather steep climb before the gradual climb of Newmarket. As I reached the top of this climb I heard the bellow behind me 'You said there'd be no hills, that was a bloody MOUNTAIN!' - it wasn't that bad, just ridiculously steep for it's length (it's about 13 or 14% and about 20ft of road). He didn't complain about the rest of the climb!

Just past Ikea we both went our separate ways - to opposite ends of Tameside. I decided to book Everest into my brand spanking new (and opened by Jamie Staff) ridiculously close local bike shop for a service. I ended up staying in the shop talking to the owner and his mate for close to an hour and half before walking around the corner and up the stairs to home. I get Everest back on Thursday,s o I'll have to find something else to do until then.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=23827
Miles: 28.09
Average speed: 11.2mph (nice and easy pace)
Climbed: 656ft

Devil's Hill

Early this bright, clear, cold morning I set off to enjoy the roads as I took Everest out for a ride along the Fallowfield Loop and beyond.

I set off towards the Floop entrance on Falmer Close and decided by the time I got to Debdale that I wanted to ride Hyde Rd (not sure why) and then over and up Devil's Hill. Getting off the Floop by McD's a woman with suitcase decided she'd walk right into the road as I was flying towards the junction, silly woman. She was obviously too distracted trying to do multiple things at once - on her moby and hauling a mammoth suitcase behind her. Still we didn't collide and I carried on my merry way to Hyde Rd.

Once on there, I tucked down and sprinted along past the golf course and to the gorgeously deadly Denton Roundabout. Now at this point most people (with sense) would probably get off the road and go over the footbridge. Now, as that involved trying to get to the other side of the road, which by this point was 6 lanes wide, then hauling ass up and over the bridge then trying to get back onto the right side of the road, I just decided to ride the thing seeing as it was miles easier to do.
Riding in the draft of a car with a motorcycle at the side of me I made it round the enormous roundabout with ease and without a hint of the danger that Joby and Gaz seems to encounter every day.

Down the one way system on Manchester Rd (it's a strange road with the M67 slap bang in the centre of it and the normal road either side) and to the lights on the bus/cycle lane. Now Gaz and myself find that these lights are never on red. Except now. And for a stupidly long time. So long in fact that I ignored them after a while and joined the main lanes. There was sod all coming in any direction yet these stupid lights were still saying 'stay put you cyclist you'. Maybe if I'd pretended to be a bus and go 'Beep Beep!' they may have changed. I shall never know.

Anyway, after hurtling down the road and over the Tame and it was time to meet the Devil; although he didn't seem very mean to me as I practically flew up the hill. Maybe he'd not woken up yet? Into Hyde, round into Dukinfield and they're putting up the Christmas lights. Already. It's only October!!!

After greeting another roundabout and encountering calf cramp halfway round it (so not necessary) I was on the lookout for a safe stopping point, found a fence and threw myself at it to stretch the cramp away. Five minutes later and the smile was back on my face as I headed up and round to Daisy Nook for the obligatory bacon butty and to make friends with some spaniels before the sprinty route home.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22500
Miles: 13.8
Average speed: 13.9mph (slow but still happy with it)
Max speed (?): 71.3mph (!!!!!!) that was up devil's Hill too!
Climbed: not much 340ft

Floop

Myself, Gaz and Emma decided on Saturday night that we'd ride the Fallowfield Loop this morning. Partially as they'd not ridden it before, but also because Joby and Gaz have been looking for somewhere to do their 100 miles of nowhere ride. that, and seeing as they didn't have a clue where it was or how to get there, I'd come in very useful. I'd planned to ride anyway and decided to meet them and then ride my own loop afterwards.

At 8:30ish Gaz and Emma hurtled into my street and we all set off with Gaz doing a few wheel spins on the 'interesting' road surface before getting onto the roadwork area that has now appeared right at the end of my street.
We set off towards Wright Robinson College and got onto the Floop at its gravelly first quarter/fifth and set a good pace along the cycleway passing a fellow cyclist with extreme ease: well, he was on a full sus mtb that squeaked like an overgrown mouse, so the passing was done with ease.

As we neared the Kingsway bridge Gaz got a text from his misses saying his daughter was ill and could he come home. We turned tail and set off back towards Debdale Park and the Hyde Rd exit. Once on Hyde Rd I promptly adopted the tuck position and pelted along until I drew alongside Denton Golf Club near the fantastically lethal Denton roundabout. No RLJers as there was very little traffic thankfully: it's not the best of roundabouts to ride round, but ride it we did.

Into Denton Crown Point and while Emma and Gaz headed up to Devils Hill and Mottram Rd, I turned off to begin my own loop of madness. Up Shepley, through into Dukinfield, then Stalybridge, Ashton/Mossley and up Wilshaw to Lees Rd and the gradual climb up to Park Bridge.
Coming down the descent into the valley I got stuck behind a Jeep behind a horse rider who was in the middle of the road. Once the Jeep was passing her safely she acknowledged the driver, but when i said 'morning' to her I got a bit of a sour look from her and what sounded like a grunted reply. Hmm, so much for being friendly to other road users who are just as vulnerable.

Back in Bardsley and along through Daisy Nook and I was avoiding branches that'd been blown off the trees with last nights gales. Luckily the visitor centre was open (that early on a Sunday, I was surprised) and the warden was told about the branches while I waited for my bacon butty. Making friends with a beagle pup, very cute, I began to feel the cold despite being wrapped up warm, so pretty soon I was on the move again descending and climbing various parts of Oldham and Failsworth before heading back through Ashton towards home.

Stats - www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22172
Cold, crisp gorgeous day
Miles: 32.89
Average speed: 12.4mph (fairly slow, but happy with it anyway)
Climbed: 1217ft

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.