Now fully recharged after a good night’s sleep. An epic and enjoyable day out on the bike and many thanks to
@nickyboy for organising it. It was great to meet a lot of familiar chums and make friends with new ones.
@alibaba and myself became tailenders after unwittingly become detached from the rest of our subgroup of six. We were a short distance ahead of the rest at a point about 10 minutes after Nickyboy had kindly tracked back to check we were all ok. We must have missed a turning because we waited at a junction for the others to ‘catch up’ but it became apparent that they must have gone another way. Whilst we were never actually lost it seemed to take forever following my garmin to get us back en route, during which we took in at least another 3 climbs that weren’t on the planned route. Eventually we descended down to the coastal cycle path at Prestatyn and got there at 17.15 hours!
By then both Ali and I were seeing mirages of tasty fish and chips. As time went on it wasn’t just the fish and chips we were thinking about but also whether or not we would get to Llandudno in time to catch our booked 19.42 hours train back to Manchester. We diverted briefly off the cycle path to purchase some bottled water from a takeaway shop that was just closing. Despite the time pressure Ali did an excellent job in remaining optimistic that we would get to the finish in time for both the fish and chips and our train. I really enjoyed his company.
On arrival at the Tramway Chip shop it was good to see the tired but smiling faces of the whole group but we were well advised by
@si_c that the queue was too big to eat the much anticipated fayre given the very short time to catch our train. Aided by si_c’s directions I sped down the hill where I advised Ali to follow me to the train station. Grappling with the Llandudno one way system whilst in a hurry proved a challenge and it was desperate stuff to see Ali fall off his bike for the second time of the day whilst struggling with his clipless pedals. Thankfully, just a few cuts and grazes with no serious damage to Ali or his bike.
As my pal
@ColinJ has reported with a combination of food sharing and a mad dash to the fish and chip shop opposite the railway station we managed to satisfy our intense hunger and it was very atmospheric eating the F & C on the train together as it pulled away after getting on it in the brink of time. Ali fell asleep shortly after eating them whist Colin,
@Kestevan and me had a good old chinwag for the 2 hour journey to Manchester that went very quickly.
On arrival in Manchester we said our farewells and Colin and I rode the short distance to Manchester Victoria dodging the inebriated citizens en route. I took the earlier 10.26 train that terminated at Rochdale and then cycled the 4 miles home to Littleborough arriving home at 11 pm.
A long and enjoyable day. Thanks again
@nickyboy. Looking forward to the next one.
P.S. Does anybody know if
@Moodyman made it to the finish? I hope he is alright.
