Wednesday Club Run to Dunham Massey
Cycleways: The good, the not so good and the superfluous
One of the aims of the Wed Club Run is to move the rides around the compass. This week it was time to head north. This meant heading in the direction of Stockport and Manchester - very nice places but also lots of busy roads and traffic. One way of minimising exposure to this traffic is to make use of the cycleways that appear to accompany new road developments. And so after the peace and quiet of Norbury Hollow we headed west on the cycleway alongside the airport link road from High Lane. Here the Macclesfield contingent of Steve, Simon, Chris, Phil, Moray and Raph were joined by Eddie from Hazel Grove. This traffic free cycleway is about 7 miles to the airport and the airport orbital cycleway. Here the choice is the southerly route via Quarry Bank mill or the northerly route through the various airport support roads. The southerly route is definitely a more pleasant ride but as this involves some gravel and bridleway sections we took the northerly route to Mill Lane to join the more usual route to Lavender Barn via Ashley. Suitably fed and watered, despite some technical and recipe issues in the kitchen, we proceeded to the narrow metal bridge over the Bollin to Little Bollington and the cycleway parallel to the A556 from Millington Lane to Over Tabley. In view of the other quiet lane options in the area this cycleway felt a bit superfluous particularly as it deposits cyclists at a junction with the M6! Fortunately this was avoided by taking a back roads route to Tabley Road and Knutsford where a short tour of the one-way system took us to the Mobberly Road and the final cycleway of the day - the A34 bypass to Monk's Heath. Definitely not one of the more scenic routes in this part of the world and not one we're likely to repeat anytime soon but at least it diverted attention from the dreich weather and makes you appreciate the routes on the other points of the compass even more. The ride stats were 54 miles with 2600 feet of climb at an average speed of around 12 mph.
Raph
Chris - bridge across the Bollin
Single file: Chris, Steve, Phil, Moray
Phil, Raph, Moray, Simon, Steve.
Cycleways