4th April 2010 (NCR 5 Day 3)

Short post as I am knackered...

Got up early for breakfast, It was a continental breakfast so no big blow-out :-(

After my toast, pain au chocolate, yoghurt, cereal and croissants, I dragged the bike out of teh back of the car, lubed the chain and changed the very worn out brake blocks.

Just as I was about to set off I had a text from Jon (Redbikes) to say he was setting off, the plan was to meet up with him.....Problem was I didn't have a clue where he was coming from so had no idea where to expect to see him..

I set of up the A51 into a very tough head wind towards Stone to get to the start of the NCR5..

At Stone I joined the canal and had a very pleasant ride down the towpath, I was expecting to see Jon.....but didn't.

NCR 5 took me of the Canal and I was worried that I had missed him in a Zig where I should have Zagged moment, but it was ok...he didn't have a clue where I was and he mentioned some place I had never heard off and had not cycled through :-)

Some many miles later and on yet another Canal path we eventual met...

I thought I was having it tough with the heavy weight and very draggy Hybrid, his bike was heavily loaded and weighed a ton....But he was dragging it along as if it was a light weight road bike...

When we got to Hanley, the cycle route became almost impossible to follow...after doing some pointless loops we managed to find the cycle route and headed out into the country...

Even when you know where you are supposed to go the cycleways are not always easy to find!

We stopped for lunch at a riverside pub, they didn't do Bacon Rolls :-( I was forced to eat a steak pie!

It was reasonably impressive when we eventual found the cycle way out of Chester into Wales (The start point where we were supposed to get on it was closed....with no indication of where to go to join it....) As we were getting onto it a guy was also joining it on a road bike.....he followed us all the way to Queensferry...when we went our separate ways he remarked on how he had trouble staying with us :-)

When we got to Flint instead of turning off for my night stop I had decided to carry on to Prestatyn with Jon (I would drive there in the morning to save time) - What we should have done is ignore any NCR 5 signs and head straight down the Coast Road...we didn't :-( The 8 mile journey turned into a 20 mile journey as we headed inland up some really tough climbs...I was already tired and by right leg tendon was aching...Poor Jon was dragging a ton of bike up the hills.

I have to admit on one of the steeper stretches I stopped and walked....he did not...(In my defence my leg was killing me and I even found it hard to walk)

Thankfully just outside Prestatyn wifey had stopped to take some photographs of us, I opted to call it a day, I was cold and tired, I had ran out of drink miles earlier and I was starving hungry, poor old Jon had at least another mile to go...

Lesson learnt if you don't know where you are, don't follow the cycle way!

The Garmin had today's ride as 106.63 miles in 8 hours 39 minutes with an average speed of 12.7 mph, route here...

Photos and things will be added later when I can be bothered...

Sorry for not responding to any comments....I will do when I have a better interweb connection....but rest-assured I am reading them:-)