Saturday was the Stockport Community Cycling Club ride to Uppermill starting from Stalybridge. However as it wasn’t going to be a long ride we decided to cycle to and from the starting point as well.

A little group of us met up and cycled from Stockport through Bredbury, Woodley,  Hyde and on to Stalybridge.  The ride to the official starting point was 10.5 miles and about 550 feet of climbing.

The ride was mainly off road (using tracks and following the canal) going through Mossley and past Uppermill to a point above Diggle.

Along the way we passed some Highland cattle.  The calves were so cute, just like little fluffy balls!

A little further along,  as we were climbing up a hill,  Andy’s chain came off and wedged itself around the back of the cogs. Unfortunately he couldn’t seem to sort it out and I had to give him a bit of a hand.

Even after wiping my hands on the grass, they didn’t come very clean!

We continued on and stopped at the Limekiln Cafe for lunch, which did some great food.

After lunch we made our way back to the starting point in Stalybridge.

The ride was 13.6 miles and about 600 feet of climbing. It was a great ride and everyone seemed to enjoy it, even though there were quite a number of gates that were hard to get through with our bikes.

Andy had decided to take a different route home – one that was hillier.

The ride back was about 16 miles and about 1132 feet of climbing. Andy and I took a slight detour on the way home and we were able to collect his touring bike from Woodson’s Bike shop in Edgeley where it had been since his little mishap a few weeks ago. He was very pleased to get it back!

All in all,  we had cycled just over 40 miles with 2300 feet of climbing. The weather had been lovely and it was a great day out!