The Return of The Iron Men

20th July 2017

Journey Length 21.5 ml

Click Here For Route Via Ride with GPS

After cheering on our mate Phil, who successfully completed the iron man competition in Bolton last Sunday we decided to do our little iron man expedition to Rivington. The route was set after we had met at Gorses Rd bridge, which was to be our starting point.

Minor adjustments made to the bikes and our water levels checked we set off. Following the old railway line we were soon in Bolton town centre, passing site of the lost glasses from a previous adventure, sadly there was no sign of them, but I had found at home another pair as replacements, so on we went not stopping, no time for that we were on a mission. Joining the Middlebrook trail we passed over the bridge were a couple of years ago Graham came up with the great idea of winged cycle suits to utilise the power of the wind. But we had never taken it any further

We stopped off once on the trail just to take a couple of photos and remark that this was the way Phil would have run in his marathon. Emerging on to Lostock lane we went through the road works and headed up through the golf course eventually reaching the Macron stadium. Not even stopping here we carefully crossed over De Havilland way to reach the cycle path which would take us safely to the Beehive roundabout. Whilst on the green cycle path Graham came out with “glad its a green cycle path I hate the red psycho paths he he “, OMG ! After this we made steady progress reaching the Crown pub at Horwich in good time. After a short pit stop (no beer was consumed) we headed on up Lever Park ave up the steep hill past Rivington and Blackrod high school. On the approach into Rivington we again stopped for a quick photo snap, then it was onwards and upwards, we took a slight detour and headed up to the top barn, after a quick look round we were ready for the off again but not after a quick selfie snap

Now we were here, we thought rather than head back down to rejoin the road we would work our way through to join it further on. A quick look at the map and we were off, in the wrong direction, instead of heading up and to our left we ended up going up and to our right, eventually doing a full circle back to the barn, ahh well all part of our extreme bike adventures. Now we were back on the right path and onto Sheephouse lane, passed Willcocks farm caravan site which would lead us eventually to Rivington road.

Shortly after this we came upon the big climb up the hill which took all our energy , but eventually we made it to the top and oh boy was it worth it , what a terrific view. We took a short break to get our breath back and thought of Phil doing this in the iron man. We thought this could be us next year, nah not really, we were knackered now, so hats off to you Phil.

Now after another couple of small climbs we were at the top and it was all down hill to the Black Dog pub in Belmont. As we came down the hill like a couple of school kids free wheeling all the way we came to the blue lagoon and what a disappointment, it was almost empty and looked very sorry for itself. Apparently the plug was pulled back in 2010 because it didn’t reach government safety standards.

We decided not to partake in a beer at the pub, instead heading home after I had told Graham “ its all down hill from here mate” after the climbs we had done. Now after about 1 mile we hit a hill, “ all down hill is it pal ?” Graham shouted from behind me “ sorry mate I’d forgot about this one” I replied.

Soon we had reached the bottom of Belmont road , and decided to return home along Crompton way, as this would be best for both of us. Once a the junction of bury rod it was just one last little hill to the path leading through Leverhulme and back to where we had begun our little iron man adventure. As we discussing where we had been on our adventure I realised I’d lost my glasses, “Oh not again” I exclaimed frustratedly, as Graham looked on despondently. My frustration with myself lasted only for a short time, I’d forgotten I’d put them in my pouch on the front of the bike, ohh the joys of getting old.