Chester Road Club

We take in Chesire’s rural charms with a club that truly does it all

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Gifted with the sprawling Cheshire lanes one way and the testing hills of North Wales the other, some would say that the Chester Road Club has the ideal location. Club chairman James Eastbury is the first to agree: “Yes, the riding in North Wales is just amazing, and although everyone says Cheshire is flat, I don’t think you are going to experience that today.”

It’s Saturday morning and Rubens Coffee in Chester is surrounded by the red, white and blue of the club kit, all of us sorting into our own little groups then filtering through the Roman walls that mark the city boundaries. Before long we’re pedalling along quiet lanes through Mickle Trafford and Guilden Sutton out towards Kelsall hill.

Road and cyclo-cross racer Nick Whitley, now riding alongside me, explains how although he got into cycling only six years ago, he’s been racing for just as long. “Cyclo-cross is strong here now, it’s picked up massively in the club. We’ve got a few groups that head off into Llyn Brenig and quite a few of the ladies get involved too.”