A Frosty Start To The Year

Ride Date: 12/01/2014

Location: Duffield

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt, Basil & Tony

The first ride of the year gave us a very cold & frosty start at the church in Duffield, with everyone wrapped up warm, we set off up the steps onto the plateau between Duffield & Coxbench where we rode across crisp fields in bright winter sunshine just having to avoid some deep tractor ruts on the way to the first descent at the top of Coxbench Woods.

The frosty start at Duffield Church

We rode the trail down through the woods , (where Felly definitely did not fall off a few years back), all the way down to the tarmac and then set off exploring back in the woods along some new trails that ran perilously close to shear drops, this new trail takes you right down to the main road, and with a bit of fine tuning will become standard on this ride.
Then after a quick blast down the short bridleway to Derby Road we rode a nice and pleasant climb on singletrack and fire road all the way to the peak of Morley Woods. I have to admit I was hoping for something similar to Shining Cliff once at the top, but we found it to be proper downhill stuff with some fairly hefty jumps & drops, so after making our excuses to the lad's up there on their 200mm+ travel bikes we set off down the less aggro side of the trail and on to another new section, Castle Wood. A bit of a cheeky one this, but it was reasonable fun, with the mud and we were soon back down on Derby Road again.

Looking towards Coxbench over the frosty fields

The rest of the ride was the usual Belper circuit written about elsewhere in the blog, we did have to avoid the farmyard on Wyver Lane due to the standard winter axle deep cow shit. Longwalls lane was it's usual good self & we made a more direct diversion to The Chevin avoiding the big & frankly pointless climb to Hazlewood. 
Once on The Chevin it was very hard going on the climb to the top with plenty of mud and also Sunday Ramblers, or Satan's Spawn as Matt calls them. This ended up being a telling blow for some of us and myself and a few others must have just rolled down the other side and down into Milford, we briefly lost Tony for the ride back to the carpark, but found him already there and feeling very under the weather.
It had been a hard ride due to the conditions and also my slight underestimation of the distance with it coming in at nearly 20 miles! Might be worth trying again in the summer when the trails are dusty.

That left a visit to the Bridge Inn to warm up and have a well deserved pint.

3D View of the terrain

Below is a first edit of the video, this may get replaced with a different one once me & Tony have exchanged our versions. There is also a bonus out takes video!

View the ride on Endomondo - http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/285407061/151189

A year of trails

Ride Date: 2013

Location: Lots

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt, Ryan, Tony, Basil, Dan, Simon, Carro, Neil, Pete, Howard, Damian, Alex, Mark, Ady, Dan's Mate & Rob

A review of 2013

January

The first ride of the year saw a new place and a trip West to Denstone for a Basil led ride, on cue the rain started as soon as we left work and just got worse & resulted in Mud, Neil moaning, destroyed brake pads & a badger! We said we'd be back in the summer but have not returned yet.
The end of the month saw another new place discovered by Basil, this time a fast trip down the A38 to Hopwas woods, again the weather was not on our side, but once in the woods we were sheltered, this was the ride that gave us Tony's first and most famous "tree hugging" episode & Ryan's sprained ankle. 

Ryan's Bike at Hopwas

February

This month gave us a trip to Dale Abbey, better weather but still a lot of mud about, so much so that some people wheels actually stopped turning on the climb towards Locko park.
Later in the month a small group went on a Sunday ride to Sherwood Pines and tried out the downhill area for the first time.

March

With the first signs of spring in the air Dan took us on a off-piste run around some of the natural side of Cannock Chase. There has been some suggestion we should make Cannock a longer day at least once and do combine the man made trails & the naturals in to an epic!

Carro's legendary "gear problems" flaring up again at cannock 

April

Winter was back with a vengeance, a planned Easter ride to the peaks had to be cancelled due to snow drifts. So after much deliberating we took the safe option of Sherwood Pines which saw a record turn out of 13 riders for a sub zero blast and half a dozen goes on the downhill section.
Later in the month saw the weather improve massively with the first dip into Black Rocks and as we were to later discover we had only skimmed the surface of Black Rocks and the riding available between Ambergate & Cromford, we followed this up in the same week with a good Ticknall ride on the Foremark side, where Tony yet again showed his love for trees & Basil kicked me off my bike.

May

In May we revisited Hopwas and suffered a ridiculous amount of punctures between us and Simon had an "incident" on the tricky bit by Tony's tree. Later the same week, myself and Carro explored further into Black Rocks & also tried "Brown Trouser" for the first time.

The Trig point at Black Rocks

June
June saw a record 5 rides, starting with a full run of Cannock Chase, followed by further tweaking of the Black Rocks loop, there was then another small outing to Sherwood pines for a few. Later that month we were back for another full circuit of Cannock where Mark took his first ride out with us and went a peculiar purple colour at the top of the "bastard climb" on follow the dog. A few days later we tried the Derby Loop for the first time, which turned out to be only the second wet ride of the whole year, and it was incredibly wet, Pete also joined us for this one.

July

This time we were back on the standard Black Rocks & Cannock Chase combo again, the Cannock ride being memorable for Si falling foul to some Northshore & myself face planting on a jump. Also very hot weather was upon us.

Cannock Chase

August

August only gave us two rides due to summer holidays, the first ride was the usual Black Rocks affair followed by an improved route up to Hearthstone Lane. From here things went a bit dramatic as Carro, according to witnesses, decided to take the "Brown Trouser" descent at "Full Chat" and proceeded to go arse over handlebars at the bottom of the first section. The rest has been talked over many times, but involved a makeshift sling, some swearing & an air ambulance. As I write he's still not back to full strength, but is well on the way. The second ride was back to Cannock for a standard full run, memorable mainly for the flying ants!

September

September was the start of a new era, some very unpopular shift changes put a stop to our usual weekly rides, so the monthly Sunday morning ride was born. The first ride of the new era took us to a new area heading west of Bakewell into the Wye Valley. A good ride with a good mix of terrain. The ride also sparked the regular after ride pub visit, something that has carried on since.

The Famous "Tractor Shot"

October

Another Sunday morning ride, this time making a first trip into Shining Cliff for a bit of an explore, followed by the standard Black Rocks. There was also an evening ride to Ticknall.


 November

Off to Cannock this time, a first time for Matt & Damian, likely more memorable for Damian due to the "Swamp" incident! It was also the debut of Tony's GoPro. No pub this time, instead it was bacon butties.

December

2 Sunday rides this time, at opposite ends of the month. First was a revisit to Ambergate, with a faster run through Shining Cliff & Black Rocks giving us time to investigate Crich Chase, which did not disappoint, and with many options available we may not have seen it's best yet.  This should also lead now to an "Ultimate" Ambergate ride involving all four descents in one ride! The second ride was a trip to Calver kindly lead by Matt, A bitterly cold but clear, sunny day saw several great descents followed by a very welcome lunch in the Derwent Water Arms, a perfect way to finish off 2013.

Glorious winter sun at Calver

2014

Lot's to look forward to in the new year, more good quality rides, talk of trips into Wales & North Yorkshire to try their Trail centers, certainly the Ultimate Ambergate ride, a Matt led ride around some of the famous sections around Ladybower, early talk of summer evening rides each month, plus many more new rides. Hopefully we'll see Carro back in action very soon!
Thankyou to everyone that has been involved in the rides during 2013!