Having ridden the Manchester to Blackpool Bike Ride on Sunday and stayed overnight in Blackpool, Monday was time for the return home Blackpool to Stockport ride. The first job of the day was to go out for breakfast – we went to the Weatherspoon’s pub called The Layton Rakes. We do like breakfast at Wetherspoons and it is good value too.

Feeling refuelled, we had a last look at the sea before it was time to start our ride back to Stockport.

We took a rather different route back, trying to generally avoid the busy roads and generally keeping to the National Cycle Network (NCN) routes.

On the outskirts of Preston, we picked up the Guild Wheel cycle route. We have cycled other sections of this route in the past.

We cycled past Miller Park and then into Avenham Park.

We stopped at the cafe in Avenham Park, which we have been to many times before. In the past they have always been out of gluten free cake but my luck was in and there was some very nice gluten free cake available!

After our break, we set off again following a route we have cycled before but in reverse.

Passing through Bamber Bridge, we then went through Cuerden Valley Park which again we have cycled through on club rides in the past.

Leaving the Cuerden Valley Park at Whittle-le-Woods, we were back on the roads again and headed towards Chorley.

From Chorley we made our way towards Horwich.

As we reached the edges of Salford, we picked up the Roe Green Loopline which was great to cycle along.

We then picked up the Bridgewater Way.

We passed near the place where Debbie had had her accident the previous day.

We came off the Bridgewater Way onto Chester Road in Trafford. From there Andy took us down a side road that I had not been down before. We were then very surprised to encounter a bridge with lots of steps over the train line. It was not at all cycle friendly but we fought our way over, I carried up my panniers whilst Andy carried up my bike and then we went back to collect his bike and panniers. Having crossed over we then hand to do the same relay process to get down again. It was the most exhausting part of the ride.

We then cycled through Longford Park.

Then wiggled our way through Chorlton and Didsbury

We were now on familiar ground, cycling into Cheadle and then on to Stockport.

We had cycled 61 miles and had managed to dodge the rain. You can see our route below: