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

On The Edge

The one where we rode 3 edges, I fell off, Matt's chainrings almost did, we negotiated some cows & had a top dinner.

Ride Date: 06/04/2014

Distance: 19 miles

Route: Froggatt > Eyam> Calver.

Weather: Temperature - 12°C, Wind - 37mph ↑, Humidity - 93%, Conditions - Cloudy.

Riders : Jake, Deley & Matt

Down to three again due to Birthdays, Paint balling & various other reasons, however we were not put off and Matt suggested starting from a different spot & trying some classic peak district trails before dropping back down to loop round Eyam & Calver. So we set off a couple of miles up the hill above Froggatt and parked up in a little lay by. Despite a forecast of heavy rain it was quite pleasant but slightly overcast as we started a steady climb up the road, turning off onto the first bridleway opposite the desolate Grouse pub. The bridleway continued to climb steadily up to the peak, where we turned and headed south along white edge for a good 3 miles of tough, rocky single track fun, which despite a few puddles & soft spots wasn't too bad given the heavy rain during the last week. It was along here that I had my "incident", still not sure what caused it, at the time I thought I'd clipped a rock, but the slo-mo seems inconclusive, either way I got some bruised ribs for my trouble.
At the end of the trail we crossed the road and headed West along Baslow edge, stopping for a refuel and drink at the Wellington Monument.

Deley admiring the Wellington Monument

We carried on along Baslow edge and after more rocky trail and negotiating some Highland Cattle we turned North again and rode along the 3rd and final edge, this one being Curbar, it's a cheeky trail at the moment, but due to be made into an official bridleway soon. Matt told us that his Thursday night crew like to race along these edges, and at night too. As we reached the end of Curbar edge, close to our cars we ran into a group of Satan's spawn (walkers) who looked to be heading down our next cheeky route, so we opted for the road down to Calver followed by a steep off road climb up to the top of the 2nd Eyam descent, this was it's usual fast action, I even shaved over a minute off my best time. A spot of refreshment at the bottom near the Roman Spring and we were off again up what is probably the 2nd steepest hill ever, after Starkholmes to Riber. This eventually took us to the top of Black Harry Lane, we usually climb this, but not this time, we rode it downhill for a change and round the sharp left at the bottom and onto Coombs Dale, again the reverse of our usual ride. This was a roller coaster 2 mile blast over undulating terrain giving almost constant opportunity for jumping, it also throws in a couple of loose, sketchy corners and a stream for added fun. This took us back into Calver, where we just had the road climb back up to the cars, which wasn't too bad (although it felt bad at the time!). The ride ended up being a nice 19 miles, it was hard going in some places though, due to the rough terrain and some very strong winds. It's a very good ride though, it would be nice to go back when the trails are dry and it flows a lot better.

Matt on Baslow Edge

We then headed to the Derwent Water Arms for a very well earned dinner & a pint, Matt & Deley going for the famous Pie, I opted for the char-grilled gammon, couldn't fault it again, service was brill, the food was superb! All washed down with a pint of Chatsworth Gold.

2D Elevation

3D View of the terrain

You may or may not know that this was our 10th weekend ride since we started back in September, we've done some great new stuff as well as some old favorites. So in order to celebrate this anniversary we have a small competition to win a semi-rare bottle of Status Quo's very own beer called Piledriver and made by the famous Wychwood brewery, it doesn't get anymore rock n' roll than that, does it?

To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is guess how many feet we have climbed in total over the 10 rides based on what my Endomondo says, I've hidden the workouts in question so you can't cheat, the nearest wins. You must either put your answer in the comments below or email it to me, you can only enter once, your first answer counts and it's only open to those that have been out riding with us at some point (even if it was a while back). Best of luck.

You could win a bottle of this!

View the ride on Endomondo - http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/319094225/151189

The Three Musketeers

The one where, Basil had his new bike & Deley's front hub failed.

Ride Date: 23/03/2014

Route: Ambergate Woods > Black Rocks > Crich Chase.

Weather: Temperature - 4°C, Wind - 15mph →, Humidity - 86%, Conditions - Cloudy.

