A pre ordered breakfast bap kicked off our day at 7am. Breakfast started at this hotel at 8 but some silver tongued action the night before saw me collecting a super sized all in one breakfast bap to go. This also saw my first black pudding of the trip...sheer delight and jubilation for me.
Today's ride from Ludlow to Haydock crossed the edge of the Stipperstones prior to entering the Shropshire and Cheshire Plains during the middle part of the day. Our stage today is the least amount of climbing of the whole ride. After an undulating start to the day it flattened out considerably before Knutsford. The approach to Haydock for the end of the stage was set in slightly more suburban surroundings as the route dissected the land between Manchester and Liverpool.
After 15 miles of climbing at the start of a gloomy day the only thing to note is my first fall of the trip. Standard Chris Lee fall happening in the stationary postion whilst stopping for a stretch and a gel. 1-1 now with Andy. Watch this space though to see the final result.
After blasting through the first 35 miles with the power we haven't seen all trip we decided we had earnt ourselves a decent coffee. We found it in Shrewsbury with the addition of a piece of cake, comfy chairs and some decent music on the terrace. After some good BATMAN chat over coffee (first time I have cried with laughter on this trip, actual tears - reference stage 1 blog) we were about to set off when we were hit with tune "it's time to go"....apt! A little bit of euphoric dancing, probably from all the sugar and caffine and we were back in the saddle.
Flat-ish = fast. We nailed 60 miles sharpish and decided to lunch in Nantwich at Harrisons Cafe Bar (Harris, Harris, Harris). Perched on the decking out the back of the place, trying not to offend locals with our smell, I fulfilled my week long craving of ordering a jacket potato. A garmin charge boost, black current and lemonade and a water refill on multiple bottles and we were back to work.
It was a very business like day and reminded me of a training session I would do in preparation for this epic challenge or a ride that I would do to try and complete a strava challenge.
Knutsford was a nice place to neR our finish we saw the local football club in action as we had got in early due to the good average and hard push all day. As it was the weekend we also saw the cycle community out in force and the varying level of bods in championship Lycra, drop down crew and an old Doris on trike that AJ would struggle to beat in a sprint! Cav he is not....
The hotel tonight was the one on this whole trip that I was dreading the most as it was a chain. All our other places are either guest houses, B & B's, observatories etc however on check in it seems to be spot on and the local entertainment seems to be up to par!
Today was exceptionally great for the only reason we reached our place of rest in the 16 hundreds, meaning more time to rest for the next stage.
A bath with The Streets playing "Leave it out" sorted me for the night and left me in a good mood until I heard on the news that Hurricane Gonzalo is heading towards me on Stage 7 and Britain has been put on storm alert with dangerous driving conditions and flood risks. I guess I just have to man up, right?!
Today's Stats:-
Total ride time = 6hrs 20 mins
Distance = 165kms
Calories burnt = 3599
Elevation = 906m
Haydock to Penrith tomorrow.
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