Good news peeps.
I have just returned from a little recce ride to check out my end of the route planning, wouldn't want anything to go wrong on my patch!
Ride from my place into Manchester was 30 minutes so we should be good for the 10.40ish start.
The route out of central Manchester works like a dream. The surface is good apart from a couple of short stretches of uneven cobbles (maybe 20ft each) and I have tweaked the approach to the Velodrome by staying on the canal slightly longer and approaching via the footbridge. This is much more impressive than riding past McDonalds and Walmart!
From the Velodrome the path through Clayton Vale is surprisingly pleasant and on a dry autumnal day like today could almost be called atmospheric. It might be a damp miserable shlthole on Saturday if the weather is less kind
. From here we have a short climb up towards Woodhouses but this is not too taxing and drops us nicely back onto an old canal towpath through Daisy Nook country park. Even after the rotton weather we have experienced recently the path remains in good condition and should be ok even for your best bikes. If the weather is atrocious there is a tarmac alternative. Riding through Daisy Nook was especially nice today as they had just been cutting the grass and the smell was perfect
The rest of the route is as per the published plan and I am pleased to confirm that if you carry enough speed on the approach you can actually take off as you drop onto Roughtown Road in Mossley
. Just be careful though, it is easy to skid if you have to brake hard while travelling at excessive speed and trying to hold a tight line because you have met a car coming the other way on this twisty single track road.