eXtra Rides are Stockport Community Cycling Club‘s advanced rides – they are intended to go a little further and be a little more challenging. Of these there are usually two in each calendar year that are advertised as hilly, and Rivington eXtra was the autumnal hilly eXtra Ride in this years calendar.

The ride began at Rivington Hall Barn.

It then headed over Lower Rivington Reservoir.

 

We carried on through Grimeford village, crossed the M61 and began the first climb of the day.

  

From there we cycled past Haigh.

We hadn’t got too far into the ride however when our ride leader Andy S decided to have a fight with some brambles on the side of the ride. Too busy looking back and checking where all the rest of the group were he was guilty of ignoring the layout of the road in front until it was too late! Thankfully there were bandages galore to cover up what were some angry looking cuts but hopefully no long-term damage was done (except for his cycling reputation!)

 

After patching Andy up we continued on the Standish, Coppull and the edge of Chorley. There were plenty of hills too, and the scenery was fabulous

  

We continued past Anglezarke and Yarrow Reservoirs on to Rivington Road.

We climbed up to Belmont and around Winter Hill.

Now …when you climb hills the downhills that follow can be enticing too. So it will come as no surprise that the last climb before lunch provided a lovely downhill to follow. Except we turned off half way down for lunch at Entwistle. One of our riders however enjoyed the downhill so much that he missed the turning and kept going down to the village at the bottom of the hill. Someone was therefore volunteered to go and fetch him, and that ‘volunteer’ was me. Of course that entailed an extra climb back up that hadn’t planned for. Thanks Peter.

Lunch was taken at the Strawbury Duck in Entwistle. There weren’t any specifically labelled gluten-free meals but the omelette, though a tad expensive, was fabulous.

After lunch we continued on past Turton and Entwistle Reservoir.

Through Turton, Edgworth and the edges of Bolton at Bromley Cross.

Finally we arrived back at Lever Park in Horwich.

 

This was a challenging but rewarding eXtra Ride covering some fantastic scenery. We had cycled 41 miles and climbed 3500 feet by the time we had finished. We were all tired but were able to look back on an enjoyable day of cycling.

You can view the Rivington eXtra route below: