RNLI Three Shires Cycle Sportive — Trial
The RNLI Three Shires Cycle Sportive is a fundraising non-competitive cycling event that starts and finishes at Sandbach Rugby Club on the outskirts of Sandbach town centre. This years event takes place on Sunday 14th May.
There are three routes (and four rides) to suit all abilities:
- ThreeShires 100K (62 miles): Looping the quiet country lanes of Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire — £20
- ThreeShires Event 35K (23 miles): Aimed at getting those dusty bikes out of the garage and back on the road! — £15
- ThreeShires Event 6K: (3½ miles): Family fun ride — £5
- ThreeShires Triple Crown: Challenge yourself to take on all three routes back to back! — £25
Unfortunately I’m unable to make the ride that day so I decided to ride the 100k to see what it was like a little earlier. I’ve signed up for two further Sportives later in the year.
So at the start of April bright and early at 8:30 I programmed the route into my Mio and set off from my home. I had no idea how long this ride was going to take me but hoped to complete it in 5 hours.
It didn’t start well on the cycle to the where I was planning to join the route in Middlewich. A car had turned over on the Bostock-Middlewich road and fire-engines and ambulances had closed the road. A man in there van kindly let me know before I had to back track too much.
Joining the route at Middlewich I had my Mio directing the way. This was as much a test to see if my cycle computer worked well for directions as my own cycling ability. The route out from Middlewich heads steadily towards the outskirts of Nantwich visiting some beautiful little villages. Despite working in Nantwich I was surprised at how many small and unknown roads I travelled down to get there — there first part of this route is certainly off the beaten track which makes for very quiet rides. Saying that, quiet roads often mean that they aren’t in the best condition and some of them certainly could do with the pot-holes filling in!
My computer directed me well — I actually only missed one turning in the whole route — as we headed out south of Nantwich. The route became steadily hillier — although still perfectly rideable without too much effort. A long downhill lead into Audlem village where I decided to stop and get some breakfast — almost perfectly in the middle of the route.
I can highly recommend JAs (Julie Ann’s) for a breakfast. A full English vegetarian (with duck eggs) breakfast was quickly devoured along with two pots of tea. After a final toilet stop I got back on to my bike to complete the second half of the route.
The second part of the route was certainly much more challenging than the start with a number of hills — although not particularly steep they were long and steady. The second half of the route also seemed a lot busier traffic wise with a lot of the roads being more ‘substantial’ than the first half of the route. I found it funny that despite a number of miles under the belt since breakfast I constantly saw signs advertising Audlem as only being a few miles away!
None of this however deterred from what is an excellent route and cycling into Sandbach (over some cobbles!), which is the official finish, was a great achievement for me. I was tempted to stop again and celebrate with a Costa but I still had a number of miles to do to get home. It was in these final miles that I enjoyed the knowledge of completing my first sportive — although not officially — on my road bike. My legs felt tired, my hands ached and my back felt like it needed a good stretch but I’d completed the 62miles plus a bit more!
For anyone that has got the time — it took me 5hours 7minutes — I’d highly recommend this route. It’s certainly inspired my to sign up to a number of Sportives and longer rides over the coming year.
My Strava Route: https://www.strava.com/activities/924901621
