Cuerden Valley 2020 was the latest version of a regular and ever-popular Stockport Community Cycling Club ride. You can view earlier versions here: Crash and Burn, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Jim was leading today’s ride. We left Kem Mill car park at Whittle le Woods and joined NCN Route 55. This took us through Cuerden Valley Park as we followed the River Lostock.

I managed to get further than on the Crash and Burn version of this ride.

Eventually, we left Cuerden Valley cycle route and crossed over the M6.

Turning into Havelock Road, we made our way through a local business estate.

This meant cycling through possibly the lowest tunnel we have to navigate our way through on our club rides.

We continued to follow NCN Route 55.

A little further on we joined the Old Tram Road.

This brought us out at the River Ribble.

Crossing over the river, we reached Avenham Park.

We stopped at the Pavilion Cafe in the park.

After our coffee stop, we continued along the other side of the river. We joined NCN Route 622 which forms the Preston Guild Wheel.

Leaving NCN Route 622, we cycled through Walton-Le-Dale.

And made our way towards Bamber Bridge.

A little further on, we split into two groups. Jim led the first group on a long climb up Brindle Hill.

After reaching the top of the hill, we dropped down into Brindle. Then we climbed another short sharp hill up to Top O’Th Lane.

There were some great views out towards Darwen.

Finally, we dropped back down to Whittle le Woods

As mentioned earlier, while most of us had climbed up Brindle hill, Sarah had been leading a smaller group back to the start following a slightly less hilly route.

We had cycled about 15 miles today. This is a popular route, and it easy to see why. It follows some fantastic cycle paths. You can view our Cuerden Valley 2020 route below: