Manchester - Southport Route advice

hmbadger

Hi,

Was thinking of joining a few people for a charity ride, Manchester-Southport.

However having looked at the route, nearly all the route is on A roads - lots on East Lancs Road and the A570. Is there a cycle path at side of East Lancs Road? (From Google there appears to be).

Route is here http://ridewithgps.com/routes/878978

Is this a sensible route? I'm not that experienced a rider but like most people I think I avoid A roads as much as I can.

Cheers

hmbadger

Sorry, of course the starting point is Stockport, not Manchester - not that material to the question I don;t think. I'd just looked up the Man-Blackpool route, so had Manchester in my mind. Could pinch some of that route though?

mrushton

There is a path but the route is horrible. The A580 is the major trunk rd (dual carriageway, no view, mad speeding traffic). Not sure about any of that route tbh in terms of pleasant riding. There are better ways to Southport but I live in Nth Mcr so it's a different way for me

dd1

There are paths alongside the A580, but as mrushton says, not a very nice route. Too much stopping and starting and too much traffic
The A570 does have bike paths on either side of the road, but only up to where it goes under the M58. From then on its single carriageway all the way to Southport, which again is another busy road.
Very flat from the start of the A570 onwards, but always windy along the A570 as very exposed over the fields.
If possible, I would come off the A570 before you get to the M58, and use the smaller roads that run parallel to it eg turn onto Intake Lane and go through Bickerstaffe and then onto Chuch Lane and then Long Lane. This will take you off the main road and also avoids having to go through the centre of Ormskirk.
From the route map you posted, you can see that you can follow these smaller quiter roads most of the way into Southport.
The A570 stays as quite a tight single road until you get to Scarisbrick, where there are more cycle lanes (although these tend to have quite a bit of glass and a lot of cars parked in them).

neilrobins

Badger
I live in Southport, if you can head into Southport via Parbold ( great hill) then Burscough, Scarisbrick. I tend to avoid all the main routes in and out as there are loads of quiet back roads. Ormskirk is busy but only takes a few mins to get through then you can choose a few quiet routes to southport.
Avoid the Kew roundabout on the edge of Southport , it's multi-lane, multi- exit and no fun on a bike
Alternatively there are some good country roads between m6 and Bickerstaffe which avoid duel carriageways.
Give me a shout for better details

Cleat Eastwood

Bonjour I cycle the roads round part of your route quite regularly, so i'd do to make a more interesting ride and a tad safer is

turn off just between mile 29 and go down carr mill rd into billinge, left at the round about onto rainford road - straight on gore's lane/back lane (or alders lane for a nice little hill), left from back lane up redcoat lane. Just round the corner from backlane/redcat lane is a little cafe stop in limbo lane its called the fir tree farm so if you need to grab some food etc.

Anyway up redcoat lane, right into higher lane follow it all the way to hydes brow (right at r'about) onto news lane - bushy lane which takes you to the roundabout on the rainford bypass. Then your best bet is straight over the round about lodge lane/intake lane - church road, liverpool rd, long lane - down towards ormskirk down holbourn hill - left into cottage lane / small lane (again another coffee stop/ garden centre ) - north moor lane, right onto small lane, right onto morris / pinfold (wigeons uses this for his rides!!) then left onto southport road.

If I was you I'd try and avoid the a570 as much as possible - horrible truck filled place - let us know when you're doing it - be great to join you for part of the route.

hmbadger

Thanks for the replies and suggestions, everyone. I've queried the route with the organisers and I'll pass on this info. One of the problems is that they are trying to cater for non-regular cyclists and hence looking to avoid hills. Not so sure about that personally - in one sense all the more reason to stay away from main roads, esp if trying to cycle in some sort of group.