That’s 100 miles in the bag for us, some prep for the Fred Whitton sportive in a month.

Can recommend the Hartleys Garden Centre cafe at Glossop for anyone riding that way. And we were lucky Will found a much nicer route back to avoid the awful A624 to Chapel-en-le-Frith.

There was good representation from Leek based riders at Buxton CC’s Good Friday Hilly TT in Longnor.
We were not treated to stunning conditions like 2023. Instead flooding and hail storms added further challenge to an already tough course.
Mark Lovatt (Congleton CC) put the rest of us all in our places, winning the Vet category and bagging himself a free holiday.
Graham displayed some spectacular acrobatics, snapping his chain on the start line. He recovered well, getting it fixed and setting a time from a later start slot.
Some gravel racing in the diary next and then National Road Bike TT Champs at the end of the month.
22mi hilly TT, road bikes, 2500ft climbing.
Mark Lovatt 1:00:54
Andrew Magnier 1:02:28
William Neill 1:03:27
Aidan Wade 1:05:41
Graham Sargent 1:08:29
Andrew Gibson 1:08:55

On Sunday March the 24th, Leek Cyclists Club once again held its annual Hilly Reliability Ride. The Paul Derbyshire Memorial Reliability is a scenic 52 mile ride through the Peak Distrtict, which takes in some lovely lanes & challenging climbs. The ride started in Leek at 9am and had 27 riders signing on.
The ride was followed by a Buffet & the Clubs Awards presentation at The Den Engels in Leek.
A tough ride (for me) but the buffet , generously provided by Den Engles, awards presentation and a good social afterwards , all made for a good day. Big thanks to the organisers, sponsors and participants.

A small Leek contingent, less a few for illness, rode over and took part in Macclesfield Wheelers reliability yesterday, Circuit of the Edge.
The route certainly made for a tough day with cobbled climbs of Beeston Brow, Bollington and Woodbrook Road, Alderley Edge.
At times a boat would have been more suitable than bike. But a good time was had by all.
Many thanks to Macclesfield Wheelers for the invite. Congleton 65 mile reliability next Sunday for those interested in a good pace and social.

There was a mini exodus from Leek yesterday morning, as quite a few of us went over to Congleton, for the first of their reliability rides.
The day started very misty and damp cool, esp for those that rode out, and continued for the next hour or so.
Some of us decided to stay together as a club group, some went for it, and others decided to jump ship when a faster boat came along.
Following a traditional route around the Cheshire lanes, it was fairly uneventful until Helen decided she’d disappear down a giant pothole on the outskirts of Crewe.
In these days of equality, we all stood around and empathised while she fixed it (just kidding, Stuart did a sterling job getting us back up and running in a few minutes.
It didn’t take long though to chill off again, and the next few miles were spent getting legs moving once more, for the home run back to Congleton.
A brew and biccys awaited us back at base where we sort of wended our various ways back.
Big thanks to congleton Cycling Club for organising it, and credit for me pinching their pics.

In anticipation of storm brimful of Asha, Dave Mag chose to lead todays ride in a south westerly direction, so we would hopefully get a bit of assistance 🚴🏻💨 for the climb back home.
8 riders made for the KY jelly cafe, sorry KI cafe at Grindley, between uttoxeter and Stafford, via cheddleton, Kingsley, freehay, Hollington, before encountering some slushy and messy lanes down to stramshall, and beamhurst.
Skirting hutcheter, we were back on familiar ground around Bramshall and Kingstone town 🎵, before the last little climb to Grindley and our destination, that thankfully had just enough seats for us.
Food was good, reasonably priced , but the coffee needs a bit of a strengthening 😉, and it was quick enough, that even Rich Coghill, hadn’t forgotten what he’d ordered.
Exiting the cafe, we headed into the lanes, towards Lower Leigh,where Nick Deaville decided to have a rest whilst everyone else harangued him for puncturing at the wrong time!
At lower tean a minor split occurred, as some went along the main road , and others through the back lanes into tean.
They just about reformed as a group coming back up through new haden, and trimpos, where the main bunch turned right into bombhole road, and a few of us carried on to godleybrook, and the climb up towards cellarhead, and consall , chedd and home.
We seemed to have missed the storm, but also the supposed tailwind back as well 🙄
50ish miles and 4300ft of ascent.

Twelve hardy souls left the market place on a loop to Hollinsclough tea rooms via little thorn Cliffe, Warslow, Hartington and Earl Stern Dale were three headed for Hindlow never to be seen again, the remaining nine carried on to the tea rooms which was shut, so someone decided we should ride up the rake which they all did (not me) at Flash bar cafe we ate and raised a toast to our President Glyn Hewines Snr on his 80th birthday then returned to Leek via the Winking man and the Mermaid. An excellent 40 mile ride with some great views.

A cold crisp start to the New Year saw 8 souls turn up at the Market Square for the 9am Grand depart. A quick discussion regarding destination ensued with the only decision being to ignore Tony Simons request to go hilly.
We eased out towards Macclesfield staying on the main road to examine “Phil’s Hole” in Rushton before committing to the thrash route but at considerably lower speeds due to treacherous road surfaces. As we crossed at Marton, Dave Mag cut off to head towards home, not feeling it, a decision all of us could have made. We ploughed on though, to Goostrey Home and Leisure and forced our way in to a table of 7 where more beans were consumed than in Blazing Saddles. Nick D almost caused a diplomatic incident warming items up under the hand drier 😆.
Having just about warmed up we set off again with Steve W confirming a heady temperature of -5 for the return leg. A loop around the world’s largest Sky dish saw us aim for Siddington then around Redesmere for an ice-cream.
From there everyone raced back from the Nook, except for me, that couldn’t 🤣.
Congratulations must go to Sean Daly for keeping his bike “tyre side down” this week and also Richard Coates for been the voice of reason when hills were mentioned.
As I’ve mentioned everyone else, Carlton also came but didn’t do anything funny 😁

So much for a zero rain forecast, but 6, 9am ers turned up for a hilly 30 ish miles. Paths crossing with the 8 o clockers at Allgreave. The last ride for 2024. Meerbrook, Gun, Wincle, Allgreave, Flash, Longnor, Sheen, Warslow, Elkstone, Coffee Beans Leek.