Checkpoint Numbers & Names
Cheshire 2 – Knutsford
Cheshire 6 – Great Budworth
One of the beauty’s of the BCQ is that it’s possible to twin up checkpoint visits with other activities, and with a visit to my sisters in Cheshire came the opportunity to visit two or three checkpoints while I was there.
So, after rising early (because I needed to be back mid morning) it was time head off in search of the first checkpoint of the morning in Knutsford, a place known to many for nothing more than the fact there are services there for the M6.
Rather than take the most direct (and very un-scenic) route I decided to go a little round the houses so that I could go through some of the quieter villages on the way to Knutsford. So heading south from Nortwhich, through an area known as Broken Cross and over the busy A556 before hitting the lanes in to the village of Lach Dennis, and then a sort of north heading direction over the M6 and through the picturesque villages of Lower Peover (pronounced Pover) and Smithy Green where there were interesting looking pubs if it hadn’t been quite so early in the day.
It wasn’t long after that I joined the A50 for the short run in to Knutsford town centre where I would need to find the checkpoint. Finding the street with the checkpoint was relatively easy, however the I rode passed the checkpoint a couple of times before I spotted it – as the checkpoint was a Tower I expected it to stand out from the rest of the buildings in the high street but it blended in very well, and was more visible from the opposite side of the road, but once found and duly photographed it was time to move on to the next point.
Continuing along King Street going north the route then took me back over the A50 and then through Tableyhill where I briefly flirted with outskirts of the M6 junction 19 interchange where I started to feel a few drops of rain. Once I ‘d gotten away from the M6 junction the roads got back to the quiet lanes that I’d enjoyed on the first part of the ride, unfortunately the spots of rain weren’t going away, and although they weren’t any worse, they were enough to be annoying, fortunately as the road through Bate Heath towards Great Budworth was both very quiet and well covered with trees I managed to remain fairly dry.
As I cruised in to the second and final checkpoint of the day in Great Budworth, the weather started to clear up a little with the rain easing off. The checkpoint for this visit was a pub on the main road through the village so was very easy to find. It was more than a little frustrating though to be visiting a pub checkpoint so early in the day when they were closed, and it was far too early to be sampling the local real ale without being accused of being an alchoholic! So having settled for scoffing the banana that I’d put in my jersey and drinking some water from my bidon it was time to add to my photo collection and bid Great Budworth a farewell as I travelled back the short distance to my sisters on some major but surprisingly quiet roads as I headed back in to my start point at Broken Cross via Lostock Gralam.
Miles Cycled –19
Checkpoints Visited – 2
Total Miles Cycled – 724
Total Checkpoints Visited – 38
Click here to download a gpx file for this ride
