Archive for the ‘Road’ Category

Liverpool – Chester – Liverpool charity ride 2009

Monday, February 9th, 2009

This is worth an update I think, now in its 16th year, the LCL will this year include an additional event in the  form of a 90 mile sportive. There are also 20, 25 and 54 mile routes as usual. The 90 mile route will start and finish in Liverpool and take in Delamere Forest, criss cross the Sandstone trail and visit Alvanley, Woodside and Great Barrow. Chester will be utilised as a refreshment stop.

Another first for this year will be online registration, which removes a lot of headaches in my opinion.

http://www.pennineevents.co.uk/Events09.html

http://www.pennineevents.co.uk/News/LCL09.html

An intersting bit of trivia for this event, it’s the only one in the country to include 5 miles of underground cycling, as one of the Mersey Tunnels will be closed! It’s always a good natured event, experienced cyclists – please give the novices extra room in the tunnel, it’s been like human skittles in previous years! Many of the novices will turn up on fairly low-end machinery, but a bit of encouragement and a good experience may see them return next year as devoted cyclists!

Posted in 80 - 100 miles, Bikes, Cheshire, Liverpool, Road, Routes, Wirral | No Comments »

Horseshoe Pass (Llangollen) and Worlds End

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

I’m experimenting with MapMyRide this week as I’m having some problems uploading a route to Motionbased. This was a hard ride, I was anticipating the climb up to the Ponderosa café well in advance, and actually it wasn’t that difficult. What caught me by surprise was the next big climb of the day up to Worlds End! Mapmyride reckons I climbed just over 2000 feet today, but I know for sure it was in the region of 4200 feet. Probably just one of the reasons I’ll revert back to Motionbased just as soon as I can work out the glitch.

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Posted in 60 - 80 miles, Road, Wales, Wirral | 2 Comments »

Delamere via Liverpool bike ride

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

I fancied a change today, so thought to add another dimension to the ride, I’d go to Delamere again but this time going via Liverpool and the famous Mersey Ferries. The ride should be just over 80 miles, but I had my first glitch with the Edge 705 today, it hung somewhere in the Runcorn area and so I lost roughly a mile of data recording.

Once you get past Runcorn bridge and head out into Delamere and Cheshire, the scenery starts to open up. This panoramic picture was taken on Quarrybank road near the village of Quarrybank at a high point (484ft in altitude according to SportTracks) of the ride. I hadn’t expected this much climbing here, I planned the route without the benefit of topo information and it took me by surprise!

Panorama taken near Quarrybank in Cheshire

As usual, here’s the Google overview of the ride, I’ve had to make the overview slightly bigger than usual. you can download the route here.

View Larger Map

More later.

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Posted in 80 - 100 miles, Cheshire, Liverpool, Road, Wirral | 2 Comments »

Delamere forest ride – AKA Steve Cummings route

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

Today, a spin across to Delamere Forest followed by a hack across the Cheshire plains. 70 miles all in, I was slightly under-dressed as it felt a bit chilly heading out into the strong Easterly wind. The climb up to Alvanley soon sorted that out though ;-)

This route is reputed to be used by Steve Cummings, a well known local cyclist who is gaining prominence on the professional circuit. The route appeared in a past issue of Cycling Weekly, but I came to know about it after Frank published the route on his site. Cracking route, let down only by having to ride along Oil Sites road, right through the middle of the Shell Oil refinery! It gets better, trust me!

The route passes Oulton Park racetrack, it was pretty noisy there today, the BRSCC Car Championships were being held.


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Go here to download the route.

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Posted in 60 - 80 miles, Cheshire, Road, Routes, Wirral | No Comments »

Ride to Loggerheads Café – North Wales

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Today was the first chance I’ve had to put the Edge 705 through its paces, it was excellent! I decided to upload a route that I’d edited in MapSource but once on the ride I decided to let the Edge navigate the route for me by choosing a destination out of the favourites instead. It happily took me away (where possible) from very busy roads (mainly with NSL signs) and took me in some cases through quiet residential areas, not somewhere I usually ride on my longer rides but it was a welcome change!


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Due to the feature (See below in the review), the route above isn’t 100% accurate, it doesn’t for instance show me following some quiet cycle paths around the busy A550 area. It’s a nice route though, some nice quiet roads in North Wales. There’s been a lot of rain lately, but today was fairly dry, though in the picture of the ford near Loggerheads below, you’ll see that I had to use the footbridge, I usually ride straight through!

Picture of river crossing and footbridge

On the whole, it’s a great device!

Click here if you want to download/export the route.

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Posted in 60 - 80 miles, Road, Wales, Wirral | No Comments »

Wirral loop

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

I did a quick spin of the Wirral on Sunday, briefly passing into North Wales before returning via the Eureka Cyclist’s Café. The route makes use of some of the quieter roads in the area, including the ‘Missing Link’.

I’ve packaged the route files into one convenient zip file. You’ll find .crs, .tcx and .gpx in there. Use the one most convenient for you.


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Posted in 40 - 60 miles, Road, Routes, Wirral | No Comments »