2016 Review

A year of records

It's the end of another year and 2016 has eclipsed the previous years for many reasons.
I'll not ramble on about the details of each ride as most can be read elsewhere on here but 2016 saw new levels of participation, new rides, old favourites and plenty of laughs along the way. We did really well with the weather and conditions, with Cannock being the only wet ride. Feel free to vote for you personal favourite above.

Below are some facts and figures from this year:

Number of rides: 18
Number of different riders: 25
Average Riders Per Ride: 7
Maximum Riders Per Ride: 12
Total Distance (all 18 Rides): 310 miles
Total Elevation (all 18 Rides): 38000 feet
Total Distance (everyone on every ride): 2112 miles
Total Elevation (everyone on every ride): 256500 feet
Toughest Ride (highest climbing per mile): Bakewell 181 feet/mile

We gained several new recruits this year, all of which slotted straight in to our group, so a big thank you to Matt, Deley, Basil, Duncan, Darren, Luke, Dave, Carro, Paddy, Scott, Howard, Ricky, Steve, Ian, Martin, Paul, Rick, Matt S, Johnny, Mick, Dylan, Andy, Joe & Rick's mate (forgot his name) for making the effort and getting into the spirit of things

Hopefully 2017 will be even better, see you there!

All the rides on one map, click for big version

Autumn Cut Gate special

Slightly Underestimated?

Ride Date: 03/10/2016

Distance: 32 Miles

Climbing: 4000ft

Route: Derwent Edge > Cutgate> Derwent Edge

Riders : Jake, Matt, Duncan, Paddy & Mick


It's been a while since we did a "mid week escape" so when Mick mentioned we should get one in before the bad weather arrived we were keen to sort a date, with folks busy everywhere we came up with an early autumn ride and chose Cut Gate as the venue, then ride plan had multiple options so long as we squeezed in a bit more than just Cut Gate itself. We opted for a starting at The Yorkshire Bridge and an up & over of Derwent Edge to warm up. Not much can be said, the ride up to Whinstone Lee Tor took us through the clouds and into lovely sunshine & blue skies, the trails were dry and the climb very pleasant.

The climb up to Whinstone Lee Tor was Breathtaking, not in a bad way

After admiring the view & taking some photos we climbed further and hit the dipper after the gate rota was sorted, the descent was excellent, although it's never not.
Next up was a the steady ride along the banks of the reservoirs to slippery stones and the push/ride/hike up to the cairn on the southern end of Cut Gate. Once over the lunarscape we let loose and kept off the brakes on this well renowned singletrack down to the trail split.
Time for a quick breather and off over North America, just a quick interlude for puncture repairs and we were rolling up at the Bank View Cafe for breakfast.

Mick tries out the latest offering from Yeti

Once fully replenished it was back on to the trails and the steady climb back to the top of Cut Gate. There was some flagging by now, but as we reached the cairn all was forgotten for the descent down the other side, I jibbed the steps as usual. Rolling back along the reservoirs was hard going, some of us were certainly feeling the burn, one of the original plans had been to ride up Lockerbrook, down Hagg Farm, up The Beast and down off Win Hill, but there wasn't much enthusiasm for it. Paddy swung off at fairholmes to see a man about a dog, the rest of us carried on discussing options, we decided on a final push and with the famous mountain bike rules of "if you're out, you're out" & "all rides must finish with a down" echoing around we started the climb back up to Derwent Edge. It was tough I won't deny, water had run out, it's steep and rocky even with plenty of energy left. It was a relief to reach the top again.

Whinstone Lee Tor in the morning

It was an excellent run from top to bottom, the trail seemed to run really well, although I may have got lucky with the lines, I think most was on auto pilot though! 
After another quick puncture stop the pub was calling for some much needed hydration. 
A hard tough ride, severely underestimated, but none the less superb, the glorious weather and good trails helped.
Same again next year anyone?

When September ends

The Last Of Summer?

