Larkling: Whitegate
Mild weather and no hills brought riders out in their droves for this one.
Very large turnout today across the two rides, well over 20 in all! For the Larkling ride I think there were 12 at its max. We had: Kevin, Simon, Greg, Jim, Jen, Andrew, Stuart, Phil, Gary, Dave, Steve, and myself (apologies if I have missed anyone out).
After freezing last week, I had a new super thick merino base layer (plus the 2 existing ones). I was about right, much to Jims approval, I think he was glad to avoid another “pace increase” in the hunt for warmth.
The Whitegate route offers all sorts of “off road opportunities”, so I was expecting a mud fest at some point. Chris seemed keen to remove them, Simon was keen to include them.
We headed out on a fairly standard route out through: Gawsworth, Marton, Swettenham and Cranage. At mile 19, in Middlewich we turned off onto the first of the days off road sectors. This path brought us up to a cobbled stone footbridge over the canal, which was closed! Next to it was a temporary metal replacement footbridge. This meant lugging the bikes up the steps, not easy for Simon, with a 60lb e-bike. Once on the other side we then had a long section along the Shropshire Union Canal, in order to avoid two “non-enjoyable” town centres (Middlewhich & Winsford). The canal toe path was wide and had a decent surface, but was busy with all sorts of other users:
walkers
people with dogs & prams
and most memorably, a man out for a walk with a parrot on his shoulder, as you do.
We eventually came off the canal and then things got properly messy. We were on a muddy double track which it turns out was part of the National Cycle Network? Some walked, some rode, others carried their bikes. Fortunately this was short.
To ride or walk, that is the question. Simon loves this stuff.
Andrew didn’t want any more mud trapped in his close tolerance mudguards. Who’s idea was this again?
Onto the roads for a bit around the outskirts of Winsford, and then joining the Whitegate Way, again quite busy with walkers, dogs & horses, but fortunately not that muddy. The group was quite strung out at this point. The going was quite hard, and slightly uphill all the way along. We eventually arrived at the cafe, and it looked like the Larks had just arrived too, so we completely swamped an already busy cafe. The cafe staff were quite stressed, but everyone got served eventually. We were probably in here for about an hour and a half.
Upon leaving, the group immediately strung out on the long drag up out of Whitegate, as everyone was finding their own pace, and still digesting their beans. We all regrouped at Hartford and then picked our way through the backstreets to Davenham. It was then on the quiet lanes over to Lach Dennis and Allostock. The strong winds were now behind us and it felt like we were riding downhill for mile after mile, again the group strung out, I even had it on the big ring for a while!
In Allostock we arrived at New Platt Lane where there was some discussion about ways to get around the closure. Dave L decided to trudge through an extremely muddy field. In the end we decided to leave him to it and go back and around via Goostrey Lane. We didn’t see him again. Probably still stuck in the quagmire.
There MUST be a way through? Perhaps we could traipse through that muddy field?
From Goostrey to Siddington we shed quite a few riders who went their own ways home. Then it was on to the standard Pexhill finish. Steve set the pace quite strong, I think he was trying to reel in a lone rider just ahead of us. We got him by the Gawswoth turning but Steve continued to push, I think, wanting to get a decent time for the Strava segment. I had to work hard to hold the pace. I’m sure I saw Sunday Easy Ride Paul skulking out of a field on the way up? By the time we got to Broken X it was just Steve and myself, so we waited for the rest.
Once all regrouped we went our separate ways home. Another interesting, dare I say enjoyable? ride completed.
We were doing at least 15mph nearly all the way back, so we must have been going really slow on the way out to have only got a 12.5mph average. That’s off road riding for you (and strong winds, dogs, horses, parrots etc).
Cheers Chris for planning and Simon for leading.
What the GPS said:
55.14 miles
2,733 ft elevation
12.5 mph
Right, what’s been going on in Love Island…
Ride safe. Ian