WEDNESDAY 17TH AUGUST 2011
After a failed attempt to get out yesterday due to ‘inclement weather’, it peed down, I looked forward to a ride round Croston today as sunshine all day was forecast.
Well it was a bit chilly to start with but being on fixed gear, (70”) I reckoned I would soon warm up, arm warmers being the only additional clothing required.
I was determined after the hard ride on Sunday to just go out and enjoy riding without rush and push, just let the wheels go round nice and easy.
My route out through Rivington and the back side of Chorley may not sound like fixed gear country, especially with Limbrick, Cowling and Botany Brow to encounter on my increased gear size. However climbing without getting out of breath helps, it’s just a bit slower but well worth it.
Once above Botany Bay I can look forward to some real easy cycling, Eaves Lane, Mormon church, then Dawson Lane leading me down to Runshaw College and the entry to Worden Park Leyland.
The sun is now nice and warm and the breeze hardly troublesome as I enter the park, it is surprisingly quiet considering the schools are on holiday but the snack bars are open with the picnic tables and chairs awaiting custom. The park looks great in the sunlight, it really is a nice place, there are some kids, looked after by Gran and Grandpa, riding kiddie bikes, dogs being walked and groundsmen going about their park duties.
I amble through and exit the other side by Butler’s farm, well what was, it is now a housing estate.
Ulnes Walton, now there’s a name to wonder about, on the other side of Leyland is next and the country lane passing the two prisons with a cake shop adjacent, (files in cakes spring to mind here) is passed before the ever present car boot and market is encountered.
This car boot and market is open every Wednesday but it is years since I last went in, today I’ll have a mooch around. Usually in summer the outside area is very busy with an overflow from inside but today a mere couple of stalls are on site, no doubt our topsy turvey weather is too much of a gamble lately for setting up an outdoor stall. Forecasts have been so bad and unreliable this ‘summer’ if we can call it a summer.
I leave a bit disappointed that there has been little of interest but I still have the prospect of nice quiet lanes and easy pace to look forward to.
I reach Croston on the outskirts of the village and leave again immediately via Grape Lane, one cottage bears witness to it’s past with carved wooden grapevines on the wall. There was a priory here I think and of course the monks will no doubt have been fine makers of wine. Looks like I am wrong, google search lists a Grapes pub, Grape Lane but nowhere in the research pages is there a connection to monks or winery.
Ah well, I move on along Grape lane looking forward to Tannersmith Lane where last year Paul Hackin and I filled our saddlebags with pears and damson, the orchards are laden with fruit, perhaps they are ready again.
Well the pears have not dropped yet and the damson still hard and not ready but a bonus appears a bit further up, a plum tree with nice ripe plums glowing in the afternoon sun with that iridescent purple coating so well caught by the dutch painting masters in their still life studies, fantastic. And they are sweet too.
After putting as many as I could muster into my bag I continued the ride in the now very warm sun ever upward from this point toward Wrightington Bar, a steady long climb interrupted by a couple of steep bits, well steep when you are riding a fixed gear of 70”.
Still in my ‘ride without getting out of breath’ mode I progress onto the nice easy Tunley Lane where I am passed by two fast moving cyclists, a cheery ‘aye aye’ is exchanged. It is noticeable that one rider, a good three stone lighter than his companion, is doing all the talking and half wheeling at the same time, my thoughts go back to Sunday past, yeah I’m glad I’m on ‘easy street.
They disappear into the distance, I’m enjoying this ride immensely, no stress, no rush no push. I pass a garden where there used to be at this time of year beautiful crispy sweet apples overhanging the wall, I would have enjoyed pinching them again but sadly the property has been sold, the house empty as it is being renovated and the garden has been decimated of all living life, my apple tree is no more.
Pepper lane takes me down the road toward the back lanes of Coppull, where I realise that despite being an ideal day for cycling, nice and warm, I still have a full bottle of tasty drink, such has been my nice easy ride I have never felt the need to drink. Now I take a long swig of the sweet mixture of water, orange squash and lemonade, wonderful.
From Coppull to Horwich there are a series of long drags and if you have sore legs, or are being pushed, you will suffer, being on my own, I did not suffer one bit, I was still enjoying the moment, all thoughts of ‘no pain no gain’ banished for the day.
For a change I arrive home as fresh as when I set out, forty two miles of sheer enjoyment, must do this again more often.
Report by Tony Bowles
