This is my ride from Saturday.
I really don't like hills, so it's just as well that I live in the flat part of Cheshire and have to go out of my way to find them. But sometimes I feel that I need to behave like a real cyclist and embrace the pain.
So I loaded my bike into the back of the car and drove to Mobberley, thus eliminating 9 miles each way of flat road. Starting from there it's about 5 miles to the first hill, Artists Lane, 1.1 miles at an average 5% with some 10% ramps. This emerges at the Wizard pub at the top of Wizard Hill, and is an alternative to riding up on Macclesfield Road from Alderley Edge. I prefer Artists Lane as it's not so busy with traffic and is slightly less steep.
Then gentle descending to Adlington where the road starts to climb for about 5 miles through Pott Shrigley to the top of The Brickworks. The Brickworks itself is 1.6 miles at an average 6% with some ramps of 10%+. Although this climb has a reputation locally I didn't find it as hard as I expected.
What goes up must go down and I dislike descending even more than climbing. I have no technique, I didn't start cycling until I was 64 so never learned to ride properly as a youth. I'm also aware that falling off at my age is not recommended, so anything over 30mph requires clinging on to the brakes and hoping I don't need the AG2R shorts. I didn't help that as I was hurtling down towards Bollington a motorcyclist zoomed around a blind bend on my side of the road!
Then Bollington and its narrow streets with cars parked on both sides and no room for car and bike to pass. Fortunately I got up Lord Street (0.2 miles at 8% average) without encountering traffic. This has a final ramp of 20% which is about the maximum gradient I can manage without coming to a standstill.
After Bollington a fairly easy ride back to the car, 37.4 miles and 732 metres of climbing - nothing to our friends in Yorkshire, Derbyshire etc!
As an aside, on my way home I passed a friend of my daughters who spent the weekend riding all 175 miles of the Cheshire Cycleway to raise funds for MacMillan Nurses.
Very nice though. 40 odd miles completed, another visit from the p*ncture fairy thwarted by the 'slime' inner tubes. 
.
) cruise in on the loaded Trek.
;will be back on the XLS tomorrow so will try out the new Isadore l/s jersey and Endura race cape combo and will go back to some 3/4's rather than the tights of today.
;will hopefully give me some leeway if the weather turns for the worst in November and December.
