The Wizard and the Llamas – North Cheshire Clarion Audax

Despite changeable weather (and by that I mean wet), Sunday saw the inaugural North Cheshire Clarion audax.  The start was held at Lower Whitley Village Hall, with plenty of packing and a welcome selection of tea, coffee and breakfast awaiting the riders.

The route itself took us through flat Cheshire Lanes before heading over towards Macclesfield and the Goyt Valley and some hills!

3032ft of climbing

The hills were made trickier by the wet conditions, especially a 20% section near Wildboarclough, and the descents were a bit hairy at times but it was all good fun.  Then it was a fast roll back to HQ.

The two cafe stops were at the Wizard tearooms and Gawsworth Hall, both of which were welcome, and with marshals waiting to stamp brevet cards.

My legs were suffering at the start so I ended up being towed by Anthony.  Bizarrely, after the hills my legs felt okay.

The selection of food and cake at the end was second to none and did the Clarion proud – many people pitching in to provide it.  The day was superbly organised by Andrew and his team of helpers and for a first event, even though I’m biased, it was absolutely first class.

Ride Stats : 72 miles in 4hrs 34m at 15.7mph average.  3032ft climbing, average HR 144bpm and 3737kcals energy used

 

Goyt Peak Perm Audax

I was going to do this ride on August bank holiday Monday but abandoned after 5 miles because I was sick.  Thank goodness I did, because this was an absolute beast of a ride.  I didn’t realise it was 3 AAA points and the Garmin reported it was 8530ft of climbing in just 68 miles!  Some of these climbs were just brutal – steep and not particularly short, especially the ones at the end on Gorsey Brow and Apple Street.

8530ft of climbing

Looking above 21 sections of climbing above 10% gradient, 6 above 15% and 1 above 25%!

A stiff headwind made any section riding south difficult and there was a very obvious autumnal feel to the day.

I underestimated this ride today thinking I’d be finished fairly quickly and now my legs are wrecked – just in time for the North Cheshire Clarion Audax tomorrow!

Ride stats : 68.5miles in 5hrs 28m @ 12.5mph average.  8530ft of climbing, average HR of 150bpm and 4801kcals of energy used

Cow 59 and the Pistyll Packing Momma 206k Audax

This ride takes it name from the start at Old Ma’s in Tattenhall, riding out to the highest waterfall in Wales, Pistyll Rhaeadr (which is pronounced Rhaeadr).  At 240ft high it is no Niagara Falls but is impressive enough up close

Ade at Pistyll Rhaeadr (pronounced Rhaeadr)

What wasn’t impressive was the £1.30 for a can of Diet Coke at the tearoom there, which nearly resulted in Anthony needing medical attention as it was his turn to pay – nearly eight quid for 2 scones and 2 cans!

This was a hard ride.  Right from the start the road felt like treacle and we seemed to be making slow progress.  There was a lot of climbing – 3AAA points worth – and it was a hard slog.

8905ft of climbing

Anthony got his 3rd successive audax puncture and the weather was cold and wet, adding to our timing issues.  A visit to one of our popular haunts in Chirk saw us fortified with a large breakfast map each.

As well as the general upness, the roads were not particularly good, or were full of debris washed out of the hedgerows by the occasionally heavy rain.

It’s fair to say the day was a challenge.

After the waterfall we had a bit of a downhill section so made better time, plus Anthony was much lighter having given all his money to the tearoom.  Of course it didn’t last as we did some more climbing.  Then some more.  And some more.  The roads were generally single tracks which we’d never have found ourselves, often riding through beautiful pine forests.  The hills were made more difficult by the surface and the fact that standing up on the pedals meant loss of traction and rear wheel slip.

Touching the sky

Eventually we arrived at Bala and stopped at Caffi’r Cyfnod, which I think is Welsh for Caffi’r Cyfnod.  As we were entering one of the other audaxers came out, and in his broad Yorkshire accent declared that it wasn’t worth the wait as the queue was too long.  Anyway, we walked up to the deserted counter and were served straight away, with a much needed cup of hot coffee.

Later on we caught the mad Yorkshireman and found out he’d set off at midnight the night before to ride 140km to get to the start.  He was tired by now and didn’t want to finish the 206km audax and then ride 140km home.  Unfortunately he couldn’t find a lift back to Yorkshire, so I assume he did ride it in the end.  Or he’s still out there now.

