For my second century ride in the challenge I picked a course created by a local cycling club for an Audax event - Audax being the long distance cycling association. The ride to Whittington Castle was described as "not particularly hilly", which sounded great, and I'd already ridden part of the route to Whixall Marina as a warm up at the end of July. The weather looked fairly pleasant with light winds and no rain forecast, so I set off in high spirits following the same start as last week's ride through Winterley and Haslington, before turning off to Weston. It has a couple of inclines to get the heart going, but nothing too strenuous, and from Weston I headed to Wybunbury, where rather than turning right to go through the pretty village as I usually do I turned left to cross the A51 and head to Audlem. The road was winding and slightly undulating, taking me past lots of fields full of tall maize, before a climb into Hankelow had me puffing into Audlem.
Audlem has a pretty centre, and turning right onto the A525 I crossed the Shropshire Union canal and descended out of town, a short climb then taking me to turn right onto Coole Lane. I turned left shortly, following the Cheshire Cycleway, along a nice lane passing some farm buildings, with a couple of dips for fun. At the end I turned left and crossed the A525 onto another narrow quiet lane, albeit with a bumpy, potholed stretch to start with.
Turning right, and then left, I noticed a rather cute windmill on a house fence, of a black cat riding a bike. As I was taking a photo of it, two cyclists went by in the direction I was heading, one male and one female. Starting off again, I hadn't gone far when I paused to allow a tractor and following car with trailer to come past, the lane was fairy narrow at this point and it would have been a tight squeeze for us both to be on the same part of the road. A little further on I passed the two cyclists - the gent was having a wee against a gate, and as it would have been rude to acknowledge this I didn't say Hi again. The road seemed to go on forever, through verdant farmland, until I eventually came to Ightfield, and from there briefly joined the main road before turning off to Ightfield Heath. The glorious countryside continued, and I felt that I could have been looking at a pre WWII countryside scene, half expecting to see old style tractors and people helping with the harvest.
Eventually I came to the busy A41, and carefully crossed over to enter Prees. I headed past the houses and came to a junction at the pretty church of St Chad, where I turned right to descend under the A49 and cross Whitchurch Road to leave the village, After a mile I came to Prees railway station, where I had to stop due to the level crossing barriers being down, red lights flashing. After what seemed like an eternity (I swear it was at least five minutes!) a four car unit sped past heading for Shrewsbury, the barriers lifted and I continued on my way. A left at the next junction, then a right into Post Office Lane took me to Whixall. Shortly after I passed an old man on a small wheeled bike at a junction, consulting a map, and in a short while the first pit stop of the day appeared - Whixall Marina Cafe.
I stopped off for a coffee and a flapjack here before resuming my journey, turning right at the next junction in Northwood to graze the Welsh - English border. On my previous visit to Whixall Marina I had turned off here into Wales, but today I went straight on, remaining in England for the time on new roads. In a short while, I turned left following the blue cycle signs for Oswestry (17 miles) and Ellesmere (6). The road turned into a very leafy lane, with tall hedgerows and trees either side, where I again stopped to give way to an oncoming vehicle.
At the hamlet of Lyneal, my route took me right and then left into another long, leafy lane, rather aptly called The Avenue, which took me to Colemere, where I came across the old man with the small wheeled bike again. At Colemere there is a mere (Cole Mere not surprisingly) and I also noticed some vines growing in a field, something you'd expect to see in France, not in north west England! Apparently you can get Colemere wines, red, white, rose and sparkling versions all available, as well as vineyard tours (www.colemere.co.uk). Further along the road I came across a warning of Heavy Plant Crossing, and rode past a huge sand quarry on my right, with what looked like a processing plant on my left. Hands down the ugliest part of my ride so far, and a stark contrast to the gorgeous countryside that I'd ridden through all day. At the junction with the main road, I crossed over and cycled past White Mere (base for Shropshire Sailing Club) and on to Lee, where I turned right at a junction (with a rather large articulated lorry reversing towards me on my left) and then left towards Tetchill, where I finally came to a road that was capable of two vehicles side by side (not that I had been missing one at all!). The road continued through Tetchill and on to Hordley, all the while the hedgerows were quite tall which prevented me seeing much of the countryside, although I was getting the occasional glimpses of the Welsh hills brooding in the distance. Soon though, having passed Rednal, I noticed a canal to my left - the Montgomery Canal - and the road followed this dead straight to Queen's Head, where indeed there was a pub called The Queen's Head. I turned right here, and right again to head towards Whittington and lunch. Along the way, I felt the call of nature, and found a fairly secluded spot for a wee, at which point I heard a bird going eee-tut-tut-tut over and over, presumably telling me off for peeing in public.
