Not Howard's Day

Summer in the Amber Valley.

Ride Date: 23/08/2015

Distance: 21.6 miles

Climbing: 2700ft

Route: Shining Cliff > Black Rocks > Crich Chase

Riders : Jake, Matt, Carro, Paddy, Tony, Howard & Liam


First ride after the summer break, with a few missing due to holidays & Paddy's first outing on an Ambergate ride.

All the usual for the most part, starting with the nice warm up climb through the woods to the first section of trail, Tony was the first casualty with an OTB about halfway down this section where the rock step is, the short following climb up into Shining Cliff was start of things to come, with myself & Howard having some drive train issues, mine turned out to be a bent tooth on the small chain ring.
The ride along the top was good fun and the descent down "Millstone" to the fire road was nice and dry, more trouble for Howard's gears & he also ripped the hose out of his Reverb actuator. I must add that up to this point we had assumed that Carro had overlay/forgotten/couldn't be arsed (delete as applicable) but a missed call from him showed he had the time wrong and was at the Hurt Arms, luckily for him it was the best place to happen, a few quick directions and a short ride down the fire road had him joining up with us for the rest of the ride. By now it was getting warm and humid as we climbed back up to the top of the wood and over the fields towards Black rocks. Howard was having even more gear trouble and finding it difficult to go on so left us and headed back by road & canal. 

Time out on the way to Black Rocks

Black Rocks was  bone dry and running well, Matt had a rare off at some point on the way down to the first gate. The rest was incident free as we dropped down onto Intake Lane, also this time we added in the new section of trail I had spotted on the way to the Gully on a previous ride, safe to say it went down well, the trail pixies have done a great job & although a work in progress it's very ridable and great fun. Some whispers suggest it will be extended when time allows. Down on the canal some discussions were made as to the route, due to some time constraints & a bit of tiredness we opted to skip Riber and head back, with Myself, Matt & Carro opting to do Crich Chase. We lost Carro at some point on the way down to the campsite, half my fault for saying keep left & half is fault for taking it too literally! Some shouting eventually drew him towards us & we were back on track down to the canal.

A converted roadie??

Everyone else had buggered off by the time we got to the pub, a nice cold pint of 1664 in the sun finished the ride off nicely.

Dark Peak Double

Two Mid-Week Dark peak Epics.

Ride Date: 23/06/2015 & 21/07/2015

Distance: 27 miles each

Climbing: 4000ft (ride 1) 4500ft (ride 2)

Route: Hope > Mam Tor > Hope Cross > Derwent Edge

Riders : Jake & Matt Plus Mick for ride 2


Ride 1 started just outside Hope and began with a steady warm up along the road through Castleton and up the broken road of Mam Tor, then a bit more road before taking the north descent down towards Edale, then a mix of riding and pushing back up to Hollin's Cross, before descending back down another great trail to Edale and the not unpleasant offroad climb & short drop to Jagger's Clough. Next up is the short but killer climb to Hope Cross & a decision point, we opted for "The Beast". Now I'd only ever come up The Beast as a short cut, so was more than chuffed to clear it clipped in & without dabbing, the only negative was a rock strike near the bottom that resulted in a fair whack on the shin from my pedal.
Next choice was a push up Hagg farm to Lockerbrook, with the sun starting to warm up this was a very tough climb. The reward, Lockerbrook was excellent as usual & almost dry on top. Time for a quick break at Fairholmes.

The usual excellent view from the broken road

For Ride 2, we were joined by Mick, the start of the route was the same as Ride 1 as far as Hope Cross, from here we chose Potato Alley, another superb descent, then over the snake and up via Rowlee Farm to Lockerbrook. Again the ride down Lockerbrook was a delight, probably my favourite in the area. Then we had a steady roll to Fairholmes for refreshment, the highlight of which was a malfunction of the "99" machine which gave me and Matt probably more Mr Whippy than we needed, still it cooled us down, but I felt a bit sick afterwards.
From here it was same again with the tortuous climb to derwent Edge, from where we decided to ride down the cheeky bit and on to Cutthroat without stopping, again it was bone dry. Once down on to the road we opted to climb up Hagg Side (where the flies were abundant) and do Hagg Farm, then push up The Beast to Hope Cross.

