Sunday Easy Ride to Tatton Park
18 of us dodged the heavy rain today on our Sunday easy ride.
We celebrated the latest relaxation in lockdown rules by self selecting into a group of 7 and a group of 5 at Wilmslow. John J led the faster group of Snowy, Phil Br, Griff and Dan on the published route. I led a group made up of Sarah, joining us for her first Sunday ride, after enjoying the Saturday social, Gawsworth John, Wilmslow John, Damian, Jim and Simon Ga. The latter two wanted a slower ride after their Saturday exertions.
We took a variation on our usual route out of Wilmslow, along a couple of tracks through Lindow, but avoiding the hazardous gradients of Newgate nature reserve. We crossed the fields to the Plough and Flail and then a short cut along Graveyard Lane. That put us ahead of John J’s group for about ten minutes, until they came storming past us with some wind assist on the road to Ashley crossroads. I had a second shortcut planned however, missing out the loop around Rostherne, and heading straight into Tatton Park. It was a winning strategy, and we were parked and in the queue by the time John J arrived.
Tatton Park was the best organised cafe this month, albeit still takeout. We were all tucking into our bacon rolls etc by the time the riders from Broken Cross started arriving. First was Simon R, who had set out late, taken a wrong turn, but seemed to have taken a shorter route. 5 minutes later Rebecca, Adele, Caroline and Jude arrived together, and last to arrive was Francis.
The return journey started with a ride into a fierce headwind to the Tatton Park Knutsford entrance to get us warmed up, followed by weaving through residential streets around the outskirts of Knutsford to Booths Hall island, a quick ride along the main road to Ollerton, and then through Warford. At that point my group decided to miss out the loop around Alderley and head back to Wilmslow to avoid the imminent rain. We only completed 22 miles but stayed dry. John J's group arrived back 45 minutes later, having done 30 miles,a second cafe stop in Alderley and also dry. Well done to Sarah on her first Sunday ride!
Katherine
