Pottering around - Staffordshire
Having taken a holiday in Nerja on the Costa Del Sol and not riding for a fortnight I was keen to get a county ride in before August and one of the driest, warmest summers in memory had given way to autumn. The route for Staffordshire was fairly hastily planned but with a starting point at the Vine Inn oldest pub in Staffordshire, statues of Stanley Matthews and the iconic Mow Cop climb the route wasn’t a complete departure from the normal top ten features that feature in my routes.
Being familiar with much of the Staffordshire moorlands from previous sportive’s including the Leek Legbreaker, the Cheshire Cat and the Rourke Cycles Cat and Fiddle I decided to see a different side of Staffordshire with a mix of rural and urban sights, utilising the Trent and Mersey Canal and trails through country parks to take me through Stafford, Stone and Stoke northwards up to Mow Cop and back down to Stafford, skirting Shropshire on the western side of the Potteries followed by a rural loop east out to Uttoxeter and back with my good mate Rock.
Mow Cop had to be included in this ride as the “killer climb” despite having already ridden it before in truly awful conditions.
Some years ago tackling the Cheshire Cat Sportive I was trailing in the wake of my ten year old son, freezing rain bouncing off my helmet and torrents of water slewing past the wheels as I churned my way past the Cheshire view pub fighting gravity every inch of the way up the 25% slope. I was chuffed to bits when the road levelled out and I turned left towards the castle at the top having conquered what at the time was undoubtedly the toughest climb I had ever ridden. But…… downloading the ride as I warmed up with the feeling slowly returning to my extremities my heart sank as I realised the first half of the ride hadn’t recorded and as the saying goes “if it ain’t on Strava it didn’t happen” – Mow Cop needed to be slayed again!
A 5:30am alarm allowed for a clear run up the M6 and quiet backstreet roads in Stafford before picking up the compact gravel of the Isabel trail to get me into the country lanes on the way to Stone where I picked up the Trent and Mersey Canal.
The first long distance canal in the country engineered by James Brindley, the Trent and Mersey Canal proved to be a great way to traverse through Stoke-on-Trent with excellent towpaths, informative signage and a glimpse of the industrial past the city is famous for.
Barring a few early morning joggers and a few anglers who appeared to have camped out on the banks of the canal I had a clear run into the heart of Stoke and was crossing over one of the many cobbled bridges to the Bet 365 Stadium, better known to most as the Brittania Stadium home to Stoke City Football Club. Sir Stanley Matthews, considered by many to be the finest British footballer of all time is still the only player to have been knighted whilst playing the game. He was born in Hanley in 1915 and played most of his football for Stoke and Blackpool. He was the player my dad spoke most about other than his Birmingham City favourites, “the wizard of the dribble” was the player he most enjoyed watching.
With it not being matchday for Stoke the ground was undergoing routine maintenance and had been designated as a building site thus closed off to the public, keen to get a photo at the memorial to Stanley Matthews I cheekily went through a gate being used by the tradesmen only to be greeted by a bellow of “oi you can’t cycle in here” by a statuesque but elderly security guard. I spun the bike around and rode back towards him expecting a tough job persuading him to let me cycle round the ground to the memorial. Common sense prevailed however and having explained what I was doing there and why I wanted the photo he happily gave me ten minutes grace and off I trundled to the impressive three statues honouring the great player.
I cracked on through Stoke City centre and left the canal towpath to take in the backstreets of the city and it’s greenspaces of Hanley Park and Central Forest park. The early start saw the urban streets low on traffic and made exploring the tight terraced back to back streets a fun and interesting route to cycle.
Hanley Park brought deja-vu memories to me, I can’t be sure but I think possibly I had been taken there many years ago by my mom one Sunday whilst my dad who was a lay preacher for the Church of Christ preached somewhere in the city. The only other times I had been to the city were with my brother to the old Victoria Ground to watch the Blues generally get beat by their Staffordshire neighbours and on at least one occasion getting chased through the backstreets by less than friendly locals but then that was pretty normal in the football hooligan “heydays” of the 1980’s with every team being followed by a notorious crew with the Blues Zulu Warriors probably amongst the worst!
.
Chatterley Whitfield Heritage Park and Sustrans route NCN 55 the Biddulph Valley Way provided firm hard packed gravel, traffic free trails linking Stoke city centre to Biddulph. Home to to the best surviving example of a deep coal mine in Britain unfortunately this derelict site is fenced off and is only open to the public on occasional heritage open days when site tours can be booked. Industrial heritage of this nature being slowly reclaimed by the natural world has an eery and sad look which is curiously pleasing to the eye and deeply fascinating.
