Manchester to Morecambe 2026: Ride Report

Ride leader Andrew reports...

This year's Manchester-Morecambe FNRttC got off to a good start when I met one of the Chorlton (CH) Massive and we rode to Manchester Victoria together. There I saw a message from one of the group saying that he'd mixed up the dates and thought the ride was the next weekend so he wouldn't be joining us. I'm partially responsible for that because I'd changed the date earlier in the year after managing to double book myself...

Since I'd given the North Manchester riders the OK to meet us en route, the two of us set off towards our rendezvous with the first rider near Prestwich Forest Park.

Pressing on, we met up with the other rider in Bury and I left the traditional flowers for Alan (jogler) before we started the climbing through Tottington. This part of the ride is relatively suburban and we soon reached Edgworth where the main climbing starts.

The weather at this point was fine but it wasn't as “scorchio” as I'd been expecting and the wind on the tops was quite cold. I put on a windproof at this point, fully expecting to take it off after the food stop. I actually did this but only to replace the windproof with a waterproof when it started raining... I kept this on until Morecambe, not because it rained all the way there but because it was still quite cold.

The food stop was, as always, very welcome and, for the first time, I realised how expensive the coffee was. Suitably refreshed we went out into the still very dark night for the rest of the schlep through Blackburn and the marvellous descent to Ribchester. What goes down...

The climb to Longridge was as long as ever but we made it in good style and humour and then carried on along the swooping lanes to the East of the M6.

Despite taking this part of the ride relatively slowly, it was obvious that we'd arrive too early to get breakfast in Morecambe so we decided to go to our destination, have the obligatory pictures taken with the statue of Eric and then head back to Lancaster to get breakfast at a Wetherspoons there.

This worked reasonably well once we'd found the pub and somewhere to lock our bikes up.

This time I marvelled at how cheap the coffee was (I had, I think, four cups!). Plans were made for the return over breakfast. The rest of the group booked themselves onto trains back to Manchester while I set off to ride to Blackpool to get the train to home from there.

I wish I could say that I enjoyed the extra miles but it turned out to be extremely hard work on flat, straight roads into a stiff headwind.

Several times I did contemplate turning around and being blown back to Lancaster but I persevered and, eventually, made it to Blackpool and the train to Manchester.

Many thanks to the riders who came out. No mechanicals, good humour and excellent riding made this an evening that was very low stress.