I’d arranged to ride out to Jodrell Bank with Mark Sheridan today. I amended my usual route to start and end in Hinstock (where I was meeting Mark) and it was saying about 82 miles. Perfect! Just what I need before the Wiggle Hawker Hurricane Sportive in Northants on Saturday.
We met up opposite The Falcon in Hinstock and set off. The first part of the ride was punctuated with a couple of stops as Steel Panther (my favourite band) tickets for the January UK shows are out at 10am this morning on fan club pre-sale and my lovely wife had offered to try and bag tickets as I was out on a ride!
In the end, the UK tickets links would not work but she kindly bagged me tickets for Dublin and Belfast as she loves Ireland and it was a good excuse for a mini road-tip together. A bonus I was not expecting but that was very welcome!
After Wybunbury, I tried a slightly different route to normal, missing out the Crewe ring road cycle path and opting to go up Slaughter Hill instead. I’ve always wondered why it’s called this so have just looked it up and it’s to do with the Civil War in 1644 – see http://www.haslington.org/civil-war for the full story if you are interested.
We then re-joined the Crewe to Sandbach road and took the usual route to Jodrell Bank after that, via Holmes Chapel.
As we arrived, there was literally a queue of cars out of the car park and we feared a long wait for the cafe. I’d forgotten it was school holidays! Apparently, there was a children’s show on and it was just about to finish. Quick, we need to get to the cafe before it does and there is a HUGE queue!
We made it in time and enjoyed a nice lunch before setting off for the return journey.
On the way back we stopped after the majority of the hills at the Swan With Two Necks on the A53 as we both needed to fill up with water. May as well have a sneaky pint while we are at it as it would be rude not to!
Back in Hinstock, we retired to the Falcon for some post-ride refreshment. We ended up with 79.6 miles on the clock, so I have no idea where the extra 2 miles or so Strava was saying the route would be went.
A fab ride out with great company and perfect Autumn weather.
Route: click here
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