A friend of mine from work, Angela, told me about the event that is being run today 13th. The event includes two bike rides to Cleveleys and back on at 11am and the other at 2pm. Angie suggested we go together on the ride at 11 as she wanted to get out on her bike, maybe dragging her husband along as well. I agreed since I had ridden to Cleveleys before and knew I could cope with it now.
OK looking at my logs I haven’t ridden for a month, or blogged either for that matter – sorry for that.
We met at the corner of Macbeth road and Manor road and rode down the prom Angie’s husband didn’t come along in the end. I let Angie lead to see how fast she was going to go more than anything and found I was pedalling less and freewheeling more! The wind was behind us.
We arrived at the Marine hall in Fleetwood in about 10 minutes, its a mile from my house and as Angie lives on the road behind me its about the same for her. During the registration which was free, we were given a free tee-shirt. I squeezed into an XL one, err the shirt I had on is 5XL hmm it was stretchy but tight.
After registration it was a rolling start and off towards Cleveleys. Its the first time I had ridden in a group and found it frustrating at first with kids riding all over the place. Eventually, due to the wind, the group of around 50 spread out a little which made it easier. We had to stop once to let Angie take her jacket off and rest a little as she hadn’t ridden in ages. In fact it had been so long since she had ridden her rear brake cable had seized up! Once her jacket was in my pannier bag, we rode on for a while. The wind became more in our faces as we rounded Rossall point.
As we turned further towards south the wind became a cross wind but still had a slight headwind component in it, Angie had to get off and walk a couple of times – it was windy! I stayed on my bike and trundled along to keep her company despite being told I could go on ahead if I wanted. It wasn’t a race and we were meant to be riding together so I stayed with her.
The outbound journey ended at the new cafe on the Cleveleys prom opposite the Vue cinema. I didn’t check the time it took to go out there, probably around 45 mins.
After a 30ish minute rest it was time for the group to set off back. We lined up ready for the start, chatted with our fellow cyclists then it was time for the off. the ride back was much faster, maybe twice as fast. At one point we got up to 14mph and I think we could have stayed at that for a good few minutes but had so much traffic in terms of pedestrians that we had to slow down to a more stately 9mph for the remainder of the ride. We stopped for a quick social chat with one of Angies relatives who had started out with her two children but only got as far as the sunken car park, bless.
I think the ride itself took us about an hour of cycling, I took no notice of the computer. The total ride time was 1:24 and I covered 10.4 miles. interestingly I took food with me but didn’t eat it, and I only drank 1 litre of water. On the whole a nice ride out. Thanks to the organisers and of course Angie for suggesting going on the event.
