Rochdale to Liverpool 11th June

Alastair Clay, Dean Johnson, Craig Francis and Allison Oneill

The day started by the team arriving at the Rochdale office to much appreciated sausage, bacon, mushroom and egg sandwich, just what you need when you are preparing to ride 95km.

The team promptly set off at the scheduled time of 10.00am and immediately got lost as we couldn’t find the canal. After tossing a coin as to whether to turn left or right on the canal we decided to aim for Littleborough, fortunately this was the right choice.

We soon got into the swing of things and thought this was going to be easy, (I could never have been more wrong in all my life). We were soon motoring down the Rochdale Canal and made good pace as we reached Lock 65, we had calculated the day before we needed to reach lock 92 where Dukes 92 is and our planned lunch break.

We landed at the Manchester office at 11.30 and again convinced ourselves that this would be a walk in the park so we headed down to Harry Halls for Craig to buy some shades and then on to Dukes 92 for a spot of lunch and a beer.

After a brief lunch break and only one beer I must add we set off on the Bridgewater canal heading towards Lymm. Within 10 mins the heavens opened and it started to hail stone. Not good!!. At this point Allisons bike also decided to pack up and the gears were shot, we had a quick look at them and decided we couldn’t fix them so we had to make the decision that she couldn’t carry on so she headed back to the station.

As a team of three we now headed for the trans Pennine way, slightly concerned as Allison had done all the preparation and we hadn’t a clue where we were going.

Once on the

Trans Pennine Way

the realisation set in that this was gonna take ages so when we arrived at Lymm we decided a second pit stop was required. A quick pint of Guiness and back in the saddle.

We passed Warrington and in the distance rose Fiddlers Ferry power station in Runcorn, for some reason I had it in my head that this was on the outskirts of Liverpool.

Just before Runcorn was the last time Craig smiled

The next sign we came to convinced me otherwise and the harsh reality of a further 23 ¼ miles hit home.

After this it was heads down and no talking, it was getting towards 5 Oclock and we still had a bit to do.

We then bumped back into Allison who had got home, got her dads bike and got dropped off on the outskirts of Liverpool to finish the ride with us.

Liverpool Airport, this surely should be near the end! No according to Allison, still 6 miles to do.

The roads were now killing us, my front brake was deciding to stick on and I had no idea how to service or disconnect hydraulic brakes so carried on.

We were now actually heading into the town centre and the Liver Building was a welcome sight. Not much longer now.

Finally the Liverpool Office and the end

Alastair - Manchester Office