Riders : Jake, Deley & Basil

Only three this time on a cool morning in Ambergate. We met, as usual in the Hurt Arms car park, where Basil unveiled his new beast to us, and very nice it is too! With a fairly stiff wind we opted to climb up through Ambergate woods (I found out the road was slightly quicker on a recent ride). We set off at a good pace and were soon passing the cottages where we normally enter the woods, however this time we continued on up the road right up to the tip of the wood.
This is a new section, that starts off with some twisty single track with plenty of roots & rocks and then it opens out slightly into a full on blast with lots of options for a bit of air via various roots & stones. This brings you out on the fire road we would normally use with the short sharp climb up to the ridge.
The ridge was in pretty good shape, mostly dry, this time we passed the usual point where we start the descent and carried on to another new section, this one is better flowing and longer than the previous one and joins up with the same bottom section. It's known locally as "Millstone" presumably named after the millstone that Deley spotted part way down.

The view from the top of the Millstone Descent

Black Rocks provided it's usual standard of fun, with only one fallen tree blocking the trail, once down at the canal we discussed the options and decided to do some exploring in Crich Chase.
We started off with the same top section we had ridden last time, but kept left where the trail split, this turned out to be the full official "Bishop's Pointy Finger" Descent and it was pretty good, throwing up loads of options and good technical stuff ultimately joining up where our previous ride did with just the last few hundred metres left to the canal, it was in this clearing we met a random bearded bloke on a lapiere, who said that despite several years riding the area, he was still finding new trails & proceeded to point out several options from where we were stood.
I'm really starting to like Crich Chase, with just under a mile of descent and more trails than you can shake a stick at, I think it's got lot's more to offer us in the future and the climb up there is probably the easiest of the 4.

2D Gradient Profile

3D View of the terrain

Anyway, that's about it, the next ride will be our 10th weekend ride, so look out for a competition in the next blog entry.

View the ride on Endomondo - http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/312344014/151189

A Change Of Plan

The one where, It was windy, muddy, Tony lost a shoe & Ballcross took several victims

Ride Date: 23/02/2014

Route: Bakewell>Haddon>Youlgrave>Birchover>Daley Dale>Chatsworth

Weather: Temperature - 9°C, Wind - 16mph ↑, Humidity - 78%, Conditions - Cloudy.

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt, Basil, Howard & Tony

After a trip "down south" to Cannock a few weeks back & a first meeting with the legendary Bear, we were back in the peak district again. the original plan was to ride north from Bakewell towards Calver, but some on the fly decision making saw us ride most of the Rowsley Loop from the White Peak book.

Things started off steady enough with a warm up along the Monsall trail and then around the back of Haddon to the A6. Matt was on his new winter hard tail and was making a few tweaks along the way, we were also stung with a few punctures along this first section. It was during a puncture repair session our plans changed and we opted to head out towards Youlgrave.
It wasn't too bad a climb up the old bridleway, but once on the muddy fields at the top it became very hard going with heavy mud and a strong headwind. Once we made our way through it was time for the first tricky descent of the day, with a series of tricky, rocky switchbacks down to the River Lathkill, this gave Howard a chance to try out his new dropper seatpost. Not sure of many incidents, my descent went ok apart from drifting into a fence right at the end.

The River Lathkill, a scenic spot for some much needed refuelling

After a short rest we set off again, climbing up into Youlgrave village and down over the River Bradford and up and over the fields, which despite the recent rain was a lot less muddy than in August 2012. A bit of road work took us to Birchover, past the Druid's Inn and on to a long fast track all the way to Darley Dale. A slight error on my part took us the wrong direction and needing to either ride back up the hill we'd just ridden down, or take a cheeky footpath shortcut back to the road. "You'll be fine, there's only a couple of streams to cross" said some random bloke with a dog. It all started well with some nice twisty singletrack in and out of the trees, however it didn't last with several offs, bikes stuck in axle deep mud & at one point Tony losing a shoe to the bog monster (he managed to wrestle it back though). We needed Haribo & Worms after that to recover. 

In the muddy woods near Darley Dale

A short a ride took us back up to the A6, followed by a blast to Rowsley (I think the wind might have at last been with us at this point). It was here we decided on our next plan of action, which were either back to Bakewell by road or Chatsworth via road or offroad, culminating in the famous Ballcross descent. We opted for the middle route and followed the road to Chatsworth, then left through Edensor and up the rough track towards Bakewell, this proved, for many to be the killer climb at the end of a very tough ride, but we all made it up in one piece.
That just left the final descent through the woods, this did not disappoint, with all the usual roots, gulleys & rocks made all the more sketchy with a healthy dose of mud. There were plenty of incidents on the way down for most, with Tony's over the bars being the most spectacular.

"Have A Banana"  Tony takes on some energy

That was it, just over 20 miles of hard winter fun, which we finished off with a walk down into Bakewell for a well earned pint in the Queens Arms, unfortunately basil couldn't join us, but was very generous in contributing towards the beer fund!

