Tony OKeefe
Active Member
- Location
- Manchester
Manchester - Llandudno 2016 : Saturday April 23...for Harry, England and St George
- Thread starter nickyboy
- Start date
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Jaykun85
Senior Member
- Location
- Northwich, Cheshire
at least the wind is in the right direction today then for you
That's 'cause we told you we'd be there at ten, not nine. I blame all the bottles of Punk IPA on the table for you not remembering that.
tommaguzzi
Über Member
- Location
- County Durham
thanks for a great weekend everyone. esp Nicky who made it happen. i hope i can ride with you all again sometime.
OP
OP
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
Finally home...
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came. I really enjoyed myself. It was great to see old friends from last year's ride and they got a much better day's weather this year. It was also great to meet some new CCers and particularly pleasant was the fact that several had never done a ride of this length before. I was very impressed that everyone was prepared for the ride and nobody struggled. It really is the case that so long as a decent number of folk are willing to spend a day cycling and come well prepared and enjoy themselves, people like me will keep organising rides
I wont' write a detailed ride report. The weather was very kind to us, particularly the first half. The stops seemed to work well and everybody got to meet everybody. Great to see so many stopping over in Llandudno and making a night of it
I managed the 118 miles back to Glossop. I got a bit lost around Chester when my GPS stopped working and I almost packed at Knutsford when it was hosing down. But it cleared up and I managed a bit better than I was expecting. Having said that I am struggling to walk up the stairs, may have to sleep on the sofa or try to get an emergency Stannah chairlift
I will try to run the ride again next year, time pressure permitting. I'm also thinking about maybe another ride as well if I have time. From a different Northern city to a different seaside town. When I have time I will suss it out to see if it's a runner or not
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came. I really enjoyed myself. It was great to see old friends from last year's ride and they got a much better day's weather this year. It was also great to meet some new CCers and particularly pleasant was the fact that several had never done a ride of this length before. I was very impressed that everyone was prepared for the ride and nobody struggled. It really is the case that so long as a decent number of folk are willing to spend a day cycling and come well prepared and enjoy themselves, people like me will keep organising rides
I wont' write a detailed ride report. The weather was very kind to us, particularly the first half. The stops seemed to work well and everybody got to meet everybody. Great to see so many stopping over in Llandudno and making a night of it
I managed the 118 miles back to Glossop. I got a bit lost around Chester when my GPS stopped working and I almost packed at Knutsford when it was hosing down. But it cleared up and I managed a bit better than I was expecting. Having said that I am struggling to walk up the stairs, may have to sleep on the sofa or try to get an emergency Stannah chairlift
I will try to run the ride again next year, time pressure permitting. I'm also thinking about maybe another ride as well if I have time. From a different Northern city to a different seaside town. When I have time I will suss it out to see if it's a runner or not
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mythste
Veteran
- Location
- Manchester
Made it back. Nearly!
Got 70 of the 94 miles and my knee decided it had had enough. Que frantically one foot pedalling to the closest train station to find a wait of an hour and 40 minutes! Just had a bath to rid myself of the cold and sense of impending death that had accumulated.
Other than that, and being nearly kicked out of weatherspoons for being underage I wouldn't have changed a thing!
Got 70 of the 94 miles and my knee decided it had had enough. Que frantically one foot pedalling to the closest train station to find a wait of an hour and 40 minutes! Just had a bath to rid myself of the cold and sense of impending death that had accumulated.
Other than that, and being nearly kicked out of weatherspoons for being underage I wouldn't have changed a thing!
mythste
Veteran
- Location
- Manchester
OP
OP
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
To the three of you, I was the 'civvy' on the blue MTB that you passed near Prestatyn Golf Club, just after Pontins.
I didn't say hello as I didn't want to hold anyone up, although it did take you 5 miles to catch me
Enjoy the ride back - that wind was hard work.
You should have shouted up @fossyant . I was the guy in the helmet who stared at you as we went past as I wanted a good look at the MTBer who so nonchalantly kept us at bay for 5 miles. Once a racing snake.............
Well a great weekend really. After Eureka I accompanied rich p, McWobble, wanda2010 and theclaud up the hilly route. mike3121 and nephew split off to do the coast route.
I didn't have the hilly route and kind of assumed as Rich was driving us up the hills he knew where he was going. I don't know why I assumed that, it's not like I don't know him. Luckily Wanda did have the route and we all had phones but Wandas tech kept throwing a hissy fit and trying to follow a NCN route on a phone is fraught with frustrations. So the pantomine was, we all arrived at a junction, whipped out our phones, said some place names, pointed in different directions and then followed the first one to set off. We did actually go roughly the right way but my NCN, route following grumpiness finally got the better of me when I saw a sign for Prestatyn and persuaded everyone to head for the coast the signed way. At this point I'm not mentioning the later sign to Rhyl, which Rich seemed to think we should head for, because as any fule know. No one heads for Rhyl.
On arrival at the coast I was reminded of Nick's sage words earlier in the thread as we grimly battled a head wind towards the Orme, one slow pedal stroke at a time, feeling like we'd never actually wind it in until with a pop we arrived in the spectacular Rhos-on-Sea, where we didn't linger
I suppose one year it might not be a wind, it might relent to a hurricane or something. Still, it was quite useful coming the opposite way today.
Once again, thanks to Nick for running this ride. I enjoyed it last year and was looking forward to it again this year. It might take a few weeks to forget about the hills and the wind but once I have, I'll look forward to it again next year, hopefully.
I didn't have the hilly route and kind of assumed as Rich was driving us up the hills he knew where he was going. I don't know why I assumed that, it's not like I don't know him. Luckily Wanda did have the route and we all had phones but Wandas tech kept throwing a hissy fit and trying to follow a NCN route on a phone is fraught with frustrations. So the pantomine was, we all arrived at a junction, whipped out our phones, said some place names, pointed in different directions and then followed the first one to set off. We did actually go roughly the right way but my NCN, route following grumpiness finally got the better of me when I saw a sign for Prestatyn and persuaded everyone to head for the coast the signed way. At this point I'm not mentioning the later sign to Rhyl, which Rich seemed to think we should head for, because as any fule know. No one heads for Rhyl.
On arrival at the coast I was reminded of Nick's sage words earlier in the thread as we grimly battled a head wind towards the Orme, one slow pedal stroke at a time, feeling like we'd never actually wind it in until with a pop we arrived in the spectacular Rhos-on-Sea, where we didn't linger
I suppose one year it might not be a wind, it might relent to a hurricane or something. Still, it was quite useful coming the opposite way today.
Once again, thanks to Nick for running this ride. I enjoyed it last year and was looking forward to it again this year. It might take a few weeks to forget about the hills and the wind but once I have, I'll look forward to it again next year, hopefully.
OP
OP
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
I can't believe you actually fell for that "breeze not wind" line. It was my bait to make sure you were on the ride....then it was too late for you all
You're right about the pleasure of almost freewheeling at 20mph this morning. We got shouted at by a dog walker for "cycling too fast". It was a proud moment for me
mythste
Veteran
- Location
- Manchester
I opted for the flat route back and must have averaged over 25 mph between Llandudno and Connahs quay. Glorious!
