Country or Preston??

[FasterFerret]

Just under 2 weeks until I depart on my 9-day JOGLE.

I think I have my route almost finalised - thanks to all the help that I have received from this forum

The last piece of the jigsaw is the route through or around Preston.

I would be keen to get an experienced view on the bit between Bilsborrow and Rivington (I want to go to the reservoirs 'for old times sake').

I am trying to find a good balance between keeping a good average speed and a quiet pleasant route (which for me usually means country lanes). I don't have a problem riding in traffic, I just prefer not to. I'm not one to take a 3-mile detour to avoid 1 mile on a busy road (NCN 71 in Threlkeld!), and I'll be on a road bike with skinny tyres so rough tracks are out.

It seems that there are many options... but the main ones seem to be:

Just do the whole thing on the A6

Get on the A6 and just bang through the middle of Preston then jump on the B6258, A49, cut back across to the A6 into Chorley.

Minimise time on the A6 by taking a parallel route to the A6 (behind the Royal Preston Hospital), pick up the route above.

Use NCN 90 then 622 to wiggle down to the River Ribble, follow the river to the NCN 55 until it hits the A6 at Whittle le Woods (this is the route generated by cycle.travel)

For what it is worth, I will be hitting Preston mid-afternoon on Friday...

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[Paulatic]

Not sure about your extra 3 mls at Threlkeld.
NCN 71 through Threlkeld is .1 of mile longer than A66. The relief of getting away from the traffic noise is worth that to me.
If you include the next section towards Keswick that is .2 ml longer than A66.
If you mean the loop out to Mungrizedale you’ve no need to use it. I more often than not use the old bit of road on your left down to Scales.

[FasterFerret]

Not sure about your extra 3 mls at Threlkeld.
NCN 71 through Threlkeld is .1 of mile longer than A66. The relief of getting away from the traffic noise is worth that to me.
If you include the next section towards Keswick that is .2 ml longer than A66.
If you mean the loop out to Mungrizedale you’ve no need to use it. I more often than not use the old bit of road on your left down to Scales.

It must be that bit to Mungrisdale that I'm thinking about, took it once without really paying too much attention. Was a bit surprised when I popped back out on the A66 what seemed like only a few yards from where I had left it...

Threlkeld is lovely and definitely worth the (v small) detour.

[Norman H]

When I did it I threaded a pleasant and quiet route between Preston and Blackburn via Hoghton and Samlesbury Bottom. I then went east via Mellor and Whalley because I was using the YH at Slaidburn but you could cross the Ribble at Ribchester Bridge to regain your route at Bilsborrow, or even further north.

[FasterFerret]

you could cross the Ribble at Ribchester Bridge to regain your route at Bilsborrow, or even further north.

That seems to be the choice to make, not many options to cross the Ribble, Preston seems the shortest, most obvious, Ribchester seems a long way out, but looks like it will be more scenic - I'll have to check the mileage differences.

I have seen other posts about a "guild wheel route", so that's probably the next thing to have a look at.

[Mick F]

Having lived up there in my yoof and my teens, I'd just hammer through the middle of the "city".
It wasn't a city when we lived Up North.

If and when I do another JOGLE or LEJOG - or even do it both ways again, I'd just hammer through the middle.
Not advice, it's just what I'd do.

Some few years ago - 2011 - I rode up to from Cornwall to the Yorkshire Dales and back. One of the delightful bits, was riding though Manchester city centre through the main busy city centre streets with all the traffic and NOT using cycle tracks.

[RickH]

The A6 through Preston is OK, especially as you're doing a fair few miles. Heading South over the river is beeter than going North as you are going mainly downhill. Branching off (really going straight where the A6 swings off to the right) to pick up the B6258 (the old route of the A6) through Bamber Bridge is definitely the preferred option to following the A6.

An alternative to taking the A49 then cutting across to the A6 is to turn left onto Church Road (marked as a "no through road") just before the A6/A49 junction. A short cycle path at the end of this brings you out to the roundabout where the A6 goes over the M6. I tend to stick to the cycle path for the first bit (crossing the entry sliproad) & rejoin the road on the exit sliproad after crossing over the M6. The cycle path continues but stops shortly after the next roundabout, which is only a couple of hundred yards away, so I find it easier to be back on the road. Then you can just follow the A6 through to Chorley & beyond.

If you need sustenance South of Preston, look out for Frederick's Ice Creams to your left as you head out of Chorley on the A6 just after the traffic lights where the A5106 (for Standish & Wigan) goes off to the right. Multitudinous flavours of ice cream & "proper" food too. If you are going to be in Rivington before 4pm I would recommend the Village Green Tea Rooms (straight ahead 100 yards uphill where the road into Rivington village turns sharp right).

[Mick F]

Village Green Tea Rooms Rivington, was the post office when I was last there.
They sold ice cream too.

[RickH]

Village Green Tea Rooms Rivington, was the post office when I was last there.
They sold ice cream too.

according to the Wikipedia entry about the Chapel (link), it was a library until 1985. My vague recollection is that the post office was the other side of the Chapel in the row facing the end of the village green. The Tea Room is up the hill a short way on Sheep House Lane - the road heading towards Belmont - behind the Chapel. The 1909 OS mapping (6" to the mile - Thank you National Library of Scotland for the digitising ) looks like it agrees.

[FasterFerret]

If you are going to be in Rivington before 4pm I would recommend the Village Green Tea Rooms (straight ahead 100 yards uphill where the road into Rivington village turns sharp right).

