One of our leaders, Rona, took herself off to Cheshire in early July to ride the CTC Triennial Veterans 100 mile ride with the Chester and North Wales CTC.
"It was a great day out, good weather and good company. Participants are split into groups and I was delighted to be in Sue Booth's group. In case you don't know, Sue runs the Chester Fabulous Ladies, find the blog here: Chester Fabulous Ladies
"This is one of the joys of belonging to a national cycling organisation and I was not the only rider to have come from some distance for the ride. The event ran super smoothly and the catering was of course fabulous, chapeau to all the volunteers who made it happen.
"We set off from the village hall in Duddon and went roughly south, along the eastern edge of the Dee floodplain and soon after we crossed into Wales we enjoyed an elevenses stop in Overton.
We continued southward through Ellesmere and after some wiggles and not long after we crossed the Severn / Hafren we had lunch at Four Crosses. Then we were heading north-ish, with a stop to admire St Peter's Melverley on the banks of the Vrynwy.
We were grateful for the two strong riders who steadily towed our group up the A road back to Ellesmere, the morning's tailwind now in our faces. Afternoonses at Overton gave us the oomph to get back to Duddon.
"It was lovely riding in a group and ours was quite a mixed group of individuals, we all got on very well. I enjoyed exploring a part of the country I had never been to before."
Chester & North Wales CTC organise this ride and others every year. Other larger CTC groups also organise annual 'event' rides, Rona has enjoyed a Trivets and a 100km Challenge with Coventry CTC in previous years. Easily accessible by train from Watford Junction and if you have a slower LNWR-only ticket, you don't need to reserve a bike space, although you'll likely have to change at Milton Keynes!