It ends this Saturday 16 Feb. The last ever official Cult ride. The end of the Club and the end of an era.
It was decided a few weeks ago, as we headed into a new season, that with domain name and clubs subs due, we wound the club up. The club had a lump of money in the bank so we decided to do a Curry Night and one final ride and donate what was left to charity.
The Curry Night was great. 11 of us descended on the Dilshad International in Alvechurch on Jan 31 for some great food, beer and banter, with plenty of stories and memories of the club rides of years gone by. We talked about some of the characters, the weather and crashes, it seems the rides covered it all in their hey day.
Attention now focuses on the last official ride this Saturday. We’re meeting from 8.10am at Cafe Morso (Address: 9 The Square, Alvechurch, Birmingham B48 7LA) for some free coffee and plan to roll around 9am. My group will average 18’s.
If anyone wants to come along and form a slower group, everyone is welcome. We have enough money for lots of free coffee!
The route for the ride is based on getting back to Alvechurch but if any decide they want to eat we can stop at the Earlswood Craft Centre cafe for food and then roll back after. Its a touch over 80km and covers some of the classic Cult ride roads we used to use over and over.
We head out of Alvechurch, direction Redditch and jump onto the bus route (my commute route) which is car-free and probably the safest way to get over to Studley where the real route begins. Straight through Studley, we get off the main road down Spernall Lane and ride past Purity Ales on our way to Great Alne. Here we bear right and ride through more Cult lanes to Aston Cantlow and out eastwards towards Bearley direction Langley. Up the ‘little Alp’ with its hairpin and we cross the A4189 at Claverdon and back into the lanes at Pinley Green. Over the M40 we skirt Hatton, cross the A4177 and pick up Firs Lane. We drop onto the A4177 near Honiley, which has seen so many Cult rides travelling at silly speeds and then hook left onto Honiley Lane for that long straight, gradual drag. All the way to the end into Tempall Balsall and then we cut through on Watery Lane onto a brief stretch of the Warwick Rd. We pass the posh houses on Chessetts Wood Rd and Rising Lane and then head back into Hockley Heath on the Old Warwick Road. Then its a classic cult finish down School Road, past Wedges bakery. Dyers Lane, Cut Throat and then the climb up through the Lakes where I’m sure we’ve all had sore legs before. We ride past the old shop as a nod to Cult but no sprint this time.! We head back to Alvechurch as we used to start a lot of rides, Forshaw Heath, Inkford, we drop under the A435 and climb Watery Lane to the top of Weatheroak Hill. A steep descent and then we get back to Alvechurch.
I look forward to it.
https://www.strava.com/routes/16646490
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