Leyland to Shrewsbury or is it “Shrosebury”?

We left our accommodation in Southport and drove to our starting point for the day in Croston just outside of Leyland. Much to our relief today’s route looked decidedly flat compared to the last few days, in fact we climbed more metres in the first 2 hours yesterday than we were due to do in the whole of today, nevertheless we had a lot of big towns and busy roads to negotiate. The weather looked rather ominous with forecasters hedging their bets predicting sunshine with showers for the whole of the west coast. After 30mins Jon had his first puncture of the day (3^rd in total), this was swiftly changed and the cycling continued for approx 15 mins before puncture number 2 occurred. By this time Geoff had befriended a local resident and made friends with her whippet Patsy, so we left him chatting and rode on, after a further 10 mins the back tyre on Jon’s bike was looking rather flat and unbelievably he had his 3^rd puncture of the day (5^th in total). By now we were convinced that the tubes were from a faulty batch, so we changed to a different brand and rode on. Numerous other cyclists were out enjoying Saturday morning rides although it appears that the majority of riders in Lancashire don’t believe in wearing helmets, which seems very alien to us and they also seem to be all riding the opposite way to us as well. Eventually at some traffic lights we caught up with a local rider (who was helmeted) and when he asked where we were cycling from he nearly fell off his bike (lucky he was wearing a helmet!!), after a few miles he wished us all the best and headed off in the other direction (no change there then). After negotiating/surviving the dual carriageway around Wigan, Widnes, St Helens & Runcorn we stopped for lunch in Frodsham (and bought some spare inner tubes from the bike shop). Fortunately it still hadn’t rained on us yet, so fingers crossed we’d make it to today’s finish without getting wet. We headed on South following some tiny unsigned roads which fortunately thanks to Andy’s (I’ve got an app for that!) iphone Google maps app we were able to navigate. Heading towards our last refuelling stop of the day Jon’s front tyre decided it was feeling left out and wanted a new inner tube as well, and gradually got flatter and fatter, a quick pump up and we raced into Ellesmere to change tubes (4^th puncture of day and 6^th of the challenge). On entering the town we found Geoff surrounded by a hoard of hoodies, “What on earth has he got himself into now?” we asked ourselves. “Meet the Ellesmere crew” said Geoff on our arrival “they want to know all about your challenge”, so we spent the next 10 mins changing Jon’s front tyre, telling the gang about our cycling, showing them our bikes and then hearing all about their joy-riding exploits. Finding nowhere obvious to refuel in Ellesmere and being slightly apprehensive of leaving the bikes unattended judging by the “light fingered” skills of the locals, we sat in a Tesco car park and ate the remains of Ginger Cake made by Wynne in Alexandra Court in Windermere (Many thanks Wynne your cake was wonderful). With just 16 miles left to go for the day we sped along the main road to Shrewsbury or as Andy calls it “Shrosebury”, made our way through the one way system and found our accommodation for the evening Peverel development Hazeldine Court. Wow a whole day of cycling without having to don raincoats; lady luck was on our side, although this was evened out by 4 punctures in one day!! A cup of tea, quick shower, change and walk into the city centre for an evening meal, and we’re ready for tomorrow. Total miles covered today 90 miles, total to date 758 miles in 7 days. One week of cycling completed and a long day in the saddle planned for tomorrow, so off to bed.