Larkling: Devenhams of Davenham
The promise of some winter sun, plus the impending doom of storm Ciara meant Saturday was the day to ride this weekend, before battening down the hatches.
Another good turnout in the park this morning. We had: Kevin, Simon, Greg, Jim, Janet, Jen, Andrew, Stuart, Richard, Paul and myself (apologies if I have missed anyone out).
Very cold start at the park but after 45 mins or so it turned into glorious sunshine, and remained so for most of the day.
A familiar loop, but with a new (to us) cafe, and the promise of “no off road sections”. This week it was the opposite way around the loop, meaning no final push up Pexhill, which was nice.
Stuart was pulling on the front most of the way out through Gawsworth, Marton and Goostrey. We spotted Paul skulking out of a field again in Lach Dennis, and he later joined us in the cafe for lunch. The cafe was very pleasant and pretty busy. No full Englishes this time, the order of the day seemed to be the very hipster avocado and egg on toast.
On the return leg it was similar to last week, in that the wind seemed to be pushing us along. A lot of it felt like little more than freewheeling even though it was slightly uphill most of the way back. The group gradually thinned out through Marthall, Mottram and Alderley Edge, until there were three of us left approaching Broken X, where we all split.
Cheers Simon for planning and leading.
What my GPS said:
47 miles
2,205 ft elevation
13.1 mph
Right, time to rehydrate with strong continental lager. Don’t forget to tie the bins down yeah.
Ride safe. Ian