3D View of the terrain

View the ride on Endomondo - http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/300009640/151189

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!

A Calver Christmas

Ride Date: 28/12/2013

Location: Calver

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt & Howard

This ride took us back to Calver, the destination of the first ever post on this blog, for this years Christmas ride. Plenty of absentees this time including Dan due to headset trouble , Basil due to Center parcs, Ryan & Rob due to colds & Tony due to a bad back, some say down to his hard work with Santa over the last week! I also had some back trouble myself, but was OK for most of the ride, just struggled on the steeper climbs.

We set off through Calver village on a crisp sunny morning with Howard sliding off on some black ice at the first junction, good job he had his new knee pads on. Soon we were at the foot of the first big climb, it was just as difficult as I remember but it wasn't too bad especially with the good views lit up by the winter sun. After negotiating a few gates we were soon at the top and decided due to the small group we would make some "on the fly" route decisions and adapt as we went along. So we carried on past "Old Man's Demise" and headed for the quarry descent down into Eyam. The descent was nice and quick although it looks like the council have seen fit to resurface a good section of it, making it fast, but not technical. The last short section however, remains untouched and a good bit of fun.

Next up was a very pleasant climb on the roads up to Riley's Graves at Eyam, with a small break in the village center on the way. This led us to the start of the very good descent down through the woods to the road below, it didn't disappoint, throwing up rocks, ruts, roots & fallen trees. 

The View From The Bottom Of The Riley's Grave Descent

A short bit of tarmac led us next to the blast down to Stoney Middleton which was as good as I remember from last time, worthy point of note, if you ever find yourself at the bottom of this descent put your hand in the roman spring, lovely and warm flowing water especially in winter.

Next up was the steady 3 mile climb back up to Old Man's demise via Coombs Dale. Once at the top we hit Old Man's Demise, another excellent descent that is now a shadow of it's former self due to the council's over zealous resurfacing, it's still a good blast down, but with no real skill needed.
All that remained was to ride back down the first climb we had come up, despite a few interruptions from gates, this proved to be a decent end to the ride.

We finished off with a pint and a nice bit of dinner in the Derwent Water Arms, very nice chips and I'm told, by the other three, that the homemade pies were very nice too.

Dave with his well earned pint, albeit in a "ladies glass"!

Below is my first go at a video of the ride, feel free to add constructive criticism!  

See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/280138459/151189

2D gradient profile

3D Gradient profile

The Chase

Ride Date: 01/12/2013

Location: Ambergate Woods, Black Rocks, Crich Chase

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt, Ryan, Tony & Rob

Back by popular demand & with the knowledge we gained from the last ride out this way, we left the Hurt Arms car park as a gang of six welcoming back Rob who had previously joined us for the sub-zero blast around Sherwood Pines back in April. Absentees this time included Basil & Dan due to "mechanicals" & Howard due to Santa duties!

We set off along the road in the early morning sunshine with plans to improve on the last time by getting in at least one more descent, either Hearthstone Lane, Crich Chase or both. We took the usual fire road climb up to jackass lane and into the top of the wood at good steady pace, where we met some other riders who were setting off to the woods behind us. The ride along the ridge saw the first fatality of the day with Rob succumbing to the rocks and roots that were incredibly well hidden under the autumn leaves & taking a blow to the ribs.
We all met up at the top of the first descent, which again proved tricky for some due to it's nature and took a bit of the flow out of the section, I do have a plan to slightly alter this first bit and make it more flowing as I know there are a couple of other trails leading down from the ridge and maybe also include the woods to the left of the final climb up to the ridge from the fire road, hopefully more on that the next time we ride here. 
The second half of Shining Cliff was the usual fast, fun & flowing section made all the more interesting as a lot of rocks had a nice green coat on them. That just left the fire road climb up to Alderwalsley, where some front runners went the wrong way (that'll teach you for riding off ahead!). 

The winter sun peering through the trees as we rode back up the fire road

Once on the tarmac we had the chance to enjoy the fantastic winter sun on the way up to Black Rocks where with a small stop for Matt to fix a puncture we took time for a quick drink and to take in the views over the area.

A quick puncture repair, just below Black Rocks

Black Rocks was it's usual fine self from top to bottom with nothing to report other than fast, dry trails and we were soon down at the canal side in what seemed to be record time.We made the decision here, seeing as Rob was starting to feel some discomfort due to his earlier fall, that we would miss out Hearthstone Lane & we would divert left at Whatstandwell and climb up to Crich Chase, while Rob would head back along the canal and have a well earned coffee back at the pub.

