Riding pretty

Finally, the bike got dusted off, I dusted myself down and lo and behold we left the house together.  Perched the bike on the rack on the back of the car and took myself off to Culcheth for a spot of sneaky parking village centre.

This was a new thing for me.  Taking the hybrid out on the road, not for a journey to get to somewhere but for leisure, even for fun, if you like.  Not done that before.

The thing is, I'm trying to join a cycling club.  I want to belong to a club so I have people to go mountain biking with, people who will stretch me perhaps, add a social element to occasions and have good regular reliability for riding in and around my area.  Also I want to know what cyclocross is and if I could do it.

My chosen club is: this one:
http://www.northcheshireclarion.co.uk/
They have sections in all kinds of cycling, regular runs, and mid week evening club meets with information.  They also have club colours but I'm not sure about them.  In contacting them they seem nice, welcoming, informative, they actually respond to e-mails and are not snotty about my lack of ability, just asking questions to establish information, nothing more unpleasant.  I anticipate going on my first MTB ride with them next weekend.

But one thing they did was flag up that my hybrid would be welcome on their club runs.  If of course the rider was up to it.  I have no idea what my average speed is, and realised it needs to be 16mph on the road to be comfortable in that company.  So, one way to find out, test it out.  Found some maps of their club runs and gave one a lonesome test run:

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/culcheth

Actually I did kind of enjoy it.  The lanes are obviously something they've selected through experience; traffic is light, gradients are manageable and the views are lovely.  Never felt in danger or even threatened by fellow road users.  I did wonder though if others doing similar routes go in a clockwise direction such was the volume of cyclists seen coming the other way.

I'm not at race pace for their Saturday ride though.  Another club sped past me like I was stationary on the way up to Warburton Bridge, which was cool to go over, given that in the car it costs 12p a journey - it's free to go by bike!