Ride Date: 18/09/2016

Distance: 22 Miles

Climbing: 3000ft

Route: Cartledge > Curbar > Stoney > Eyam

Riders : Jake, Matt, Duncan, Luke, Deley & Basil


A slight change from last year's effort, this time starting at owler bar which would allow a good finish on the walled descent, easy for the pub too.
The day started with a bit of drama as Dunc rolled up with his bike almost hanging off the roof rack, only a slight scratch though so we were soon off up the road to Horsley Gate and the first descent of the day, nice and fast too although there was a feeling that DCC had been at work with their stealth resurfacing. Next up the bastard hill, which didn't seem so bad this time round, there was some talk of sending out a runner down Cartledge to check for Horses & walkers, but as we were making swift time we just went for it, it was bang on as usual. It was already looking like a very nice day and we were well ahead of plan as we hit the bottom of Johnny Gate, this is usually a slog of a climb, but again seemed steady. That just left a bit of tarmac and on to the short spin along Baslow edge to the Eagle Stone.
From here it became apparent just how good a day we had before us. Just like last year, a superb cloud inversion filled the valley. 

On Baslow Edge 

After admiring the view it was off along the usually superb Curbar & Froggatt Edges, with a slight deviation down a little used "cheeky" path to the road. From here we made the decision to ride the Stoney & Eyam descents, unfortunately this involved the climb of death up to the road above the Stoney trail, then up a nice steady lane Matt had found on a demo day, then a well earned breather in Eyam village. As we left the village we had a chance meeting with Dunc's better half, Kerry, who was on a 75 mile Audax ride. The Eyam descent was ace as usual, nice change to do it in the dry though, then back down the climb of death.
From here you could see the magnitude of the climb back up to the hunting lodge near the grouse, we didn't point it out to Luke though, not want to dampen his spirits! The climb though wasn't too bad, very surprising really. After a brief pause to answer a call from Carro, who was planning to meet us at the pub, it was down that nice little trail from the moor to the road & up to the top of the walled descent, a great one to finish on, a top ride, probably the template for next year.

More of the weather

 I think the good weather had brought the masses out, we had to queue for a beer, shocking in this day and age, true to his word, Carro did meet us at the pub, also bringing his sister & Mandy, who it was lovely to see after her op.
And that was it, apart from a brief incident with a huge umbrella & a gust of wind!

Dark peak special

Pretty Damn Good Really!

Ride Date: 24/06/2016

Distance: 21 Miles

Climbing: 3500ft

Route: Mam Tor > Hope Cross > Fairholmes > Hope

Riders : Jake, Matt, Duncan, Luke, Deley & Scott


A warm dry day was on the cards as we met in Hope for this pre summer holiday extra ride.
Six of us headed out through Castleton and up the broken road of Mam Tor. From here the usual route was tweaked slightly by heading part way up Rushup Edge for a nice addition of singletrack. A small break for a puncture and it was off down the North Side of Mam Tor, there is rumour of an off part way down, I didn't see it, but I heard it. We regrouped at the bottom before the ride/push back up to Hollin's Cross and the descent into Edale. Much drier than November and running well with just a group of walkers as an interruption. 

On Rushup Edge

A steady climb out of the valley around Jagger's Clough before the much steeper, but shorter climb up to Hope Cross. A quick pause at the top to discuss options, we chose the very much "marmite" descent of Potato Alley, For me the top is good, the bottom is reasonable, but the middle is just mayhem, with those loose "baby's head" rocks it's a case of grit your teeth and hang on. The normally grim climb out, over the snake and up past Rowlee farm didn't seem to bad, so with us all feeling fresh it was Lockerbrook time, my personal favourite, and it was bone dry except for the stream, excellent stuff!