In Whittington the twin towers of Whittington Castle came into sight, and I dismounted to walk over the bridge into the castle itself. It is the UK's only community owned castle, although there isn't a great deal left of it to be perfectly honest. I decided on Jumbo Fish Finger sandwich, with chips (not salad), and when it came I suspected that it may not have been the wisest of choices. It was huge, but fabulously tasty, but I did wonder how I'd feel back on the road again. Forty-five minutes later I found out, and it wasn't brilliant. I felt stuffed, and struggled with turning the pedals after my stop. Having left Whittington, I turned right down another undulating quiet lane, at one point seeing a dog apparently on its own and wondering if it was friendly, before relievedly seeing it's owner who called it to heel. At the end of this lane I turned right into St Martin's Road, crossing the Shropshire Union Canal Llangollen Branch and coming into St Martin's itself, where I passed a huge Nisa Extra called Stan's Superstore! After St Martin's I rode through Street Dinas and Sodylt Bank before crossing into Wales unheralded at Shellbrook Bridge. No sooner was I in Wales than I hit some roadworks at the bottom of a hill, and of course was stopped by the red light! Setting off again, I struggled uphill and passed Knolton Farmhouse Cheese, looking more like a large factory than a farmhouse, which intriguingly advertised a cheese machine. In a short while I turned left on the A528 to Overton, where I crossed over and through to pick up the Bangor Road.
I passed Bangor-On-Dee racecourse and rode alongside the River Dee for a short while, although it was mainly hidden by hedges, before entering Bangor-On-Dee (or Bangor-Is-Y-Coed). After riding underneath the A525 main road I came across St Dunawd's Church with its associated cemetery, looking very stately in the cloudy weather. I'd been to Bangor twice before, and had seen the church, but not from this viewpoint, so stopped for a photo. From this point I knew there was some serious climbing up to Malpas - I'd ridden from Malpas to Bangor before and seemed to remember a long steep downhill, so was looking ahead with some trepidation. Setting off again, the road climbed for a mile and hit a maximum of 9% before a mile of downhill gave some respite. I road through the pretty village of Worthenbury, with a pretty church, after which the road started climbing again, and continued climbing for five miles to Malpas.
Just before Threapwood a road signed announced I was arriving in England, and I stopped for a photo. Although the road was continually climbing, it wasn't as bad as I had feared, and I was able to keep a good momentum up. The last little bit into Malpas reared up, and I entered the town and turned left at the next junction for a little more climbing out of town, which shortly became a nice little descent into a tight left hand bend before continuing downhill to Tilston, where I turned right towards Carden Park. At the park, I cycled past the golf course, where retired men and women were enjoying their games, and crossed the A534 at Crutton towards Chowley. Crossing the A41 onto Rocky Lane, I headed towards Tattenhall where a right and then left brought me to roads from last week's ride, only in the opposite direction. I recognised the building site that I had passed last week, thinking how strange it was to be seeing things from the other way. In a short while I turned right and came to Manor Farm, and Old Ma's Coffee Shop. I stopped, but only to text an ETA home, as I didn't want to be home too late and it was looking like a 5:15 return without a stop. Setting off again, I headed straight on at the next crossroads and rode past a busy Ice Cream Farm before reaching Tattenhall Lane, where I rejoined last week's route (in the right direction this time). At Beeston Castle I left last week's route, and followed the road through to Bunbury, passing St Boniface's Church and crossing the Shropshire Union Canal at the Staircase Locks. Reaching the main road at Alpraham, the traffic seemed backed up by traffic lights heading towards Calveley, but I nipped into a gap and got through fairly quickly. Turning left shortly after, I hooked up with last week's route again on Long Lane, and followed this to Wettenhall, Cholmondeston and Church Minshull to negotiate the stiff climb out of the village, which I managed reasonably comfortably. At Minshull United Reformed Church, where a Yorkshire flag was flying, presumably in recognition of the recent Yorkshire Day, I turned left for Minshull Vernon and then left again for the A530 towards Middlewich. More roadworks stopped me on the climb of the railway bridge, but after negotiating these it wasn't long before I turned off on Chapel Lane to take the last little undulations down Forge Mill Lane, then left into Warmingham, right into Crabmill Lane and left into Hall Lane to reach the final drag up and over the canal bridge. Under the railway bridge and right into Elton Road, and uphill (slightly, but it's a bugger at the end of a long ride) back to the house.
It had been a hard, but very enjoyable ride, through some lovely traffic free lanes, although the last hour or so found me not looking at the scenery so much due to being somewhat knackered! I'd only done two stops again, although in contrast to last week, where I had a long drag in the middle section of the ride, this time I did the last fifty miles without a break. Maybe for the next ride I'll look to get a third stop in, and will almost certainly NOT have a huge lunch at the midpoint.
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