Читать книгу The Lancashire Cycleway. The tour and 17 day rides онлайн

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In many other counties the next stage, looping at a discreet distance around Preston, would score pretty highly. By Lancashire standards it is merely pleasant. West of the main road and railway lines the undulations flatten out, the fields grow larger, and then reclaimed mosslands begin to reach to the horizon. On Rawcliffe and Pilling Mosses there’s a dead flat, almost dead straight, run of 5km. It doesn’t sound much, but compared to the ever-changing prospects more normal in Lancashire it seems almost endless.

If the wind is favourable (and it usually is) there’s a fast run to Cockerham, where hills begin again. Gentle at first, the slopes get a little grander as the route hems the skirts of the Bowland Fells, through the Quernmore valley just east of Lancaster. Crook O’Lune is a lovely spot, and you may want to loiter a little. The fun’s almost over, just that last, imperceptibly downhill ride back into Lancaster and the train.

Grim up North? You must be kidding.

STAGE 1A

The Lancaster Link