Visit the delightful Haughmond Hill cafe, set in a forest surrounding outside Shrewsbury, the nearby Haughmond Abbey can also be incorporated in your journey if you have time to spare.
From Crewe to Shrewsbury and back passing through the market towns of Nantwich, Whitchurch and Market Drayton. Our journey begins at Crewe Truckstop cafe with a free tea or coffee included. On the way to Nantwich we pass a few local landmarks Crewe train station, Gresty Road Stadium, home to Crewe Alexandra FC and you should even get to smell the oats roasting at Crewe's Mornflake Oats factory. From Nantwich to Whitchurch is mainly on good roads, however there is some deterioration in the road surface after Wrenbury which may, or may not be put right by the council in time for our event. We skirt the outskirts of Whitchurch rather than getting caught up in its one-way high street. Shropshire lanes take us out through Alkington to our first control, the cafe at Whixall Marina. Here you can grab a quick coffee and cake or sit down for a full cooked breakfast or simply push on. Next up we pass through Loppington, Myddle and Bomore Heath to the outskirts of Shrewsbury which we cross to avoid the town traffic and pick up a nice, well tarmacced traffic free cycle path that takes us all the way out to Uffington, from here it is a question of riding uphill for about 2.5km to get to Haughmond Hill Cafe, on the way there if you look on your left you will see the impressive remains of the 12th C Haughmond Abbey, which is free to have a mooch around if you have time. The cafe is set in a wonderful forest setting with indoor and outdoor seating and customer toilets and serves high quality food, decent coffee and the all-important cake.
The return home begins with a 5km descent on a decent B roads to get you moving, back to lanes at Waters Upton that bring you into Market Drayton passing the golf course, a short, sharp climb to get to the high street. From Market Drayton we now head to Norton in Hales, Hankelow, Wybunbury and finally were back, not far from where we started. The finish control is likely to be Rookery Farm Wood who have an excellent carvery and range of drinks and desserts available to purchase which after the event can be eaten guilt free!

This year's event has a few changes to the previous years. The start and finish for starters isn't the Crewe Market Hall, the route through Shrewsbury has been altered to take away from having to go under the bridge in the town with all the Saturday traffic, finally the way back from Market Drayton to Hankelow now goes through Norton in Hales which is nicer than the previous A529 section and congestion through Audlem.

The provisional route can be seen here - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40820678