I’m thinking of a nice round trip Rochdale – Southport & back tomorrow, weather permitting & trying to plan a route.
Thing is, I don’t ride out West much, usually head North-East into the Pennines & away from major conurbations.
By the looks of it I can either take the flat route around Swinton-Wigan or head over Belmont & above Bolton.
I’d rather avoid the town/city centres but the Belmont route seems to lead everywhere else first!

Any suggestions appreciated.

I don’t know that area at all but I would have a browse on Strava and look at the routes other people use, I’m sure you’ll be able to stick something together from that.

I’m looking on mapmyride & Mioshare but still not sure which is the best (i.e. most pleasant) route.
The Northern way is quieter with more hills but looks to be terribly convoluted. The terrain is a reason why the major routes take the flat line!

You should be able to pick up Lancs Cycleway 92 at some point which will give a nice route out to about here… https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/53%C2%B039’41.0%22N+2%C2%B052’46.4%22W/@53.661376,-2.879543,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

Edit : That should be Lancs Cycleway 91

http://cycleseven.org/regional-cycle-network-route-91-lancashire-cycleway

Sorted out two routes, one over Belmont at 99 miles and one via Wigan way at 96 miles. 🙂