We were getting worried now as we were losing the light and neither of us had what I would call “countryside” lights.  A quick stop for soup and soon we were back into Cheshire and it was time for the now traditional “last 10″ time trial back to base, which Anthony loves.  In pitch black we averaged the last 10 in 18.1mph – which I think is pretty impressive given we’d done 120 miles and nearly 9000ft of climbing at that point.

Long day and very tiring.  Weather changeable but some very impressive scenery.

Ride stats : 131miles in 9hrs 30m at 13.8mph average.  8905ft of climbing, average HR 141bpm and 7537kcals of energy used

 

“Who Brought the Budgie?” – 3 Loops Audax

 

 

Another Sunday and another early start for a 200k audax.  This was one of John Perrin’s rides which meant that he opened his house to a bunch of audaxers and provided his usual fantastic hospitality – hot drinks, toast, croissants and pain au chocolat for breakfast.  Graeme, Anthony and I set off, heading west and directly into a headwind that was gusting quite strongly.  The route took us out the Ice Cream Farm at Tarporley and then did 2 loops from there, one north and one south.  The final loop was completed by the ride back to John’s at Macclesfield.

Despite the headwind we made really quick progress, riding the relatively flat course pretty quickly.

4193ft ascent

The stops at the Ice Cream Farm were pretty welcome to rest and refuel and it also broke the ride into easy chunks.

The wind was great when behind but painful when riding into it.  Anthony had his aero wheel on due to mechanical problems with his other wheel, so sidewinds were “entertaining”.  The last haul back to Macclesfield was pretty tiring being mostly uphill, and involved several bits of offroad riding!  Anthony got a slow puncture that needed changing, and bizarrely when I got home I found my rear tyre had also gone flat.

Overall a good ride – we had a great laugh and it was nice not to have any hills of note!  And we beat 8hrs!

Ride stats : 132 miles in 7hrs 59m @ 16.4mph average.  4193ft of climbing, average HR 140bpm, 6217kcals energy used

 

 

5000 miles hit!

I noticed that today I turned over an interesting milestone for the year so far.  As of today I’ve done 5003 miles.  My target for the year was 5200 so I hope to push on and see what I can actually do this year, and whether I can go past last year’s total of 6157 miles.

Just to keep my feet firmly on the ground, many of the guys we meet regularly at audaxes have done more than that distance in audaxes alone this year!  These are true long-distance cyclists!

 

 

Northern Dales 202km Audax

 

 

8287ft of climbing

Another early Sunday morning start from a chilly youth hostel in Arnside, another audax.  Signing in we were faced with paying £1.25 for a cup of coffee and £1.25 for a croissant from the YH.  My croissant was that hard that when I broke a piece off it instantly shattered into a thousand tiny crumbs.  Second time this year I’ve been ripped off by the YHA – you can guess I’m not a fan.

As I mentioned the day started chilly but overall we were very lucky with the weather.  The sun came out during the day, it didn’t rain and there was no significant wind to speak of.

The climbs were long and draggy rather than sharp and I guess over time they slowly sapped the strength.  Fairly early on into the day Anthony got a puncture.  As he changed the tyre I noticed that my tyre had two pieces of flint – sizeable slivers – embedded in the rubber.  Stupidly I decided not to try to pick them out – something that, of course, I regretted some time later.

The face of regret...

We made decent enough time to Hawes where we stopped at what is becoming a favourite café for beans on toast – Chaste.

We then carried on to Leyburn before making a big turn north-west to take a very long and slow climb up to the top of Tan Hill – the 3rd time we’ve been up there.  Thankfully this time it wasn’t full of motorcyclists storming noisily up and down the lanes, and the Inn itself was relatively quiet.  We found some other audaxers having a pint which I think was optimistic at best!  We then had a fantastic descent through Kirby Stephen and down to Sedbergh and then Kirby Lonsdale, before retracing our steps back to Arnside.  Another £3 for some lentil soup from the YH saw the end of a very long day, and one that started and finished very cold.

Ride Stats : 125 miles in 8hrs 40m @ 14.4mph average speed.  8287ft climbing, average HR 135bpm, 6396kcals energy used