To tick the lumpy and long boxes within a reasonable time limit (I left at 3pm and had to be in Macc for a BBQ), I decided to go over to Broadbottom, up the hill to Charlesworth, round the corner to Marple then along the main road through Poynton to Macclesfield.
I did originally think I would go up over Monks lane and over to Hayfield and Macc that way, however as I am going on a big ride on Sunday I decided that I would not burn my legs out and went for a lower level ride that still had a cheeky little hill or two.
The first cheeky little hill went from Hyde to Mottram and is just a long slog. It's not very steep but it does have a strava segment that goes its full length, it proved to be a good warmup for the legs and lungs so by the time I reached the top I was a bit hot.
The next was the climb from the valley bottom in Broadbottom up to Charlesworth. This is a cat 4 climb and did make my legs hurt a bit. It was a good climb though and allowed me to run up and down the gears a few times before I reached the top. I was passed by another rider towards the top so that of course meant one thing, the chase was on!!! As we both turned right at Charlesworth heading towards Marple I could see this chap pulling ahead and getting a nice bit of a lead on me. The most he got was maybe 10 seconds but Sergeant Major Matt was jumping up and down screaming "CRUSH HIM!!!". On the first little bit of flat he was moving fast but I was keeping pace with him. Strangely on the first bit of downhill he didn't descend that fast so I made a big gain. He obviously knew I was behind him as he could probably hear my bike creaking, he indicated to pull out around some parked cars. I was on his wheel by this point. By now we were running the bends and had picked up some traffic too. I knew that I had to pass him before the decent into Marple as being stuck behind him would be dangerous at that distance. With less than 500meters to go to the top of the decent I decided to kick it up a knotch. I made the move in a matter of seconds and to make sure he didn't counter me and pass again I just had to keep on accelerating and put in some distance. After that it was a case of the steep and moderately technical decent into Marple. The tricky bit is the steep 90 degree left turn that if it's a bit wet can be deadly, otherwise it was a nice decent down to the lights before the climb past Marple train station. Again a bit of a leg burner but not too bad really.
The flat run to Poynton along a busy road wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The only notable point was the manure left down the middle of the road all the way to Macc. Really not a pleasant smell and a real one to avoid riding through too. A big thank you to the yokel farmer for that one. Obviously a lack of thought for everyone else going on there!
So apart from getting a little geographically embarrassed as I was trying to find the right street all went well and it was a good few miles in the bank. It was a nice day for it too as the sun was out, yes it was a bit warm but not as bad as when I did the Cat. I have a good ride coming up this weekend that is going to test my hill climbing legs. I only want to not come last and at least keep up with the bunch for as long as I can hold on for. I intend to really push my limits for the ride this weekend and I will be treating it as a race.
Keep you posted on how it goes as I think it's going to be very hard even though it's only 40 miles.
Yet more happy cycling!!! ;)
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