All downhill after the first climb

Posted on Sun 21 March 2010 by alex in general

Today I'm quite achey after Saturday morning's excursion to the top of Alderley Edge . Although the ride to the base of the climb was fairly easy the actual mile of steep ascent defeated me as well as the chain on Fliss' bike. By the time we got up to the Wizard Coffee shop we were both soaked through and looking forward to the promised "downhill all the way from here" back to Knutsford.

Unfortunately we couldn't get the chain on Fliss' bike working so she retired early via taxi to a nice warm bath while myself, Mufi and Daz continued on back via the predominately downhill route. I say predominately because there where still a number of rises we had climb as the landscape of Cheshire is still considerably more lumpy than the flat fenland that is my usual staple cycling experience. This wasn't helped by the occasional navigational snafu. The 10% incline was great to zoom down but not so much when we discovered we needed to go back up it to take the turn we had missed.

By the time we made it back to the house we'd managed 34 miles and some very soaked feet. The king size bath was a welcome end to the excursion.

The rest of the day was mainly concerned with the last three games of the 6 Nations. The Wales game was fantastic, all credit to the Scot's for saving themselves from the humiliation of the wooden spoon. It was also good to see England playing considerably better than they have been the last few days. It's a shame it wasn't enough to win but good that we held France to such a narrow lead. There was a mini party afterwards although no overly late nights as there was a preponderance of tiredness around.