I was born in Leeds, hence my Liverpool - Leeds canal ride this year, but at the age of 7 our family moved to Stafford.

So I thought a quick intercity 125 to Stafford and ride back.
The problem was to find a traffic free route with off road sections took me over into Derbyshire.

My bike set up


Ride 1 - To the local train station - 1 mile

Hop on the train, until it's engine died 2 stations away from Liverpool, everyone off.
Not wanting to miss my train while waiting for a recovery train to arrive I hopped on the bike
Ride 2 - to Liverpool's Lime Street - 2.8 miles

Burger King while at the station
Train to Stafford


31 miles to bivi spot just north of Ashbourne on the Tissington Trail
http://app.strava.com/activities/197113124
1st mile didn't show on the GPS

Using quiet lanes and off road sections like this


Rather than carrying food and cooking equipment (just a folding spoon) a Chinese Special Fried Rice was bought and put in my back pocket for the 20 minutes to find a bivi spot which acted as a mini heater as the light was fading.

Bivi pitched just as it started to drizzle


Nom noms in bed


First light drizzle


Handy for the trail


Last nights left over for early breakfast


Just 107 miles to home
http://app.strava.com/activities/197112124

The Tissington Trail although it doesn't look steep it rises 682ft over 15 miles


I then rode east in ever worsening drizzle/rain, my new waterproof worked perfectly and got to Bakewell before the cafe's opened, so it was breakfast snack bars until Buxton, via the Monsal Trail which climbs 543ft over 13 miles.
Note to self if doing these 2 trails again head North to South

Random photos of the lovely Monsal Trail








Then it was into Buxton for a double breakfast over 2 full fat Cokes while map checking


Straight after this came the last big climb of the day with it's 625ft over just 1.7 miles

Then I rode off road on the Midshire Way until the canals of South Manchester lead me north to the Trans Pennine Trail.
This trail is rubbish it has thousands (well it felt like thousands) of anti motorbike gates around every corner, this was so slow that I then changed directions and headed north via the Trafford Centre up toward the East Lancs Road at Worsley, then it was head down with a slight tail wind all the way home.

Full ride from Stafford stats



With the 2 rides to the train I clocked 150 miles, 2 train rides and a night out in just over 24 hours


And on a final note, yes they are aero bars but on long rides they help so much, not only getting down out of the wind with the help of my large framed bike and short body, but they also help by using different muscle groups in my legs, so any ride over 50 miles they are staying on