The one with Dry Trails & All Four Descents.
Ride Date: 19/04/2015
Distance: 20 miles
Climbing: 3000ft
Route: Shining Cliff > Black Rocks > Riber > Crich Chase
Riders : Jake, Matt, Carro, Tony, Howard, Dan, Deley, Scott & Ricky
Notable absentees: Baz - Potato planting, L.i.am - Slacker!
A springtime Ambergate ride was planned, initial interest was looking bleak with only a few confirmed but as the date rolled nearer more were showing an interest, so to hear two text message alerts on the ride down had me fearing the worst, however I shouldn't have worried as I could already see Dan, Howard, Matt & Tony in the car park, one text was from Carro saying he was on his way, the other, an even bigger surprise was from Scott asking us to wait for them. In the meantime Ricky drove up, all of a sudden we were heading for double figures, only one missing, newcomer L.i.am, he wasn't answering his phone, so we gave him 10 minutes and set off.
Standard fayre, the stiff opening climb up through Ambergate woods seemed to pass quite quickly on the cool fresh morning & regrouping at the top we set off on the first descent down to the fire road, i tried out a new GoPro angle, but a miscalculation in the positioning gave some interesting results. next it was up and along the ridge with Scott taking the first fall, I'm told it was quite spectacular. We dropped down from the ridge on to our favourite Millstone descent, which was dry and running superbly & regrouped again on the fire road. here we learned Ricky had an "incident" and his bike came off worst, snapping off a gear cable guide, luckily it was the front dérailleur, so some tweaking of limits got him going again.
On the climb up out of the woods we had a pause to try out some jumps and trails, then on with the climb up to Black Rocks.
Black Rocks was it's usual great self, even the link up after the mid section was dry and ridable again, there was some fast riding on the way down from the trig point to the canal, Tony vocal in his praise of how his new bike was tackling the varied terrain. We dropped down to the canal (I will do the steps one day, honest) it was decision time, Deley & Scott opted to ride back along the canal, no shame there, especially as Scott had not been out since Linacre back in September. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone else was eager to try Riber as it would be a new descent for all but myself, Dan & Carro.
We paused towards the top of the road climb for Matt's customary jelly sweets, this time Jelly Babies, some comparisons were made between Carro & half ton heifers while the jellys worked their magic and we set of to the summit. I make no secret that I love the first section of the Riber descent, fast, rocky, great stuff, been too long away. Matt suffered a puncture on the way down and we stopped for repairs after the fork. It was here we learned that L.i.am had just risen, gone midday too! But was going to meet us at the Hurt Arms afterwards.
Next up was the tricky single track through the woods and onto Carro's Demise or Brown Trouser to everyone else, This was Carro's first time down since the broken collar bone back in August 2013 & I'm pleased to say we all made it down without injury, although Howard did take a small tumble near the bottom. We then hit Bow woods, as usual I think we ended up with a different route down to the road, there is also some suggestion that matt had an altercation with a tree, but I didn't see it myself!
A steady ride back along the canal led us to Whatstandwell and the final decision point.
Tony, Ricky & Howard took the canal back, all three had done extremely well nailing 3/4 of the ride and deserved the 2 mile glide back to the pub. The remaining four, Me, Matt Carro & Dan, unperturbed, headed to the climb to face the final prize of "Bishop's Pointy Finger" in Crich Chase, this is a great option, although just blasting down the centre trail is great, this route adds some steep terrain, dropping into the camp site, leaving the superb single track out, the jump through the gate & the excellent rocky gulley down to the canal, this being the only bit of wetness we encountered. The 100 yards of canal, back to the pub for a well earned pint. Great effort by everyone involved.
And that was it, all four done, superb ride, superb turn out, the weather smiled upon us too staying cool and dry....Perfect!
Distance: 20 miles
Climbing: 3000ft
Route: Shining Cliff > Black Rocks > Riber > Crich Chase
Riders : Jake, Matt, Carro, Tony, Howard, Dan, Deley, Scott & Ricky
Notable absentees: Baz - Potato planting, L.i.am - Slacker!
A springtime Ambergate ride was planned, initial interest was looking bleak with only a few confirmed but as the date rolled nearer more were showing an interest, so to hear two text message alerts on the ride down had me fearing the worst, however I shouldn't have worried as I could already see Dan, Howard, Matt & Tony in the car park, one text was from Carro saying he was on his way, the other, an even bigger surprise was from Scott asking us to wait for them. In the meantime Ricky drove up, all of a sudden we were heading for double figures, only one missing, newcomer L.i.am, he wasn't answering his phone, so we gave him 10 minutes and set off.
Standard fayre, the stiff opening climb up through Ambergate woods seemed to pass quite quickly on the cool fresh morning & regrouping at the top we set off on the first descent down to the fire road, i tried out a new GoPro angle, but a miscalculation in the positioning gave some interesting results. next it was up and along the ridge with Scott taking the first fall, I'm told it was quite spectacular. We dropped down from the ridge on to our favourite Millstone descent, which was dry and running superbly & regrouped again on the fire road. here we learned Ricky had an "incident" and his bike came off worst, snapping off a gear cable guide, luckily it was the front dérailleur, so some tweaking of limits got him going again.
On the climb up out of the woods we had a pause to try out some jumps and trails, then on with the climb up to Black Rocks.
 |
| The Crew Take A Breather At Black Rocks Trig Point |
We paused towards the top of the road climb for Matt's customary jelly sweets, this time Jelly Babies, some comparisons were made between Carro & half ton heifers while the jellys worked their magic and we set of to the summit. I make no secret that I love the first section of the Riber descent, fast, rocky, great stuff, been too long away. Matt suffered a puncture on the way down and we stopped for repairs after the fork. It was here we learned that L.i.am had just risen, gone midday too! But was going to meet us at the Hurt Arms afterwards.
Next up was the tricky single track through the woods and onto Carro's Demise or Brown Trouser to everyone else, This was Carro's first time down since the broken collar bone back in August 2013 & I'm pleased to say we all made it down without injury, although Howard did take a small tumble near the bottom. We then hit Bow woods, as usual I think we ended up with a different route down to the road, there is also some suggestion that matt had an altercation with a tree, but I didn't see it myself!
A steady ride back along the canal led us to Whatstandwell and the final decision point.
Tony, Ricky & Howard took the canal back, all three had done extremely well nailing 3/4 of the ride and deserved the 2 mile glide back to the pub. The remaining four, Me, Matt Carro & Dan, unperturbed, headed to the climb to face the final prize of "Bishop's Pointy Finger" in Crich Chase, this is a great option, although just blasting down the centre trail is great, this route adds some steep terrain, dropping into the camp site, leaving the superb single track out, the jump through the gate & the excellent rocky gulley down to the canal, this being the only bit of wetness we encountered. The 100 yards of canal, back to the pub for a well earned pint. Great effort by everyone involved.
And that was it, all four done, superb ride, superb turn out, the weather smiled upon us too staying cool and dry....Perfect!
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