Macclesfield Write-up

It was a very unusual Macclesfield ride. There was no rain, no injuries, no-one got lost, and we all made it back to the Leathers Smithy pub for the first time in 3 years (well, all apart from Edwin and Simon who attended the ride a week early and didn't fancy hanging around...).

The uphills around Macclesfield are always gruelling and you question your sanity for putting yourself through it. However, we all seemed quite sensible and pedestrian when we were met at the top of the first steep ascent by a fast moving guy on a "single speed 29er" (geek speak for a bike with big wheels and only one gear, which is very hard work up hill). Madness. We duly interrogated him about his bike whilst he has catching his breath, and then continued up and up and up until we were rewarded with a gradual descent over small rocks, before moving on to the Charity Lane descent.

This is a loose narrowing track over a couple of small drops onto rocks and deep gravel through a couple of bends. None of us really seem to have mastered cornering through gravel, I still use the gorse bush as a cornering aid, Curtis ploughs through it without realising it is gravel, and Jim may well have the necessary technique, as he rode it all, thought it was a bit tricky, then realised his fork was locked out. Maybe he was a step ahead of us, as from here we had a long road climb up to the Cat & Fiddle and the road of a thousand mile an hour motorbikes. We took the bridleway away from their race track, and had our own adrenalin rush on another series of long gradual loose rocky descents. We were welcomed at the end of each descent by an eager swarm of midges, each of them pinching you on the arm to get your attention. Friendly little things...

Dave is keen to get out on the rides as training for his Trans Alp ride in a couple of weeks, the climbs may be more painful, but I bet he won't encounter anything as vicious as the Macc Midges.

We swept back towards the start as the sun crept behind the rolling green hills, casting long shadows over the dry limestone walls. We all exercised a little caution on the innocuous corner where Rob broke his collarbone a year earlier, and without the distractions of A&E, and not being drenched to the bone, we actually managed to get to the Leathers Smithy for a drink where we reflected on our ride.

photos available on our facebook group page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo_search.php?oid=111792272200749&view=all

Thanks to Mark Slater of Price & Slater Solicitors for leading the ride.

For information on future biking networking events please contact John Kitching, event organiser john@frenchlawconsultancy.com or see the calendar on www.biking-networking.blogspot.com