Mam Tor

 After trying to fix a bloke's brand new £99 bike, whose crank had fell off we headed up the fire road to the top of Lockerbrook, the heat and humidity was pretty intense on what is a very tough climb when it's cool, a short recovery at the top and a brisk ride over to Hagg Farm, superb as usual, I was feeling the effects of the last climb though and found the bottom section really hard going. This didn't bode well for the push up The Beast! It was a relief to get back up to Hope Cross and the nearly all down hill run on The Roman Road into Hope.

 A cracking ride by everyone, it's probably the toughest we have done this year with the climbing and the heat. I even had to have a shandy at the pub!

Check out the video below, it's a free service from https://www.relive.cc/ you get the video link emailed to you after you upload your ride to Strava, nice to see where you've been.

Ticknall Nostaligia Trip

Nettles, Brambles & not quite as much mud as expected!

Ride Date: 10/07/2016

Distance: 22.5 Miles

Climbing: 1500ft

Route: Ticknall > Stanton By Bridge > Milton> Bretby

Riders : Jake, Deley, Basil, Duncan, Luke, Howard, Ricky & Matt S


A similar story with lot's of heavy rain preceding this ride, with our previous experiences of the area we were expecting plenty of mud. However a nice sunny morning saw eight meet up at the village hall, missing notables were Matt in the Alps, Scott Footballing & Carro spending to quality time with his better half.
Basil had done a mid week recce on the route and had deemed the usually fun Robin's wood as a complete no go due to extreme mud and logging operations so it was off along the road to the first bit of a blast around the field and on to King's Newton where Ward's Lane , usually a double track was barely even a singletrack due to encroaching undergrowth, then a short bit of road before the fast rattle down past Robin's Wood. From here we took a new route over a maize field before dropping back on the usual track to Milton. Then up the Sandy climb to the mast. Time for a breather.

Re grouping at the top of the sandy climb

A short break and we were off again, down the fast track along the woods to the entrance to Repton Shrubs, I have a confession to make here as due to some miscalculations I lost Howard! Although we didn't realise until we were well into the depths of the shrubs, as usual when you need it most there is no phone signal whatsoever. Deley was kind enough to ride along the road to gain some extra height and eventually got hold of Howard who was making his way back to the village hall. Despite the trudge to the top, Howard hunting & head high nettles, fern & brambles (Luke said it reminded him of Jurassic Park , the descent was actually pretty good, even the bit along the bottom with the devious off camber was good.
So Howard-less we set off towards Bretby, through the woods and avoiding the likely boggy usual route we opted for the cheeky corn field dash followed by the drop back on to the bridleway. Now we had the unavoidable steep road climb back up to the mast where it's full chat back down to Milton via the sandy climb in reverse, trying to make use of the little berms to get as much speed as you dare. 

Deley, followed by Luke & Howard on the sandy climb

 All that was left was the road climb up past Foremark and the roll into Ticknall to the pub, however this time we lost Deley as he had gone all "Chris Froome" on the road and left us all for dead, Basil tried phoning, but as previously the signal let us down, turns out he'd headed back to the car park while we called in the pub (I blame Basil for this one!), so he'd missed out on a well earned pint.
It was nice to go back to Ticknall, even though it may not have the adrenaline fuelled descents and outstanding views of some of our other rides it was a nice steady, social ride on the trails where most of us started our love affair with mountain biking, it also gave the ideal opportunity for Howard and Ricky, both of who had not been out for a long time, to get out again with us, it was great to see them both again.

Eastern Moors Epic

The Not So Dirty Dozen!

Ride Date: 12/06/2016

Distance: 22 Miles

Climbing: 2700ft

Route: White Edge > Curbar Edge > SheepSkulls > Lady Canning's > Devil's Elbow

Riders : Jake, Matt, Deley, Carro, Basil, Duncan, Darren, Dave, Steve, Ian & Paul +1


Lot's and lot's of rain leading up to this ride he me expecting a mudfest rather than the dry trails expected in June. Matt had the plan for the route, sprinkling in some new options to last years route and also a visit to Ride Sheffield's crowd funded trail at Lady Canning's Plantation. We had a new record turn out for a Sunday ride with a full 12 expected. We grouped up just below The Grouse at Froggatt and set off up a new bridleway Matt had found, up on to white edge where it became apparent that the previous week's rain wasn't going to be a problem, with the trails fairly dry bar the odd puddle. We swiftly moved along white edge with only a puncture break, then along Baslow edge and a blast along the superb Curbar Edge, with just the obligatory photo stop. First bit done in just over an hour.

