Sunday easy ride to Chester 'a great ride and a fab day out'

There were 20 of us out for today’s windy ride to Chester.

John led from Broken Cross, picking up extra riders at Siddington and at Shakerley Mere, where we split into 3 groups. Simon Ga led a slightly faster group of 6, John J led a steady group of 11, and I led an easier paced group of 3.

I had remembered to ring Cotebrook earlier in the week, so they were expecting us. The timing worked well, with each group managing to order before the next group arrived.

The next part of the ride was a little more eventful, with Jack puncturing just by Eaton golf club, and my group encountering a loose bullock near Utkinton, wandering along the lane. I retreated to the farm which we had just passed, and alerted them to the escapee, who by now had stopped running after Kirsten and John B and was ambling back up the hill to the farm. The farmer commented ‘oh it’s that one’ so I think it must have been a repeat offender.

Our route into Chester was ‘interesting’ with lots of twists and turns, so I was glad that Kirsten’s Wahoo was working, as it picked up some of the subtleties better than my Garmin. My group arrived at Chester Riverside a little after 1pm, an hour later than Simon’s group, who were just finishing their lunch.

The ride back still had a strong gusty cross wind, but it did occasionally provide some ‘assist’. Jack had another puncture, and made good use of Simon R. The first two groups made it to the third cafe stop at Shipbrook before 4pm, my group decided that it was going to be rather tight so we stopped at Whitegate.

We all seem to have enjoyed ourselves, congratulations to those riders who completed their longest ride to date (77 miles for most), and thank you for all the photos!

Katherine