Autumn Ashover loop, deep in Derbyshire.
Ride Date: 18/10/2015
Distance: 16 MIles
Climbing: 2000ft
Route: Ashover > Kelstedge > Ashover
Riders : Jake, Matt & Deley
Ashover is one of those rides often called a mountain bike classic, but the most well known loop is only 7 miles, so is usually seen as a bit short to make a day of. Seeing as most of the trails can be ridden in both directions we knew there must be options for extending it. After an exploratory ride back in spring as part of a much larger loop we came up with this variation.
We met for the last 8am start of the year at the useful & free to park Ashover Village Hall, the morning was slightly damp, but not raining as we rolled down the road before dropping onto the stepped bridleway at the back of the Poets pub, this was followed by a ride/push up to the crossroad of trails at the top. This was the start of the first proper descent, along the edge of Cockerspring woods, it's fast and twisty made more interesting with all the loose rocks being well hidden under a layer of fallen leaves. As we hit the road still rolling, we sweep round and back up a steady farm track climb back to the top and this time head along Coffin Lane, mostly rideable except for the quarry section in the middle and then out onto the road at the top. As we are now much higher up it's a fair bit foggy & the few lights we have are put on just in case. There's a steady spin on tarmac now for a short distance as we head to Vernon Farm, we briefly lost Matt as he over shot the start of the trail, but were soon back on track. Vernon farm is very similar to the last descent, but the first half is a lot narrower, with steep sides and some step downs added to the mix. It's around a mile long, so always good value, it ends at a nice stream, before a little climb up to Kelstedge.
There is then a short link up bridleway back to Ashover, from here we did some on the fly tweaks to the route and decided to roll back into Ashover, past the start and The Poets pub, this time dropping down and along the edge of the river, which brought us out neatly part way up the farm track climb from the first descent. Once back at the top we chose another trail, this time heading North West along singletrack and out via various types of farm track & road onto Slack Hill, luckily for us we only had a very short climb to the top & then followed the road back to the top of Coffin Lane. This is another mile of uninterrupted descent, things got a bit sketchy on the flagstones at the end due to the speed you can get up to!
As we had some time left before the pub opened, we decided to do the Cockerspring Wood descent again, this time though, there was a fallen tree blocking the path, weird as there was no wind and it was a sizable tree, after dragging ourselves & the bikes through it we hit the descent for a second time & then back up the farm track, where we passed a dog that was almost as big as the cows in the field, a Newfoundland, I forget the exact stats but it something like 2 years old & weighed 11 stones, also it's bark shook the ground!.
That just left the drop back down into Ashover, rockier & rootier than the previous trails
with a split in the middle where you have to choice of steps or rocks.
Turned out to be a very good loop, the trails were bone dry, the descents were excellent, not much in the way of horrible climbs. it'll certainly be on next years calendar.
And we were still a bit early for the pub! Luckily the landlady of the Mucky Duck was very obliging and let us in & served us early (she had previously kept the pub open for us to have a late meal after a long ride in spring). There had been no plan for food, but Deley was peckish, so you've got to join in havent' you? The burger was ace, Deley's Ham, egg & Chips looked pretty nice too!
Distance: 16 MIles
Climbing: 2000ft
Route: Ashover > Kelstedge > Ashover
Riders : Jake, Matt & Deley
Ashover is one of those rides often called a mountain bike classic, but the most well known loop is only 7 miles, so is usually seen as a bit short to make a day of. Seeing as most of the trails can be ridden in both directions we knew there must be options for extending it. After an exploratory ride back in spring as part of a much larger loop we came up with this variation.
We met for the last 8am start of the year at the useful & free to park Ashover Village Hall, the morning was slightly damp, but not raining as we rolled down the road before dropping onto the stepped bridleway at the back of the Poets pub, this was followed by a ride/push up to the crossroad of trails at the top. This was the start of the first proper descent, along the edge of Cockerspring woods, it's fast and twisty made more interesting with all the loose rocks being well hidden under a layer of fallen leaves. As we hit the road still rolling, we sweep round and back up a steady farm track climb back to the top and this time head along Coffin Lane, mostly rideable except for the quarry section in the middle and then out onto the road at the top. As we are now much higher up it's a fair bit foggy & the few lights we have are put on just in case. There's a steady spin on tarmac now for a short distance as we head to Vernon Farm, we briefly lost Matt as he over shot the start of the trail, but were soon back on track. Vernon farm is very similar to the last descent, but the first half is a lot narrower, with steep sides and some step downs added to the mix. It's around a mile long, so always good value, it ends at a nice stream, before a little climb up to Kelstedge.
 |
| The stream crossing at the bottom of the Vernon Farm descent |
As we had some time left before the pub opened, we decided to do the Cockerspring Wood descent again, this time though, there was a fallen tree blocking the path, weird as there was no wind and it was a sizable tree, after dragging ourselves & the bikes through it we hit the descent for a second time & then back up the farm track, where we passed a dog that was almost as big as the cows in the field, a Newfoundland, I forget the exact stats but it something like 2 years old & weighed 11 stones, also it's bark shook the ground!.
That just left the drop back down into Ashover, rockier & rootier than the previous trails
with a split in the middle where you have to choice of steps or rocks.
Turned out to be a very good loop, the trails were bone dry, the descents were excellent, not much in the way of horrible climbs. it'll certainly be on next years calendar.
