Larkling Ride: High Legh
That’s High Legh the long way around, ie via Bollington & Prestbury.
Just four set out on today’s Larkling: Sue, Lucia, Simon (leading) and myself, but only three came back. Sue was on marshalling duties at the Open 25 TT in Goostrey, so both today’s rides were aimed at being there in time for that, which included an earlier than usual start.
Sunny but very cold at the park, so I for one was glad of a couple of hills around Bollington to get the blood pumping. By Prestbury I could feel my fingers again. At Tytherington Lucia had a call and had to leave us, at the same place Brian appeared looking for the Larks but had to make do with the Larklings. We were still at four, but a different four.
Brian set a brisk pace which was quite “refreshing”. The back lanes around Mobberley & Tatton were very familiar from the Sunday Easy Rides. We arrived at High Legh Garden Centre at 28 miles. In the queue for food Simon had an incident where he was hit in the eye by a flying porcelain fragment?! The staff were very apologetic, and they even gave him some vouchers by way of an apology. Food was nice (I probably didn’t need the extra cake, as the toastie was very filling, with inch thick ham). The Larks arrived about 20 minutes after us. The cafe was very busy as usual.
There were concerns about marshals making it to the event on time, so upon departure Sue went off with a different group to crank up the pace. Now the Larklings were down to three. Simon dropped his chain coming out of the cafe, so we lost the Larks, but Brian then instigated a chase. We almost got back on, but not quite. Brian kept the pace around Simon’s magical 15 mph mark for most of the way back. I was really feeling it around Goostrey. By the time we hit Pexhill the elastic finally snapped and I could no longer hold the wheel. Brian went off toward Gawsworth, and I limped on up to Broken Cross with Simon.
“You are the weakest link... goodbye.”
I found my limits today. They say that makes you stronger.
55 miles, 3,150 ft, 13.3 avg.
With such a small focused group we didn’t have any faffing and “micro rests” which make all the difference and allow time for me to take photos, sorry.
Thanks to Simon, Chris and Brian for dragging us along.