Saturday 30th April was the day that we took a little ride to Southport. We primarily went to recce a ride which Andy is leading for Stockport Community Cycling Club to Southport in a few weeks time. This was to be a new ride,  so we needed to check that the route was suitable. There was a small group of us that met at Mona Street car park in Wigan.

We made our way out of Wigan and picked up the Leeds and Liverpool canal.

At Appley Bridge we came off the canal and headed up hill towards Roby Mill.

There were some great views at the top, followed by a long downhill!

Having finished descending, the ride into Southport was fairly flat. It was also quite open and exposed. The was quite a strong wind, which at this point was mainly behind up and we found ourselves doing about 16 mph at times, without having to peddle!! It was great but we knew that the way back would be rather different, unless the wind changed direction!

As we neared the coast, we picked up NCN 62 – The Trans Pennine Trail. Andy and I have ridden this (in the opposite direction) before – you can see our route here.

As we reached Ainsdale, we turned right and followed the sand dunes into Southport.

As we reached Southport, we stopped briefly at the start/end point of the TPT.

We then cycled along the coast for a while until we had passed Marine Lake.

Having passed Marine Lake, we then turned in land and worked our way around the lake and back onto Southport to the start of Southport Pier.

We stopped for lunch at The Waterfront. The service was so fast that we were very pleasantly surprised!

We left Southport and headed out towards Scarisbrick using NCN paths.

Some of the roads that we used, although quiet from a traffic viewpoint, we really hard going as we were cycling into a strong headwind.

We rejoined the canal, passing through Burscough Bridge.

We came off the canal and cycled along a fairly main road (the A5209) for a short while. Around Parbold, we made our way back onto the canal.

At Appley Bridge, we came back off the canal and followed the roads to Shevington. We then followed a track to Crooke.

The remainder of the journey  was on roads. Eventually joining up with the road that we had set out on.

The ride (of about 52 miles) had been great, a real mixture of different terrain. The sun had been out, although the strong winds made it feel cooler than it was. I had found the second part of the really hard going, so much so that Andy had been surprised! However when we came to take my bike out of the car the next day, it had a puncture. As this was being fixed, it was also found that my back wheel was really badly buckled, which resulted in a new back wheel! I suspect that this might have contributed to how hard I had found it.

Now my bike is all repaired, I am looking forward to repeating it in a few weeks time. Hopefully it will be much easier now that the bike is fixed! You can view our route below: