therams
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Manchester
OK, as promised here is my review of this years Manchester to Blackpool ride…
My scheduled start time was 8:00 so I set of from home at about 7:20, on the short ride from Didsbury to Old Trafford I had already “collected” three other riders. The mood was good, I got chatting to an Irish lad on a MTB how had only ridden 15 miles before the day, but he was confident and in good spirits and lots of good company as the day turned out! At the start I was amazed how busy it was, by the time I had found my work colleague who I was riding with, safety pinned numbers to shirts, collected maps etc. It was about 8:30 before we set off. They were releasing people, in batches of about 50 at about 2 min intervals, which I guess stopped some congestion.
As we rode through Trafford Park and out of Manchester past B&Q, it soon became apparent that speed was not going to be the order of the day! I think to do a fast time; you need to be one of the first off. However, I was quite happy with this, as this was my first 50+ ride and I was more than happy to “pace” myself. The first “hill” of the day came after about 5 miles on the way up to Worsely Mariot and saw a lot of people walking and sitting resting by the side of the road. God knows if any of them made the full distance! Anyway, I sailed up the small hill and was feeling good!
The next 20 odd miles up to Haigh Hall seemed to fly by! We were now into a good rhythm, picking our was past slower riders and trying to hang onto the back of faster riders! The run up to Haigh Hall saw lots of people pushing again, put we were fine. It was the decent after Haigh Hall that was more of an issue! The forest path was steep, wet and muddy. Not great on a road bike, but the people on MTB’s seemed to be loving it! At the bottom I was quite cold, and it took a few miles to get my rhythm back.
I don’t seem to remember much until we go to Preston, we were making good time, and a little bunch of about 6 people of a similar pace had formed. This helped as the wind was starting to pick up. Sometime in this stint, we saw our only accident. It looked like somebody had been clipped by a car. Did not see really, but there were plenty of people attending so we carried on. Not much we could do to help.
When we arrived in Preston the wind really hit us, and we felt a few drops of rain. Luckily, this never turned into proper rain, but the wind was now with us until the end. The wind seemed to really break the field up. At one point I was at the front of our group and suddenly I could not see anybody in front of me! The panic set in that I might be leading 100s of people down the wrong road! Fortunately, we soon caught another group!
Anyway onwards, now I was starting to get a bit bored. Most of the conversation had dried up and every body was concentrating on getting through the wind. My legs felt fine, but I now realise the challenge of riding long distance is keeping you mind occupied. I soon got through this as I was told we only had 17 miles to go! I can normally do 17 miles in an hour, so my 4 hour target time was well within my reach!
I was very very wrong! With the wind now blowing hard I only managed to average about 13 mph for that last leg. I still felt good though as not many people were passing us. And those that were looked a lot fitter than me! When we hit the coast I was told by a Marshall, that there were 2 miles to go! In the end it turned out to be about 6, the longest 6 miles of my life, but we made it. In fact the finish came as quite a surprise! I managed to put on a sprint an hit 25 mph, before getting told to slow down aver the PA!
I think my time was around the 4 hours 15 mins, but my Garmin stopped logging for about 6 miles so I can’t be sure. I had wanted to break 4 hours, but with the traffic and wind I was Happy.
I will leave it to others to comment on the standard of cycling and car drivers!
Here is the profile of the route!
My scheduled start time was 8:00 so I set of from home at about 7:20, on the short ride from Didsbury to Old Trafford I had already “collected” three other riders. The mood was good, I got chatting to an Irish lad on a MTB how had only ridden 15 miles before the day, but he was confident and in good spirits and lots of good company as the day turned out! At the start I was amazed how busy it was, by the time I had found my work colleague who I was riding with, safety pinned numbers to shirts, collected maps etc. It was about 8:30 before we set off. They were releasing people, in batches of about 50 at about 2 min intervals, which I guess stopped some congestion.
As we rode through Trafford Park and out of Manchester past B&Q, it soon became apparent that speed was not going to be the order of the day! I think to do a fast time; you need to be one of the first off. However, I was quite happy with this, as this was my first 50+ ride and I was more than happy to “pace” myself. The first “hill” of the day came after about 5 miles on the way up to Worsely Mariot and saw a lot of people walking and sitting resting by the side of the road. God knows if any of them made the full distance! Anyway, I sailed up the small hill and was feeling good!
The next 20 odd miles up to Haigh Hall seemed to fly by! We were now into a good rhythm, picking our was past slower riders and trying to hang onto the back of faster riders! The run up to Haigh Hall saw lots of people pushing again, put we were fine. It was the decent after Haigh Hall that was more of an issue! The forest path was steep, wet and muddy. Not great on a road bike, but the people on MTB’s seemed to be loving it! At the bottom I was quite cold, and it took a few miles to get my rhythm back.
I don’t seem to remember much until we go to Preston, we were making good time, and a little bunch of about 6 people of a similar pace had formed. This helped as the wind was starting to pick up. Sometime in this stint, we saw our only accident. It looked like somebody had been clipped by a car. Did not see really, but there were plenty of people attending so we carried on. Not much we could do to help.
When we arrived in Preston the wind really hit us, and we felt a few drops of rain. Luckily, this never turned into proper rain, but the wind was now with us until the end. The wind seemed to really break the field up. At one point I was at the front of our group and suddenly I could not see anybody in front of me! The panic set in that I might be leading 100s of people down the wrong road! Fortunately, we soon caught another group!
Anyway onwards, now I was starting to get a bit bored. Most of the conversation had dried up and every body was concentrating on getting through the wind. My legs felt fine, but I now realise the challenge of riding long distance is keeping you mind occupied. I soon got through this as I was told we only had 17 miles to go! I can normally do 17 miles in an hour, so my 4 hour target time was well within my reach!
I was very very wrong! With the wind now blowing hard I only managed to average about 13 mph for that last leg. I still felt good though as not many people were passing us. And those that were looked a lot fitter than me! When we hit the coast I was told by a Marshall, that there were 2 miles to go! In the end it turned out to be about 6, the longest 6 miles of my life, but we made it. In fact the finish came as quite a surprise! I managed to put on a sprint an hit 25 mph, before getting told to slow down aver the PA!
I think my time was around the 4 hours 15 mins, but my Garmin stopped logging for about 6 miles so I can’t be sure. I had wanted to break 4 hours, but with the traffic and wind I was Happy.
I will leave it to others to comment on the standard of cycling and car drivers!
Here is the profile of the route!
