Manchester to Blackpool
Christies Charity Bike Ride
Sunday 12th July 2015
64 Miles
Click Here for Route Via Strava
Sadly the battery on my tracker died at 58 mile but we did complete the course
The last couple of weeks adventures have seen us preparing for this ride. Bright and early Sunday morning (6.00am) get up in preparation for the day ahead, bike checked, refreshments sorted, dressed and ready to go at 6.45, when Graham arrived to pick me up, then met up with TT, and Danny. We get the bikes in the van and head of to Old Trafford where our adventure begins, but unfortunately the motorway is closed and we have to make a large detour which met we didn’t arrive for our scheduled start time of 8.00am, but instead we arrived at 8.15am and found the event extremely well organised and were quickly processed and on our way for 8.20am
Once we were on our way we joined a large group of other cyclists of all abilities when we were told that some idiots had sprinkled tacks on the course to cause punctures, set of proper “ Not Rights”, luckily we managed to avoid any incident and made good progress out of Manchester along Redclyffe Road and over Barton Swing Bridge and along Worsley road up across the East Lancs , heading towards Atherton with the drizzle now descending from the clouds. We remained in our little group of 4 with us changing places to set the pace. Then it was up the hill at Daisey Hill until we joined the A6, turned left up Dicconson Lane where we took our first stop off at a rest area 20mile in.
Continuing along up through Haigh Hall Danny and myself accelerated down the hill hitting speeds of 30mph and more , this left Graham and TT quite away behind, but as we were doing this as a team we waited a little further along the road for them to catch up.
Once we were all together again we climbed the hill up Rectory Lane to join Preston Rd in Standish, here we experienced one of the perils of people who use clip cycling pedals. As we waited at the junction to turn right a large group of cyclists amassed, when the road became clear we all began to set of some jostling for space, but one guy at the side of me set of only to halted immediately by a lady in front, having already clipped into his pedal he couldn’t get his foot out nearly toppling over onto me, and to say he was a large gentleman would be an understatement, so that was a lucky escape.
We were now well into the ride and were thoroughly enjoying it with little incident, so we continued along through lovely countryside near Charnock Richard with the sunshine now beginning to break through the clouds . Surprisingly we were still in a large group of riders passing and being passed by others, as we proceeded at our leisurely pace.
Although we were only travelling at a leisurely speed we soon found ourselves heading up towards Leyland here we took up the offer of free water and sweets at the junction with Flensburg way where in the lay-by there is a memorial featuring an old Centurion tank , which were made near Leyland.. We knew we would soon be approaching Preston where the 40 mile rest stop was , but we had already decided that we wouldn’t stop there and continue on to the last stop at the 50 mile point. As we were passing through Leyland we got held up at some lights and heavy traffic and some of the riders were having to use the footpath due to the traffic, one of these was Graham who while trying to pass was almost taken out, not by a fellow rider but by a large privet hedge he didn’t see !
Continuing on our way we went up Liverpool Rd crossing the river Ribble before bearing left onto A59, here though was the scene of a near fatal crash, as a group of riders were in the nearside lane turning left a stupid idiot of a woman driver decided at the last minute she was in the wrong lane and just veered into the lane were about 60 -70 riders were , luckily they were able to avoid her with screeching rubber and some very near misses, it really could have been much worse if she hadn’t panicked and come to an abrupt stop in the middle of the road, needlessly to say some choice words were offered in her direction. After this it was a pretty uneventful few miles. Now past the marina at Preston we turned right passed Ashton park before crossing Blackpool Rd , luckily the lights were green, as most of the previous lights had been red were there had been a build up of riders ,which resulted in large group starts that are not great due to the diversity of riders taking part, but here we rode straight across and up lea Rd and now began to enjoy the relatively flat section of the ride where Danny began to pull away from the 3 of us, TT now began to feel the consequences of little training for a 64 mile ride so Graham and myself remained with him to give him some support.
Now with the sun shining and two thirds of the ride completed we started to look towards the finish with our last stop off point being only 15 miles from the end at Freckleton, here we caught up with Danny and took advantage of the rest break and after 20 minute break we set off for the final leg.
On the road again we were soon in Lytham with the sea on our left but we were riding headlong into the wind now which was like riding up a very long hill and we had still 6 mile to go but we knew we were nearly at the finish so we just got on with it, and when we shortly stopped at a set of lights the marshal there told us we had only 2.5 mile to go, so heads down we went for it, soon we could see the big one, then the mirror ball and finally the finishing line. As we had rode together we crossed the finishing line all together collecting our certificates, Soreen and water.
After passing the finishing line we joined hundreds of riders in the field were there were marquees offering massages, food ,return coach transport and more importantly for us a beer tent. Disappointingly though when Danny and TT went to get some beers they were told that they weren’t allowed to take the plastic glasses out of the tent, or to take bikes into the ten t, with the field covered in bikes of which a lot are worth over £700 -£1000 each it is no wonder the beer tent was empty, maybe next year the organisers could look into this issue, so it was now just a case of loading the bikes back in the van for the journey home till next year.
Congratulations to our wonderful cyclists!
We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who took part in the 2015 Manchester to Blackpool bike ride. Despite a soggy start at Old Trafford over 5,500 people completed the the challenge to finish in a much sunnier Blackpool.
We hope that you all had a fantastic time and are proud of what you achieved. We loved cheering you on and congratulating you as you crossed the finish line and would like to say a big thank you to Soreen and AG Barr for donating the water and Soreen bars, we hope you enjoyed them!
