Cheshire Cat

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R

Ravenz

Guest
The planned route plannng fell thru the cracks yesterday due to a high degree of low degree celsius's... not my cuppa to freeze... so I wimped and stayed in bed

did a recce in the car this morning (still minus C) of the rather tortuous feed 1 to feed2 ... tortuous in the sense of 'yu better loves twisty lanes that are liable to cack attacks.. God knows what state they will be in ... come March time..but they were not nice this morning :smile:

ok also please be forewarned that a 1/2 mile segment is off road, can be done on road but add 1 1/2 mile extra to bypass it if your skinny tyres are susceptible to punctures and yu dont fancy a bit of crossin'.. it is essentially an old road that has reverted to status of wide footpath and will be very muddy in early spring.

have fun y'all
 
RedBike

RedBike

New Member
Location
Beside the road
ok also please be forewarned that a 1/2 mile segment is off road,
Click to expand...

Which bit is this?
 
Tarbo

Tarbo

Well-Known Member
Location
Gogledd Cymru : North Wales
Worth doing ?

I was thinking of doing this as my first sportive of the year but am having my doubts now. Having read all the feedback from last year's event and bits here about the road selection I'm now thinking twice about entering. Also the fee of £28 seems a bit steep. I've just entered the Lakeland Loop and that was £15 for what seems a similar organised event.

Honest answers please, is it worth doing ? I live in North Wales so have access to a fair amount of hills, so don't need it for the training.

Thanks.
 
Y

Yanto

New Member
Location
North Wales
Tarbo - a mate of mine did it this year. He said that it was ok, but it was the first sportive that he had ever done. They did get lost and ended up doing an extra 15 miles. This was not down to the organisers but to a local farmer who decided to remove signs out of spite. Make of that what you will. My mate is intending to do it again next year so can't have been that bad!
 
S

sportbilly1976

New Member
Location
Sth Manchester
which route is the off-road section on?

am planning to have a go at the 66 mile route.....prefer to get to the hills quickly and with fewer miles in my legs...
 
OP
OP
R

Ravenz

Guest
You'll miss it doing the 66 route... the 'offroad' is around Wrenbury.. the detour is to go past Wrenbury station and pick up marked route after that point.
 
pubrunner

pubrunner

Legendary Member
I notice that The Cheshire Cat is the same day as the Wilmslow Half Marathon (up to 4,000 runners); presumably, the runners route doesn't clash with that of the cyclists ?
 
andy_wrx

andy_wrx

Über Member
Location
Cheshire, soft underbelly of The North
4500 runners I thought, and yes it does, as the Cheshire Cat route from Alderley Edge back to Knutsford is along the same B-road as the Wilmslow Half uses, for about 1/2 mile in Mobberley.

But only the first 1/2 mile or so at the start involves the police closing the road temporarily near the rugby club in Wilmslow, until everyone's gone past - only lasts perhaps 10 minutes but causes major outrage amongst delayed motorists !

After that it's open roads. On narrow country lanes, that will involve runners in the road, particularly as a section of the route is used both ways so there are faster runners coming back passing the tailenders going the other way.

But on that B-road section in Mobberley, the road is still open and has quite a bit of traffic, so the runners are forced to run on the pavement - up and down kerbs at each driveway, round lamp-posts and pillar boxes, on the lefthandside with your back to the traffic and it's a bit awkward to pass other runners : not my favourite bit of the route...

For the Cheshire Cat, it could be a bit of an awkward clash, as the cyclists will be going towards Knutsford and the runners will be on the pavement opposite : the traffic in both directions will be trying to squeeze through the middle...

But Wilmslow starts at 10am or 11am, I forget which, and is a 'serious' race rather than a 'fun run', so most runners are club athletes finishing inside two hours (winner in 1:10 or so...), so it'll only clash with you if you're back really quickly !

I'm dithering a bit at the moment trying to decide which to do. I'll have to make my mind up soon though, as I understand Wilmslow is nearly full and I don't know if the Cheshire Cat is or isn't.
I'm not enthusiastic to spend £28 to do the Cheshire Cat, as it's on roads which I cycle on regularly anyway and I did it last year and didn't think it was exactly that well organised or provided with particularly good facilities - dunno what the UCI logo is supposed to provide...
But Wilmslow isn't exactly cheap either - it's £22.50 because it's a 'premier' event and I'm more used to spending £10-15 on a Half !
 
pubrunner

pubrunner

Legendary Member
andy_wrx said:
But Wilmslow starts at 10am or 11am, I forget which, and is a 'serious' race rather than a 'fun run', so most runners are club athletes finishing inside two hours (winner in 1:10 or so...), so it'll only clash with you if you're back really quickly !
Click to expand...

This will be my first cycle ride (I do mean ride, not race) over 50 miles; even worse, I've yet to start training. I certainly won't be meeting any runners. Yes, I know, I'm going to find it very difficult !!!

Are your one of the 'club athletes' and if so, which club ?
 
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