(Nearly) Twenty go to Tatton

There were a lot of us out on last Sunday’s sunny easy ride from Wilmslow to Tatton Park.

Sue led a group over from Broken Cross to the start point in Wilmslow, and a number of others found their own way there by 10.30am, apart from Jim who was enjoying his breakfast so much that he lost track of time. John was away riding a 200km audax with Phil Br, so I persuaded Sue and Snowy to lead the slightly faster riders. They set off first, and I followed with a slightly slower group of six, only to go past the faster riders regrouping less than a mile away. They overtook us again on Blakeley Lane, but soon spotted that my short cut along Ostler’s Lane was a less muddy option than the plotted route along a track. The groups were thoroughly mixed up by the end of Lady Lane, so I stopped and brought the slower group back together (apart from Paul R, who carried on, as he likes to give us something to chase after!!)

My group arrived at Tatton Park, as the first table full of Macclesfield Wheelers were just tucking into breakfast baps, and the rest were still ordering. There were a lot of families, walkers and dogs enjoying the sun, so we had to make do with some shady tables outside, but at least there were no wasps this time. Jim also turned up very breathless, having ridden the route out, including the track, solo and at great speed.

For the ride back we managed to get ourselves into 3 distinct groups - a group led by Sue heading fairly direct back to Macclesfield, another group led by Snowy taking a longer route back towards Macclesfield (seemed to involve ice cream), and a select group of 4 heading back to Wilmslow. This route included the back streets of Knutsford, fortunately Simon G is better at navigating these than I am. I also found myself really struggling to keep up with Simon, Jim and Fiona. I even stopped and checked that my brakes were not rubbing, but failed to notice that my front wheel quick release had quick released. It took until Wednesday to realise why I had done so much ‘peak’ on the way back. Fiona’s husband ( a different Jim) caught up with us in Mobberley, so they turned off towards Artist’s Lane, and Jim, Simon and I took the short route back via the Plough and Flail, picking up some apples being given away en route.

We also had another pop-up Thursday extra easy ride the previous Thursday, with 7 of us taking a varied but short route to Barnshaw Smithy.

Katherine (Photo credits to Sue for action shots and Griff for ice cream shots)

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