CONTENTS
Map key
Overview map
Route summary tables
Introduction
The Lancashire Cycleway
Preparation
Bike choice and setup
Clothing
Carrying gear
Potholes and pitfalls
Deviations from the route
Signage
Maps, apps and timings
Using this guide
The Northern
Loop
Stage 1a The Lancaster Link
Stage 1 Halton to Hornby
Stage 2 Hornby to Slaidburn
Stage 3 Slaidburn to Whalley
Stage 4 Whalley to Bilsborrow
Stage 5 Bilsborrow to Great Eccleston
Stage 6 Great Eccleston to Halton
The Southern
Loop
Stage 7 Whalley to Laneshaw Bridge
Stage 8 Laneshaw Bridge to Holcombe Brook
Stage 9 Holcombe Brook to Appley Bridge
Stage 9a The Wigan Link
Stage 10 Appley Bridge to Croston
Stage 11 Croston to Whalley
Day Rides
Day Ride 1 Lancaster–Silverdale one-way
Day Ride 2 Lancaster–Silverdale–Lancaster
Day Ride 3 Lancaster–High Bentham
Day Ride 4 Lancaster–High Bentham–Lancaster
Day Ride 5 High Bentham–Slaidburn–High Bentham
Day Ride 6 High Bentham–Long Preston
Day Ride 7 Clitheroe–Slaidburn–Clitheroe
Day Ride 8 A circuit from Whalley
Day Ride 9 A circuit from Colne
Day Ride 10 Colne–Accrington
Day Ride 11 Entwistle–Haslingden–Ramsbottom–Entwistle
Day Ride 12 A circuit from Leyland
Day Ride 13 A West Lancashire circuit
Day Ride 14 Preston–Whalley
Day Ride 15 Whalley–Longridge–Whalley
Day Ride 16 Preston–Longridge–Woodplumpton–Preston
Day Ride 17 Kirkham–Lancaster
Appendix A Further information
Appendix B Transport
Appendix C Bike shops
Maps, apps and timings
Combined with the detailed route descriptions, the maps in this
book should be more than adequate for navigation, but you may want to consider
carrying Ordnance Survey maps as well as they give a much wider view of where you
are and what you can see. As they show every road and track, you can also use them
to plan alternative routes and links for future exploration of Lancashire. The
1:50,000 Landranger series is an ideal scale for cycling. To cover the entire
Cycleway you’ll need six of them:
97 Kendal & Morecambe
98 Wensleydale & Upper Wharfedale
102 Preston & Blackpool
103 Blackburn & Burnley
108 Liverpool
109 Manchester
The first four are needed for the Northern Loop; the last four
for the Southern. Sheet 98 is only needed for about 10km of the route, with no
complicated navigation, so you could well manage without: as it includes the final
stages of the highest climb on the route, you may well feel that ignorance is
bliss!
There are now many apps which allow you to access OS mapping on a smartphone; check out www.viewranger.com for example. A good alternative to OS mapping is Open Cycle Map (www.opencyclemap.org). Alternatively, there’s much to recommend a dedicated bike computer, which will allow you to keep your phone safely stowed, and conserve its battery. The simplest cycle computers cost little more than £10 while GPS-based ones start around £75. Most GPS computers can be used for navigation as well as for tracking rides, and many will display simplified maps as well as giving turn-by-turn directions. Garmin (www.garmin.com/en-GB) is by far the best-known name in this field; I’ve recently been using their Edge Touring Plus, which comes pre-loaded with maps of the UK and Europe.
Using any computer or tracking app will soon give you a sense of the average speed you can expect to achieve on a bike. This is a great help in planning your rides, as estimating times for cycling is notoriously more difficult than for walking. Walking speeds vary much less and there are many formulae and rules of thumb enabling you to work out how long a walk may take: Naismith’s Rule is the best-known, if not necessarily the best.
Cycling speeds vary for many reasons; fitness, aerodynamics, the load you’re packing, and so on. Hills will slow you down, but cyclists have much more chance than walkers of taking some time back on the descent – at least when there’s a reasonable surface and it’s not too twisty. For example, the descent from Merrybent to Slaidburn at the end of Stage 2 is a good one; the descent from Marl Hill on Day Ride 7 is not (at least until they fix the road surfaces).
Still, even if your name is Chris Froome, average speed in the hills will be less than on the flat. If you’re a bit more ordinary than Froomey, the time taken to cover a given distance may increase by up to 50% for the hillier stages; perhaps even more if you’re heavily laden.
"domiciled in garstang, a few miles north of preston, jon sparks resides pretty much in the centre of his world, ideally situated to be better acquainted with the surrounding roadways than the majority of his readers. which, to place not too fine a point upon it, is precisely the sort of fellow i'd want to be guiding me around the lancashire countryside north west of manchester.
all [routes] are extremely well illustrated with both photographs and clearly defined maps, while sparks' narrative takes the prospective rider from start to finish via every turn in the route.
those northern and southern loops, while suitable for one-day rides by the intrepid cyclist aboard an appropriately speedy machine, are further split into smaller rides that might also occupy a more leisurely approach, festooned with a modest quantity of coffee and cake. each to their own; it's very much to the author's credit that his organisation of the book's contents allows for a very wide interpretation of what constitutes energetic and exploratory cycling.
if you plan on holidaying in the lancashire area for a day or considerably longer, it ill-behoves you to leave home without a copy of this book either in a jersey pocket or ensconced within a bar bag."
Brian Palmer, the Washingmachine Post
The guide makes imaginative use of the rail network. Admirable form a green perspective, this strategy allows a wider variety of day routes to be offered, as well as escapes options. It would be entirely possible to use bike and train to complete most of the routes described.
Overall, this guide can be recommended to get you away from the beaten track and to take you through some well-known beauty spots, as well. I have enjoyed reading it and will now tuck it into my jersey pocket and head for Wigan!
Seven Day Cyclist