Hi kris,
If am feeling ok after Saturday club run I'll join you and Mr Risk if he's out but don't forget am on my cycle cross bike so treat me nicely. Time as mentioned any different ill let you know!

Tony

Come out on your road bike or you'll struggle to keep up 🙂

Road bike split up in attic.

If I can't keep up on cycle cross bike kris ill just let you both go off and I'll make my own way to the peak or blaze farm. How does that sound!

Tony

If Tony can`t keep up even on his training /cross bike then none of us can . I think he has improved so much in 12 months !
Alan

Sounds good!

We'll keep it together. As Alan says, you're probably stronger than all of us anyway 🙂

Route there:
http://www.strava.com/routes/90580

Route home:
http://www.strava.com/routes/90595

87 miles, touch over 7000ft. I'll be at the Davenham crossroads at 8:59am. I'll be setting off at 9:01 🙂

All welcome, steady but brisk pace.

At long last I made it out on a run!! At Davenham I met Jules, Carol, Colin, Matt, Paul, Phil and Katie. The weather had looked threatening early on but it turned into a lovely autumn day with sunshine and no wind. We had a pretty uneventful run out. The group were good enough to wait for me each time the gradient went up more than 1% and Jules took us on a nice run through Goostrey, Swettenham, Congleton and the cloud. Soon after this Matt punctured and again and again. It turned out his front tire was falling apart and he rode on a flat tire to the pub near the Bosley crossroads from where he phoned his dad. We had a chat. Jules, having done sterling work needed to get home as a paint brush was calling. Phil had a calling up the Dumbers in search of his offspring. The rest of us went to the pub to wait with Matt. The sandwiches were so expensive that none of us had proper food but that was Ok as the open fire was great and we all downed some gin instead. Matt's dad picked him up and we all toddled home. A great day. Thanks for the company. I'm so glad to be back out although I have a nicely swollen left knee now. See you soon.

Great to hear you're back John! See you soon!

We were a bit late getting to Blaze farm so we assumed we'd just missed the group. That explains it then :).

I got home after a lumpy day in the saddle with 90 on the clock.

All in all it was fantastic day out. Everyone looked like they had worked hard, and it was a cracking route for a summer club run, although a terrible route for a training run 🙂

First time I've ever done Woodhouse lane in Biddulph Moor - that was a stinger!

Thanks to James, Tony and Jacob for the company. James left us after Gun Hill as he was full of a cold trying to recover from 2 previous days of racing/training 🙂

Glad to see I wasn't the only one with mechanical problems yesterday, but we'll get to that later.

I was out for a 5 hour training ride and as I rarely do the same route twice, I came up with a variation on a previous route. I went via Knutsford, Alderley Edge and Prestbury to Bollington where I got on to the Middlewood Way (variation time). About 6 dirty bumpy miles later (would have been great on a mountain bike but not with close mudguards and 23mm tires), I joined the A6 and rode through Disley and Whaley Bridge and up long hill. I dropped down into Goyt Valley and over the dam and then started the climb up the valley to the Cat and Fiddle Inn. For those of you who don't know this road, it's brilliant as it's rarely used by cars and it's a nice steady gradient in a beautiful steep sided valley and you can tackle it at whatever speed you want without too much difficulty. I was on 81" and the gradient was no problem at all.

At the bottom of the climb I was joined by Jon Clements who had dropped down from the other side of the valley, down "the Street". Jon was in Weaver Valley 20 odd years ago but he now lives in Stone. It's strange but ever so often our paths literally cross as I met him a few times during races when I was a runner, recently I met him on the road in an AUDAX and today I met him in a remote valley in the middle of nowhere in the Peak District. As I approached the top of the valley and the road steepened slightly I noticed that the clunking noise that I have been putting up with for about 2 months now, got louder. For some time I have been convinced that my bottom bracket bearings were the problem but I never got around to checking it out.

Near the top I looked down at the chainset and noticed a nasty kink in my 1/8" chain, which is very unusual as 1/8" chains are usually bullet proof. I mauled the gear on to the summit and then pedalled down to the old setter dog pub to Walkers Barn where I turned left on to the old road past Teggs Nose. As the next little bonk appeared the clunking got worse so I stopped to investigate. The back link plate on the split link had snapped clean in 2 so only the front plate and the spring pin where holding the chain together!!

I contemplated changing he link but thought, "What the hell" I've ridden it like this for a few weeks now so I just carried on and rode home at the same pace and it made it.

So the moral of the story is that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. My chain is a super tough Izumi V track chain but I don't like the Izumi split links as I don't consider them to be very well designed. I bought the split link off the internet for a couple of quid and my only comment is, "You are the weakest link ...... GOODBYE"!

Lovely story, Dave! Glad you got back ok! 🙂

Top ride that, I usually head around Knuts, Goostrey, Withington, Alderley Edge & Prestbury when I'm out on me own. Love it round there. Might push on to around Disley by the sounds of things.

Cheers Claire / Woody,

The main A6 to Disley is a busy main road but it's a relatively easy way to get to long hill rather than climbing over Rainow, but it is a bit further. It took me 2H 15 mins to get to Whaley Bridge averaging about 17 mph at that point because of the muddy track, but you could cut through Woodford and Poynton instead of going via Prestbury to Bollington and taking the muddy Middlewood Way.

This route into the Peak District which is used a lot by the Manchester clubs, also opens up easy access to Hayfield / Chapel / Castleton and beyond and makes a change from always going over Rainow or the Cat. A quieter and nicer, but also much tougher shortcut is to turn right in Disley and take the unclassified road through Higher Disley. This splits part way up the hill and goes to Whaley Bridge via a steep decent on the left fork and cuts across to the Rainow Road, coming out near the top of the Brick Works on the right fork. Great roads but make sure you take your climbing legs.

Variety is the spice of life!

Cheers

Dave

I did a loop of buxton a couple of weeks ago, taking in some of the roads you mentioned.

It's fantastic terrain, and some truly stunning views.

But as you say, you need your climbing legs - there are some brutes around there 🙂