Taking a breather on the way up The Beast

Once at the top of Hope Cross, it was a case of pedal at full chat down the Roman Road in to Hope, well that was the plan, I had a game of chicken with a ram and Matt had a blowout, might have even been both tyres, memories are fuzzy after the sheep altercation.
That was all fixed with a pint in the Old Hall afterwards though.

Two cracking rides, i think if I was forced to chose then I may prefer ride 2 as Potato Alley is a faster ride than The Beast and climbing up Hagg Farm was a bitch, whereas Rowlee is all rideable, either way, we might have to squeeze another in before Christmas!

Cut & Dry

The Annual Summer Cut Gate Ride.

Ride Date: 12/07/2015

Distance: 21.8 miles

Climbing: 3000ft

Route: Ladybower > Cut Gate > Langsett

Riders : Jake, Matt, Carro, Deley, Scott & Phil


There was a bit of light drizzle in the air as we met on the banks of Ladybower for the high anticipated Cut Gate ride. Carro was slightly late, misjudging the travel time & Paddy had the runs, so couldn't make it.
This was the first outing of Deley's new beast a lovely long travel Lapierre Spicy.

We started off nice & steady down to Fairholmes and over the dam then along the banks of Upper Derwent Reservoir and up a shortcut. After some hiker biking and pushing to the top we checked the maps and found that we had taken a wrong turn and were heading away from cut gate, we retraced our steps, which ended up being a pretty good descent back to the road, although Scott came a cropper on the way down.
Back with plan "A" we headed round to Howden Reservoir and up the rock steps and switch backs of Cranberry Clough. Here we passed a very brave or crazy woman who was attempting cut gate on a touring bike with big panniers & wearing flip flops (her, not the bike). Phil being the gentleman that he is, gave her a lift up with her luggage. At the top of this section, as it turns into the grassy bit before the slabs we took a minute in the now baking heat of the sun, Dave & Scott also took this opportunity to head back and left the 4 of us the carry on. 

The Classic Cut Gate Slabs

Refreshed and ready to go, we rode the slabs and pushed up the final section to the cairn. From here on the top "Lunar" section was wonderful & dry, with the exception of the perma-bog in the middle. Then came one of the 2 big rewards, the descent down to Langsett was superb tricky, rocky, fast, sketchy, everything you want and seemed even better than my first ride there. Everyone was grinning as we dropped through North America to Langsett.
Another rest point, we made the decision to flip back from here, rather than visit the cafe.
 

The Langsett End Of Cut Gate (North America)

Time to retrace our steps, the tough, but rewarding climb back to the plateau was made a bit tougher by the headwind, as before the going was good, so the riding was steady, until the perma-bog, rather than push my bike over some firmish ground as I did on the way out, I was "encouraged" by Matt and Phil to go for it over the marsh, well it worked for them I thought, so off I went, I think I was about half way across when I realised I might not be carrying enough speed & the bike stalled in the mud, that's Ok I thought, the ground feels firm under the thin layer of mud & water. I put down my right foot to steady myself & sunk up to my thigh. I had to be dragged out, after the laughing had died down a bit! Luckily there are plenty of streams up there to wash down.
As we came to the top of the drop down to Howden we paused to replenish energy ready for the descent ahead. I opted for the switchbacks rather than the steps this time and the ride down was ace as always.

That just left a steady ride back along the reservoirs followed by a refreshing pint of Farmer's Blonde in the Yorkshire Bridge Inn, we managed to find a nice table out in the sun too!

2D Ride Profile

3D Ride Profile

View the ride on Endomondo - http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/559410329/151189