THOUSANDS of cyclists made their way through Middlewich for the Manchester 100 mile ride last week, with a slight detour causing chaos among cyclists and motorists alike.

The route left Withenshawe Park in Manchester on Sunday, August 31, and made its way through Middlewich before heading back to the start point.

However, the ride caused chaos when Lewin Street in the town when Lewin Street, which supposed to be a part of the route did not re-open in time and cyclists were diverted down St Anne’s Road.

Alan Langley, who lives on Glastonbury Drive in Middlewich, saw a cyclist get knocked off his bike by a car and argues that the roads should have been shut while the cyclists passed through the town.

Alan said: “the cyclists mainly came through all in one go so for the sake of half an hour they should have shut the roads because there were thousands of them all over the road.

“I seen one cyclists get knocked off his bike at the junction coming from St Anne’s Road onto Nantwich Road and I pulled over and went back to help but thankfully he was getting up and was okay.”

Despite the problems caused by the diversion, the ride was a huge success and one cyclist from Middlewich says he thoroughly enjoyed the route going through his home town.

Tim Nelson, 50, who cycles with the Middlewich Wobbly Wheelers group, took part in the ride and finished in 7 hours 44 minutes. 

Tim said: “It was really long I’ve never done anything as big as that before but I really enjoyed it.

“It was great to be cycling on familiar territory for a short while and I even stopped off at The Boars Head, it was just hard not to call home as it was so close.

“There were problems with traffic especially as we had to go through St Anne’s Road but there were thousands of cyclists and that’s always going to cause some kind of problem.”

The ride was in aid of The Christie and also passed through Northwich.