Bob Clift Cheshire Cycleway Ride 100-mile Challenge Ride

The Bob Clift Cheshire Cycleway Challenge Rides are part of the Cycling UK Challenge Ride Series. They take place in June and are a great mid-season ride for regular and experienced cyclists alike. 

Cheshire is full of special landmarks and points of interest. The route starts in Old Waverton, with its classic Cheshire sandstone church - a landmark for your return.  Heading onto the sandstone ridge, you pass through Delamere Forest, and then drop down the other side to Acton Bridge, with the swing bridge over the River Weaver, which opened in 1933.  When you climb the other side of the valley to Little Leigh, watch out for a thatched cottage, before views from Comberbache over to Budworth Mere. Cheshire has many meres (lakes) formed in the Ice Age, but also some from subsidence due to the salt mines, still active, far below the surface. Crossing the M6 before Knutsford, you are near to Tatton Park, one of the UK's most complete historic estates, and home to the RHS Flower Show each July.  

As you climb 'The Old Wizard' hill at Alderley Edge, one of the UK's most affluent areas, you reach the wizard pub - there is a legend about a wizard here! You will pass around Macclesfield, once the world's biggest producer of finished silk. (There were 71 silk mills operating in 1832.) As you return across the Cheshire Plain, watch out for glimpses of Jodrell Bank, home of The Hubble Telescope and instrumental in people landing on the moon. Cheshire has four canals and you will cross them all at some stage on this route: the Shropshire Union, Trent and Mersey, Macclesfield and Llangollen canals.  When you come to Eaton for afternoon tea, you are very near to Oulton Park race circuit. Heading towards Beeston Castle is another iconic landmark, built in 1220.