7hrs 21mins in the saddle
After being thoroughly entertained by little Theo and Ella at breakfast we left Suzanne's and headed north. Continental breakfast today and I think our guts were grateful. Unfortunately we were fighting a head wind all day and had to employ some professional team cycling tactics where each person took a turn to pull the chain along the road. I think Nick missed the point as when it was his turn to lead he shot off way in front of everyone else at a much higher pace and created a 10m gap! Nevertheless, we made good time over the flat Shropshire roads and after 20 miles we met up with Fraser's dad, Ian, who had come down from Manchester to ride with us for the day. We could tell straight away Ian was an experienced cyclists and he was really welcome company.
During a lunch stop in Nantwich Morrison's two different locals stopped to have a chat with me as I was wearing my team tshirt today. We chatted about their own End-2-End experiences and their work for Marie Curie. I really appreciated 2 mins of their time each to chat about our cycle.
We experienced our first piece of bad driving leaving Nantwich where a car cut us up and weaved between our two groups on the approach to a roundabout. Ian gave the driver a severe ear bashing and implied he needed a trip to the opticians!
We came to the conclusion that one of the highlights of each day was checking out the front pages of the newspapers when we stop to find out the latest with the Ryan Giggs saga! After lunch we climbed through a few Cheshire villages in proper footballer's country - 2 brand new Bentley's were in fact being put through their paces. Was it Giggsy making a sly getaway?
Next up was Warrington where the urban sprawl really began. It seems the North-West is one big city separated by a few huge roundabouts. What happened to all the countryside we had seen for the last 4 days? Getting through this part of England was simple a 'keep your wits about you and get through as fast as possible' job and it was quite hairy at times as it was rush hour. Our saving grace, however, was a green cycle path all along the A49 which kept us pretty safe. Ian said his goodbye's at the other side of Warrington and it had been a really good ride with him today.
The roads in and around Preston were pretty shoddy but the B&B was decent. They locked our bikes inside the bar area to keep the gypsy's away. Another pub dinner and I was struggling to stay awake as I nursed my pint.
The North-West is the North-West. Not much else to report.
No comments:
Post a Comment