Shortly after leaving Biddulph the sign for Mow Cop greeted me and I patted myself on the back for remembering to fit my 36 tooth cassette the night before as I spun up the easier side of the sandstone and gritstone ridge that overlooks the Cheshire plains stopping briefly at the Toposcope before plunging back down the ridge to take on the mighty Mow Cop climb feared by many midlands cyclists, scoring a 9/10 from Simon Warren and a favourite haunt of photographers during sportives trying to capture the gurning expressions of amateur cyclists struggling up the final steepest ramp of the climb in front of the Cheshire view pub. The dead straight final 200m, 25% ramp is best ignored, looking a few metres in front of your front wheel is considerably less daunting! Managing to climb straight up without needing to weave from side to side was a little win and signalled a day blessed with legs that probably weren’t going to be complaining too much in the next 120km.
Unlike my previous visit to Mow Cop in monsoon like weather the pleasant conditions tempted me to park the bike at the bottom of the castle mound and scale the last grassy knoll on foot. Retreating back down the steep scree footpath in cleated shoes provided a cameo of entertainment for the National Trust Volunteers busy litter picking.
With the two biggest climbs of the day and a free flowing, non-technical sweeping descent south behind me I picked up more back to back terraced streets through Tunstall before dropping in to the café at Westport lake for the first coffee stop of the day.
Disappointed not to be able to sample a traditional Staffordshire oatcake I plumped for a Brookie which to all intents and purposes was a rocky road but hey, it tasted pretty good and the balcony overlooking the lake offered great views.
Following the extended record breaking hot dry spell of the summer the water level was low resulting in giant carp being visible across the lake with their dorsal fins breaking the surface as they weaved around the shallows. .
I took another short leg along the canal before turning back towards the urban environment past the amusingly and very optimistically named Chelsea embankment before picking up a pleasant path through Lyme Valley, stopping again briefly at Newcastle Town’s stadium, a familiar venue to me as it is also home to the Lyme Racing Club and velodrome. A place where Conor had competed on the track numerous times.
Heading South to the west of Trentham gardens I picked up some more gravel trails and in the pleasant village of Swynnerton I was surprised to be passing my second prison of the ride!
The Komoot route planning tool had selected the Newport – Stafford Greenway without me noticing and it proved to be a cracking 14km, traffic free, well surfaced route connecting the two towns. Following the redundant railway it was almost too flat and easy but was a delightful, stress free way way to get back into Stafford where I met up with Rocky for the next stage of the ride, a loop through country lanes to Uttoxeter and back.
The Isabel trail across the Doxey marshes once again took advantage of a disused railway line and brought us out of Stafford alongside the Beacon barracks and into quiet country lanes gently rising up to Milwich village.
Having planned en-route with Rock to stop in Uttoxeter for a bite to eat we stumbled upon the Uttoxeter Brewing Company and instead topped up our calorie reserves with liquid refreshment in the form of Ghost Patrol Pale Ale. Hoppy and fruity with subtle tropical fruit and blueberry flavours it was right up my street and I was sorely tempted to switch my empty water bottle for another can to take away but vowed instead to purchase a few online for consumption in Logan’s bar as a perfect reminder of another fine day’s cycling.
With time pressing on and Rock’s promised 6pm return home looking increasingly implausible we took a couple of photos in Uttoxeter and cracked on. The implausibility of Rock getting home in time to celebrate his neighbours anniversary was mainly, no entirely, due to amendments I had made to the finishing loop adding about 20km and a good few extra hills compared to the route I had shared with him! It genuinely wasn’t a deliberate trick or ploy but I’m sure in future he may double check any plans of mine!
Blithfield Reservoir brought back memories of my first ever open water triathlon despite it being greatly reduced in size due to the ongoing drought.
Shortly after leaving the reservoir on the final leg into Stafford we were further delayed when a komoot “unsurfaced path” turned out to be a trio of cow fields which provided an entertaining downhill experience as sunbaked cow pats crunched beneath our tyres but was less enjoyable as the final field to be crossed proved to be a testing uphill affair which I’m fairly sure didn’t rank as Rock’s favourite section of the ride!
The varied terrain and mix of environments of this route combining urban streets, canals, sustrans NCN routes and quiet country lanes proved that a wonderful day of cycling and exploring can be had without visiting the more obvious tourist attractions.
The ride in numbers
179.25 km Distance
Elevation Gain 1697m
8hrs 52 min moving time (20.2 km/h)
3 SIS Tropical Fruit gels
1 Torq Rhubarb and Custard gels
1 Brookie (Rocky road)
1 Sausage Roll
1 coffee stop
7 bottles of water
1 cans of Beer – Ghost Patrol Pale Ale (9/10)
No punctures
7 categorised climbs
Finally if you got a spare quid in your pocket my justgiving page to raise vital funds for the Midlands Air Ambulance is now live Keith Jones is fundraising for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity (justgiving.com)
Comments
Post a Comment