Rivington is going to be at about the 90mile mark for the day (only 25 more to do that day to get into Sale), so it looks like a perfect spot for afternoon refreshments. Knowing it closes at 4pm will keep me to schedule too.

I think that I probably will just hit straight through Preston on the A6 > B6258 then down Church Rd (local knowledge is amazing, would never have spotted this on my own) and back on to the A6. I am thinking of heading through Limbrick and past the golf course which means that I will miss (the temptation of) Frederick's Ice Creams...

[Mick F]

The way I remember it, and it's back as far as late as the early 1970s but I used to visit there in the 60s and the 50s too .......... the Post Office was just on the green.
Looking at Google Streetview, it seems to have gone.
Maybe it was the LH side of the terrace there, but I remember it further left as if the building has gone. Red brick-built if my memory serves me correctly.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.62544 ... 312!8i6656

We were there before we were married. 1972 or so. Left the area after we married in November 1973 ........ still married!
I was living in Newburgh then and prior to that Wrightington and prior to that, Standish. Mrs Mick F was originally Scouser but latterly a Burscough Girl.

Before we met, I used to go up to Rivington Barn as a teenager. Back before that, me and my mates would cycle there and even ride up to the pike. Even before, with mum and dad, we used to go there for a day out. I know/knew the area very well indeed.

Maybe the last time me and Mrs Mick F were in that area, we drove over to Belmont in my Minivan, and had a few beers in the Black Dog. Mid 1973 maybe or slightly later perhaps. Carpark opposite.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.63811 ... 312!8i6656

[eileithyia]

Village Green Tea rooms used to be the school room for the Unitarian Chapel, the building still belongs to the chapel. Can't comment on where the PO used to be..before my time.

I won't go in the VGT any more after some rude comments and returning a very dry / stale scone, but will use the Bowling Green or the Barn instead.

I used to finish at work at 3pm, to ride to Horwich through the centre of Preston (or at least the A6 bit of the centre), could be horrendous with congested stop / start traffic and could add up to 30 mins to my commute over my morning commute in.

Picking up the Guild Wheel is another option; you can pick up at Broughton and leave it just south of the river where the A6/London Rd, crosses the river (you can go west or east side). There are cafes on the west side at the Arena and east side at the wildlife reserve. Once back on the A6 take the option through BB and cross the motorway slip (with extreme care!). I have diced with death as I try to guess which way traffic is going on the roundabout.... and remember they are accelerating off the motorway so you have to nimble to cross it.

Another option could be to continue on A6 through BB to the traffic lights, go straight on, go up the short hill and join the cycle route through Cuerden Park, rejoins A6 at Whittle but is a pleasant tarmac traffic free route through some quiet parkland.

[FasterFerret]

Thanks for those suggestions, I'll get the [virtual] map back out tomorrow and check them out.

T-5 days... getting a bit nervous now.

[Rod Goodfellow]

I went to the VGT last weekend for tea and toasted teacake and everything was fine.Judging by the large number of customers many people were happy with things,including the 3 cycling clubruns there.

[FasterFerret]

I thought that I would give an update now that I have finished my JOGLE as to what I actually did.

The plan for this day (Day 5 of 9) was to get from Penrith to Sale. The day before I had done a 132 mile day; from just North of Edinburgh to Penrith in horrendous headwinds and rain. I had set off from Dalgety Bay at 9am (a little later than planned waiting for a bike shop to open) and had reached Penrith at 9:45pm, with the last hour spent worrying what was going to pack up first - my phone battery, my Garmin battery, my lights or my legs... I was wrecked at the end of that day and less confident about pulling another hard day.

I had 116 miles on the schedule, but with another slightly later than desired start and continuing strong winds, by the time I had got over Shap and down into Scorton (going East of Lancaster across the edge of the Forest of Bowland (beautiful, but again high up and exposed to the wind)) I was already an hour and a half behind my planned schedule.

It was, therefore, a day for Plan B. From Scorton I headed straight for Garstang and then the A6, following this to Broughton where I went straight through rather than take the busier by-pass. I somehow managed to get onto the Guildwheel (heading East/clockwise), which seemed like a good route until I realised just how far around the outside of Preston it was trying to take me. I ended up cutting back in to just south of the Hospital and dropping almost due South through Moor Park and terraced streets until I picked-up the A59/London Road. I then followed the B6258 route through Bamber Bridge, down Church Road across the M6 roundabout then A6 all the way to Chequerbent (I decided to skip the reservoirs - the weather was lousy so it wouldn't have been pretty, I had missed closing time at the cafe and frankly I needed to get a shift on and the extra height gain would have done nothing for my progress). I did see Fredricks along the way, but it really was not ice-cream weather!

It was hardly idyllic cycling, but it got the job done. The A6 from Garstang was busy with crawling traffic, but there was a decent enough 2 foot gap masquerading as a 'cycle lane'. Preston was fairly stop-start (as I was told it would be) and getting there just after 4pm on a Friday afternoon made things quite busy. But apart from a couple of numpties (most notably the scaffold lorry that forced its way past me giving so little room I could have held on to the side of it, only for it to take a left turn 50 meters ahead), the traffic was busy but OK. I actually found the A39 in Cornwall much, much worse and the expletives per mile considerably higher!

The final run into Manchester/Sale was not great, but that will be covered in another post somewhere.

With a couple of corners cut off, the final mileage for the day was 108