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@atk
Rode Dave Matthews' Panorama Prospect yesterday. It's an over-distance 100km starting just outside Tarporley and heading over to Llangollen, taking in the Panorama Walkway and onto Chirk before heading back via Malpas and along the edge of Beeston Castle.
I briefly considered ECEing this, but a 4am alarm wasn't that appealing and opted to ride over on Saturday afternoon instead, camping just outside Tattenhall. The ride out was pleasant enough, mostly following the Cheshire Cycleway. Despite being toasty all day, clear skies made for a chilly night. I'd skipped the tent inner and gone light on layers to make my life easy on Sunday, ended up waking a few times in the night with chilly toes! The upshot was catching a fantastic orange moon hovering over the Peckforton Hills as I stumbled out for a piss.
The ride itself was peppered with not entirely unpleasant navigational errors. Somewhere between entering the ride and turning on the GPS I cocked something up and managed to end up off down a number of bridleways, through a boggy river crossing and pushing up washed out tracks. This all before getting anywhere near the first hills of the day. Eventually I started ignoring the computer's beeps and flashes telling me to turn into every other field and started linking up roads to various bits of the track. Thankfully this got me to the first info and onto the first control, a Van of Delights™ imposter, at the sadly closed Prospect Tea Rooms.
From there navigation was a little easier and other than a little jaunt along the Llangollen Canal it was fairly straight forward getting back. I was starting to get a bit worried by my timing at Chirk, but despite a few punchy climbs, it felt like the return journey was mostly downhill and I was able to make up a bit of time. Stopping at the Coop in Malpas I was treated to a procession of tractors rumbling down the high street. There were easily 50+, from vintage to modern and with a variety of wheel combinations. So loud, such diesel fumes.
I was pretty pooped by the time I got back to the village hall and my left knee was feeling a little tender. Plans to ride back to Manchester were abandoned and a lift organised. Still put in a little over 200km for the weekend and able to walk this morning. Overall a good re-introduction to audax and a reminder that stopped time is as important as moving. Looking forward to The Budworths 100 next weekend and working my way up to some longer rides.
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