Teesside area to Manchester in a day

OK, I have agreed to take part in a ride from Teesside to central Manchester in a day, exact starting point has yet to be agreed. There’s going to be a group of 4 or 5 people.

Can anyone recommend a route that avoids as many roads as possible?

We’re likely to be using tourers/CX bikes rather than MTBs (or an MTB fitted with skinny slicks in my case) so would need to be cycle path rather than offroad and we’ll have a support vehicle (to carry the dinner suits for the black tie event we’re attending in the evening).

Although I’ve been riding reasonably regularly for years the furthest I’ve ridden in a day so far is 60 miles (on road on good quality hardtail with semi-slicks) and it took me 5 hours.

that is a bit of a task, to put a route together with not many roads.

small lanes to richmond, the i could string a offroad route down to skipton.
then canalside to blackburn area.
bugger knows from there tho.

I was thinking of aiming for Leeds and then picking up the Leeds to Liverpool canal as a starter for 10, need to check if there’s a route along the towpaths

I’d be tempted to say stick to the roads? 100+ miles even by the most direct route so going off road is going to just make that even harder.

the leeds liverpool canal is good going most of the way.
some bits are singletrack and get a bit muddy, but all is rideable on a tourer.
there are some ok offroad bits from harrogate to leeds too.

Use Cyclestreets for a starting point for the route? http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/17272391/

you could get off at Chorley on the canal over rivvy over bolton way and then off road most of the way into Manc from there
can send you a route if needed and e-mail in profile