The last day has arrived, well it did on Monday gone, day 4 of a great weekend.

After the Etape ride of 110 miles we were feeling very good, superb weather and a great scenic ride meant that we really wanted to finish off the weekend well but by staying in the Lakes we were running the risk of making it brutal instead of pleasurable. We also had the situation that 4 guys had to get to Bournemouth afterwards and 4 had to get to Stranraer for the ferry to Belfast.

I suggested to the southerners that we could cut their journey time by 2 hours by getting up earlier and heading to mine in Warrington, doing a leisurely country lane 70 and then they only had 4 hours to drive home, at the time I also thought the Irish were heading home from Liverpool so made the suggestion to them too. They declined (obviously – as they were going in the opposite direction) but the lads from darn sarf loved the idea. We could also pick up Dan who had left on day 2 for a last spin after his rest day on Day 3.

So set off for Warrington, arranged to meet Dan at mine and settled in for a very different ride than the previous 4 days.

Decided to take them on the ‘Cheshire Set’ tour, Warrington, Warburton, Dunham, Hale, Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, Peover, Knutsford and then back thru Tatton Park to Lymm and then into Warrington again. 63 miles in all.

Swiss Hill was on the route and proved a bite after the previous 3 days but nothing we couldn’t handle, Dan was feeling strong after his rest the day before and was pulling at the start trying to gee us up. Our only detour of the day saw us cyclo crossing over to the Edge after I suggested it might be a good place for a picture, comedy fall by Loz over a tree root but no damage, picture taken and off again.

After the climb over Alderley Edge its all flat, just nice country lanes, no real traffic and the weather was for the moment behaving itself.

Dan had booked a massage at 3.30pm so he headed off direct to mine while I took the lads on a more scenic route back to Knutsford where we decided to have coffee, the choice was Costa or a cafe in the pedestrian precinct, guess what, Costa might have not had the seats outside but it wouldn’t have cost us a mortgage for a bowl of pasta and we might have got more than a spoonful of coffee, lesson learnt for next time but the break was nice.

The worst part about stopping in the dry, is starting again in the wet, the heavens opened 2 mins into the ride back, I was the only one with a jacket, loz had no arm warmers, a quick swap and jacket on, we set off, it only lasted 15 mins and we were travelling with the wind now so no hardship.

Back though the ridiculous traffic in Warrington and home to clock up a 63 miler and all in one piece, bonus !

SRM data – this is mostly irrelevant as the SRM was playing up for 1/2 of the ride and the power is wrong.

Garmin data – this is normal but you can see the break in the middle where we waited 45 mins for expensive pasta !!

So to the weekend

4 days
27,500ft climbing
353 miles
lots of bars and gels
2 broken chains
1 rear and 1 front derailler
4 punctures
1 snapped spoke
4 ‘off’s

3 people completed the 4 days, as defined by the 3 of us – obviously !!

Others rode for 4 days, just not with us, some made 2, some made 3. Whatever happened it was a very memorable weekend for all the right reasons and one that will be remembered in amongst the ones that have gone before.

Thanks to all for attending, even if you didn’t make it all the way thru, to next year.

Rosey.

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