Carro "Flicks The Bird" on White Edge

A bit of road took us back past the cars and back up the first bridleway of the day, this time forking left and onto White Edge Moor before dropping back to the road before climbing over Totley Moor and dropping down the excellent, but very sketchy walled descent into SheepSkulls, for some ultra flowy, bermy fun and a play on the jumps for those that had the skillz! We now had a bit of leg work over the remainder of Totley and onto Houndkirk moor up to Lady Canning's for the Blue graded trail that get's better the faster you ride it. From here it's the mega fast blast back along Houndkirk and down the aptly named Jumble Road, before everyone's favourite Devil's Elbow, a beast of rocks & roots where good line choice is essential to keep the flow. Plenty of smiles and talk of near misses at the bottom.
Unfortunately, the Devil bit of Devil's elbow is the push up back out of it (there's got to be an easier way, surely) This pretty much finished everyone off and just left a roll back along the road with the bonus, but moist descent from the hunting lodge down to the cars. There was a slight delay as we lost Carro somewhere on Devil's Elbow & the pint in the grouse was very well deserved.

Standard "arty" shot of the lads on Curbar Edge

 An excellent ride all in, weather wasn't too bad with only a bit of cooling drizzle, a record turn out and some fantastic descents, very well ridden by everyone, especially Ian, Steve & his two lads, who had only really ridden trail centres before this ride.

Wormhill triple eight

Good Weather, Dry Trails!

Ride Date: 15/05/2016

Distance: 22 Miles

Climbing: 2500ft

Route: Miller's Dale > Chelmorton > Wormhill > Brushfield

Riders : Jake, Matt, Jonny, Basil, Duncan, Luke & Paddy


Decent weather on the lead up to the ride had us confident the trails were going to be dry which was something long overdue for this year. Also a healthy turn out continuing the average group size of seven with a rare appearance from Jonny (Hairball), but missing Deley & Scott due to Nat coming home and Carro due to reasons I can't remember.
We started off with the steady warm up along the Monsall Trail, before climbing sharply up to Kings Sterndale followed by the short  but sweet drop in to Horseshoe Dale and following the steady but rewarding rocky route along the Priest's Way to Chelmorton. A bit of a climb out and then  over the singletrack and down to Blackwell before the fast decent into Wye Dale. A small break at the bottom for puncture repairs, then back out the other side up the steep switchbacks to the farm.

Decent views on the climb out from Wye Dale

With a bit of leg work between two farms we were soon at the start of my favourite part of the ride, the descent from Wormhill into Monk's Dale, almost a mile of twisting singletrack broken up by a couple of gates, the second being the point of another puncture. I think most had a sketchy moment at some point on this section, not least Luke, who had a stunning "over the bars" at the bottom, fortunately he got up and shook it off OK.

Puncture break, just before the last drop into Monk's Dale

 Next up was the drop into Miller's Dale, again with the flow broken up by a few gates, once in Miller's Dale Paddy left us to go and see a man about a dog, the rest of us enduring the tough, but final climb of the day to Priestcliffe and then weaving in and out of the only puddles of the day as we made our way along the trails to Brushfield and the final descent of the day, which starts off on fast hard limestone, then into a section someone described as riding on marbles, before a sharp left and a steep rocky drop onto the Monsall Trail.

Looking back up the excellent singletrack from Monk's Dale

 That just left a roll back along the Monsall Trail to the cars. A good ride all in, great weather, dry trails and a good group. Don't miss the video below.
Next up The Eastern Moors Epic, keep an eye out for it.