Finally, finally, leg 7 of my Circuit of Britain is underway, 18 months since I finished the last leg. The plan was for Adele to drop me off at Preston railway station where I finished last time and for me to cycle to Lancaster, where she’ll be waiting for me in our hotel. Inevitably, despite a reasonable weather forecast, the heavens opened when we were just 30 minutes away from the drop off point. To increase the angst we then got stuck in a 1 hour traffic jam on the way into Preston (it turned out there had been a couple of accidents). So I got unceremoniously dumped into a Dunhelm Mills’ car park, and made my way to the station on my bike, allowing Adele to do a u-turn and skip the traffic.
Completely accidentally my route took me past the last B&B I stayed in, so I really felt like the route had linked up. Working my way out of Preston was a pain and not especially attractive, lots of busy Saturday trunk roads to get out of the town, with nothing much to report. Pretty much as soon as I hit countryside at Bilsborrow however I came across this wayside oasis, on another day with more time on my hands it would have been a mandatory stop, but I’d just got started and needed to get miles under my belt. Another time perhaps.
Mentally this was a strange leg, it was short and I knew Adele was waiting for me, so I didn’t hang around at all. I was also flying, helped by the fact that she had all my bags though it felt like I was cheating a bit). All in all it didnt feel like I was touring, it felt more like a normal everday ride in the Chilterns.
That all changed somewhat when when I reached Galgate, a village a mile from Lancaster University, my alma mater. In those halceyon days of the early eighties, Galgate was where we headed when we needed a break from campus life, and today it seemed very much as I remembered it. Back then there were three pubs in the village, and I was glad to see both the New Inn and Plough were still open. The Green Dragon is now a tea room, but given all the pub closures over the last 40 years, two out of three ain’t bad.
I cycled up the lane to the University. I knew it had grown and changed significantly and that my college had been knocked down and relocated, so I wasn’t exactly disappointed or surprised when I got there but equally so much had changed that it wasn’t really a trip down memory lane. It clearly is a leading edge university these days and has buildings and facilities to match, and but it’s hard for me to relate it to the place I went. The only exception was Alexandra Square, which hasn’t changed in 40 years; pretty much everything else had.
The other thing that has changed is that the City of Lancaster has clearly welcomed cycling and now has a cycling lane that takes you the 3 miles from the university to the city, and I was to discover there is something similar on my way out of town the next day too. In fact Lancaster itself had changed. I had a great time at Uni, I loved the City, but it always seemed run down and a bit depressing; it was the early 80’s, unemployment was high and the university felt like an unwelcome guest. Given some of the run down and depressed cities I have travelled through on my circuit, I was concerned that Lancaster would have fared particualrly badly. I needn’t have worried.
Even in the Year of Covid, and outside term time, the city was lively with plenty of pubs open and as full as the social distancing restrictions allowed. In fact given the surrounding areas, with plenty to see and do, and the great cycling I had the next day, I think it compares favourably with Shrewsbury, asnother of my favourite cities from my rides. Shrewsbury may not have all that Chester has to offer but is still attractive to visit in its own right. The comparison between Lancaseter and York is the same I feel.
Adele and I had pleasant evening strolls around the town before and after dinner. I wasn’t, Adele wouldn’t have let me do that anyway, I was just enjoying a grand old city with some fine buildings. Time for a quick night cap in the Toll House and off to bed, in preparation for the real start of the journey, a full day’s 86km ride to Whitbarrow (near Penrith) over one of the highest passes in the Lake District.
Circuit of Britain 