Cycle friendly routes from Wodhead Pass area to Warrington

[wormo]

Doing a charity ride in a few weeks, and the final leg means we have to get from the Woodhead Pass back to Warrington crossing Greater Manchester. Anybody know any cycle friendly routes? This leg is being riden on a Monday and will hit Manchester in the afternoon.

Cheers in advance

 

[ColinJ]

Trans-Pennine trail, west!

 

[wormo]

Hi Colin, is it suitable for road bikes? Should have added this bit, sorry.

 

[ColinJ]

Hi Colin, is it suitable for road bikes? Should have added this bit, sorry.

Ah ...

Get the right bike.

• Most of the Trail is off-road, but not all is surfaced; you will need a bike and tyres capable of being taken off-road. A mountain bike or sturdy tourer will be more than capable of riding the Trail, thin racing wheels / tyres are not recommended.

Sounds like it won't be ideal for you, but many CycleChatters know the Manchester part of the TPT pretty well so I'm sure they could give you a clearer picture.

The trouble is, your road options from Woodhead are severely limited! I certainly wouldn't recommend taking a charity ride down the busy A628 itself.

How is that you find yourselves at Woodhead in the first place? Could you not make a detour before you even got there?

 

[wormo]

Hi Colin, It is the last leg of 3 days of cycling from Scotland via Rotherham to warrington. We are visiting the call centres where the the guys i'm cycling work, so the only place to get back with the most sensible mileage is via Woodhead Pass, otherwise would be the Snake Pass. Already doing 100 miles + each day, else would divert to a better route.

Do you know the Woodhead Pass well? There appears to be a very minor road 1/3 of the way from the east. Can't get a close up on google maps to see if it is suitable. We will also be using the B road by the resovoirs. Hopefull will only be using the first section.

 

[ColinJ]

I suppose if you bypass the A628 climb from the east by going the nice scenic route via Dunford Bridge, then at least you would be going downhill at a reasonable speed on Woodhead Pass before turning L onto the B6105 at Torside. What I absolutely hate is climbing slowly on narrow, twisty roads used by large numbers of trucks. This video shows how busy the road is ...



If you went via Dunford Bridge you would come onto the top of the Pass at 1:21 on that video and descend to the turn at 9:30. At least you should be able to keep up with the traffic so the trucks would not be trying to force their way past you as they would if you climbed the A616/A628!

If I were going to ride from Rotherham to Warrington, I'd be looking to find a good cycle route through Sheffield to Hathersage and work out a nice route through to Cheshire and bypass Manchester to the South. I wouldn't have thought that would be much further than going via Woodhead.

 

[wormo]

Cheers will look into your final paragraph.

 

[Sca1ey]

I would suggest that from Rotherham, Woodhead and Snake are about the same distance BUT Snake has less HGV traffic. That said a route via Hathersage and Chapel-en-le-Frith would be preferable but longer again. Try the CTC Sheffield site - I think they've got a route description on there.

 

[Sca1ey]

A Google Maps cycle route from Rotherham to Warrington calculates the difference between the Woodhead and Hathersage routes being only 3 miles.

 

[wormo]

I'm going to have a play tonight. I would prefer the Hathersage route. Cheers

 

[nickyboy]

You have 3 realistic options to cross the Pennines south of Manchester, but not too south

1) Woodhead Pass - As Colin suggests, joining it at Dunford Bridge then heading off it towards Glossop via Torside is the way to do it. It is very busy so this minimises your time on it (and you'll only be going downhill on it ie. pretty fast)

2) Snake Pass - Much less busy that Woodhead Pass and you end up in the same place as (1) ie. the middle of Glossop

3) Hathersage - Requires a hard climb out of the Edale Valley, either Winnats Pass or Mam Nick and then you end up in Chapel -en -le -Frith but quietest of the lot

There are some decent routes from Glossop (ie options 1 or 2) via Marple, Poynton on towards Warrington that I occasionally ride. Rather than posting it all here pm me if you want the details. If you prefer (3) you could either take the same Cheshire route as (1) or (2) or you could go a bit further south to Warrington. Either way I know some decent routes

 

[wormo]

Cheers guys, changed route to Snake Pass and then south of Manc up through Altrincham. Bit longer but hopefully quieter.

 

[nickyboy]

Cheers guys, changed route to Snake Pass and then south of Manc up through Altrincham. Bit longer but hopefully quieter.

Suggest that when you get to Glossop you try the following route:
A626 to Marple - this is a left turn just after going under a large railway viaduct. Nice rolling 6 miles. Not too busy
Marple take Hibbert Lane/Windlehurst Lane to A6 Buxton Road. Quiet and nice rolling 4 miles
Turn right and head North on A6 for about a mile, then left onto Middlewood Road (caution manned level crossing) Quiet nice 4miles

Middlewood Rd finally arrives in middle of Poynton, after which I guess you have a route

This avoids some busy stretches such as the climb out of Glossop to Mottram, Hyde etc etc

 

[wormo]

Cheers nickyboy, took your advice. also found a few other short cuts.