Liverpool - Chester - Liverpool.....Delamere loop....
Peejay56
Posts: 41
I'm going to ride the 85 mile or there abouts, so called "sportive" in July. Can someone tell me the route of the Delamere loop please - Thanks.
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Comments
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2009 writeup here from Mark, now a member of North Cheshire Clarion
http://markscyclingblog.blogspot.com/20 ... ester.html0 -
Did you do today PeeJay, felt like a strong hearwind for about 80% of the route, I clocked in 145km in a ride time of 5hr 20m.
Shame about the timing today, Penine Events said there would be timing but when we got there we were told "no timing". I hope the extra money all went to charity and not to the event manageemnt company.
Good day tho, I enjoy the route, some very picturesque Cheshire villages0 -
The signage was appalling, and no chips and whats the point of going through a farmers front yard strewn with pig shit and gravel, it was P*ncture heaven? REally badly organised. Wouldnt recommend it and wont be doing it again.The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.0 -
TBH, the section through the Farmer's yard has been part of the route for about eight years, it's a bit like the Wirral's answer to the Belgian Pave, it was slippery though in the wet.
Signage, the colours white on navy-blue background was not the most visable, but apart from a couple of missing signs there was a sign at every junction, but would agree that it could be better.
Seen quite a few people with punctures today, I'm on the my 3rd set of GP4000s with no punctures, that's about 7000miles. Would recommend them to anyone.0 -
Simon51 and all the other riders who took part...
Yes - I completed it, but not as fast as you. Garmin clocked 85.52 miles in 6 hours 14 minutes.
I've ridden the 54 mile route several times, but not recently, so the dirt track - farmyard cow pat route was new to me. Certainly Wirral's answer to the Belgian pave. I rode my Bob Jackson with mudguards and glad I did. Some guy in front of us in the farmyard went down and was covered down his left hand side in cow sh!!, he was OK, but what a prospect for riding the rest of the route.
Signs were OK, but several of us got lost in the lane after Capenhurst, ending up in a log jam in a dead end! some guys fell here too.
Windy as you say on the way out to Delamere/Norley, and peed it down when I rode through. Beech Lane in Norley caused me some grief getting up there, other than that I was fine.
Pity the transponder saga wasn't sorted, but if the money went to the charities it's OK.
Had a great day, with no bike problems and enjoyed the ride.
Pete.0 -
A lot of this is on our normal weekend route so we rode out and joined in.
The farmyard is a nice shortcut - I ride it most weekends - never punctured there.
The arrows were fine - I overshot two turns, but never got lost - I thought it was a great route - it felt like a flemish classic with all the mud and the rain. One for the hardmen.0 -
I rode the Sportive last year as well as this year and they changed the route this year, the climbs going to Delamere where a lot less than they were last year.
Think the signs could have been better as little blue signs with white arrows where a bit easy to miss. Think they could have also had an arrow pointing straight if you came to a point where you could turn.
The farm that we went through is known locally as the missing link and the farmer must have cleaned it for us cause that really gets full of cow sh!t.
Because of the bad weather think loads of people who were doing the 56mile ride didn't show up as last year the roads where choca all the way home, don't think the weather put off any of the sportive riders though.
They said they were let down with regards to the chips so don't know what that means exactly, but all in all it was a good day,and will be doing it again next year.0 -
Cleat Eastwood wrote:The signage was appalling, and no chips and whats the point of going through a farmers front yard strewn with pig shoot and gravel, it was P*ncture heaven? REally badly organised. Wouldnt recommend it and wont be doing it again.
Have to agree, no timing chips and about 50-100 of the early sportive riders got lost as the signage for the differentiation between the sportive route and the 54 mile route wasn’t visible.
I was one of those early starters who found myself heading back up towards Liverpool a bit early on in the ride, we asked Marshal after Marshal were we on the sportive route and none of them could confirm or even knew where we were! the fourth one we asked confirmed we were on the wrong route. So a back track cost us around another 12 miles. So 102 miles in total for the day wasn’t too bad. I can see why lots of people are annoyed though.
One person was saying the signs for the sportive route just weren’t up at the time we passed that point in the route.
Still had a great day got soaked and had a buzz.0 -
Mr Loverman wrote:The farm that we went through is known locally as the missing link and the farmer must have cleaned it for us cause that really gets full of cow shoot.
Because of the bad weather think loads of people who were doing the 56mile ride didn't show up as last year the roads where choca all the way home, don't think the weather put off any of the sportive riders though.
What's the deal with the "the missing link", I was looking for a way around it on the map and can't find anything, last year I'm sure the farmer had sprayed manure over the road before we got there, but didn't seem too bad this year despite the wet conditions"
There was a sign missing at Capenhurst poiting down the Bridle Way, but luckily I knew the route from previous years but did see a lot of guys back tracking down the lane.
Cougie - Have you got any links to routes around the Wirral, I'm in the North East Wales area so was thinking of coming across Saltney Ferry route and picking the back lanes.
That was the other thing I was going to mention, the 54miles Charity route went straight through the City of Chester, traffic must have been mad! My other half was shopping and told me when I got home, I sid they must have been lost, but looking at the activities on the Garmin Explore site it shows the route going straight through the main shopping street.0 -
Simon51 wrote:What's the deal with the "the missing link", I was looking for a way around it on the map and can't find anything, last year I'm sure the farmer had sprayed manure over the road before we got there, but didn't seem too bad this year despite the wet conditions"
There is a different route that you can take but you would have to be shown the route, I will explain the other route:
If you are on the road where the Eureka cycle cafe is, and you take the first turn off at the lights takes you to Liverpool via the main roads. A bit further up is a little turn off that take you to the missing link and practically back the way we came until you get to the point on the return journey that meets up again with the outward journey, from that point you take the return journey back as the outward journey was not a direct route.
If you want to miss the Link then instead of taking the turn off to go the link you keep going up that main road until you get to a set of lights and then you take a right turn. This route will take you to to the same place where going via the missing link goes. So if you wanted to ride out that way then you would have to do it, but the opposite direction.0 -
peejay: that was me that went down am afraid to say, nice case of road rash on forearm and a sore side, and yes it wasnt nice riding the rest of the route with the cows@it down my left side. a second before me and this guy were saying how crazy the farm bit was , like roubaix with manure and next thing you know i felt the tyres slipping and that was it,bleeding great, other than that i enjoyed it though, sides still sore mind!
never hurts your eyes to look on the bright side of life...0 -
Simon51 - if you come across at Saltney and follow the bike path and then up thru Saughall and onto the Eureka cafe - stop there for a brew - then up the 540 (left out of the gates).
Thru the traffic lights and first left past Tudor Rose, follow the roads Burton, Burton Marsh (nice drag out of there) past Ness Gardens, Neston, Descend to Parkgate, climb back up and then cut through Lower Heswall before you get back to the main road, navigate your way through there - cut up past the Black Horse pub if you want a steeep climb, then left again onto the 540, Thurstaston, Caldy, West Kirby, Hoylake - and you can either carry onto New Brighton and pick up the coast path back to Hoylake or cut up through the lanes of Greasby towards Heswall and retrace. Plenty to explore.0 -
Just spotted this thread
I ride the missing link about 3 or 4 times a week, it's one of the main routes out of Wirral for those who live around here if you want to keep off the main roads. I reckon I've ridden through there several hundred times, number of punctures = zero.
And by the way, the farmer is very pro cycling, you often see him chatting with cyclists on the way through his farm, too. He certainly would not have purposely spread s**t on the track surface just to annoy us.
Still don't know why they say the sportive is a 90 miles ride, it comes out about 84miles.0 -
+1 I've been through there loads of times too - its only a bit of poo, mud and gravel. I've never punctured on a sharp bit of cow poo ever.
Its always thorns, nails, tacks, flints etc.0