So Crich Chase it was then, almost brand new territory for us (except for a brief look by me earlier that week), based of some Strava investigation we were aiming for what seemed to be one of the most popular descents, strangely named "The Bishop's Pointy finger", rather than ride the path from the corner of the road down to the wood, we opted to ride just a bit nearer to the reservoir and down to a slightly too high stone wall where we wrestled the bikes over completely missing the stile only 25 yards away, we'll remember next time!
The ride down through the wood despite a couple of stop/starts and us apparently veering slightly from the planned route, ended up being really good with a very nice of tricky bits and faster sections, we will definitely  add this in as a must do part of the ride, I can't believe it's took us so long to get in there and try it!

That just left about 100 yards of canal where we met back up with Rob at the pub and enjoyed a pint in the glorious sunshine and mild temperatures, not too bad for December


Below is Tony's long awaited second movie of the ride, enjoy!

 

See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/273628360/151189

Bakewell Puddings

Ride Date: 22/09/2013

Location: Wye valley - Cheedale Loop

Riders : Jake, Ryan, Matt, Howard, Dan & Deley 

The first of the "new style" Sunday rides took us possibly the furthest yet from the centre point of work, with an early morning start in Bakewell for what was a completely unknown new ride for all of us.

The start of the route was a steady warm up along the Monsall Trail, through the first tunnel & over the viaduct, here we left the easy riding trail and took a sharp left up a fairly steep and rocky "Black" rated climb, once at the top we wiped the blood, sweat and tears away, took in some of the superb views back towards the viaduct and descended down into the small hamlet of Brushfield, we then climbed & dropped on farm tracks into Priestcliffe, where Howard "percy weakbladder" Derbyshire had to nip off and relive himself.
We the proceeded on pleasant country roads to Blackwell, where we left the tarmac and joined the Pennine Bridleway we followed this steady double track for a short while where the first good descent of the day opened up before us with a nice fast loose ride down into the valley, where is was alleged that Matt overshot the final corner slightly! We then went over the Monsall Trail and over the river to start the next climb, a steady bit of singletrack back up the other side of the valley towards Mosley farm, we stopped near to the top for a breather and much needed drink

The view from near Mosley farm

Ryan & Deley checking out the views of the valley below

A "Tractor Action Shot" at Mosley Farm

After a quick drink we set off through the farm and long the farm track, veering off the track at one point onto an old Bridleway & eventually onto a short section of Tarmac before we took a right up over the fields, which turned out to be the muddiest section of trail we have ridden in many a month, there was also plenty of cow dung on this section too, which took a fair bit of scrubbing to remove in the end. This trail lead us to Wormhill, where we crossed the road and followed a fast bit of weaving singletrack, where Matt displayed his nettle avoidance technique by getting his feet above his handlebars! After a short wait for a few ramblers the singletrack dropped off to a great bit of rocky peak district downhill all the way to the road.
We now began a tarmac climb up-to the junction with the Limestone way, where we took a right and followed it nice and fast downhill all the way to Miller's Dale.
We then cheekily followed the river all the way back to the viaduct at Monsall Head and back onto the Monsall Trail

Dan & Howard on the Viaduct, not sure what Howard is looking for!

The view from the Viaduct

We then set off back towards Bakewell along what had become a much busier monsall Trail, but it turned out to be a nice warm down after the hard riding leading up to it.

All that was left was a stroll down into Bakewell for a refreshing pint in the beer garden of the The Peacock Pub with the weather having turned to be spot on with 20°C and warm sunshine, it was a perfect end to a decent ride.

See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/248856226/151189

Cruising in Calver

Ride Date:16/05/2012


Riders: Jake, Matt G, Basil & Ryan.


An early start for the first ever pre afternoon shift ride saw four of us gather near Calver Crossroads at 08:45.
With Matt leading Myself, Basil & Ryan we started out with a steep climb on tarmac, leading to a longer, rougher & steeper climb on limestone up the hill above Calver. This was a good first test for the gears after fitting the new rear dérailleur hanger and they passed fine despite Me wimping out and pushing the bike on some of the steeper parts. 
A short rest at the peak led to the first descent, the aptly named "Old Man's demise", this was a rocky narrow trail with a good length broken by the need for an emergency puncture repair on Matt's bike.

Puncture repair number one about two thirds of the way down "Old Man's Demise"

We continued down the demise and then took a steady climb back & took a break to admire the glorious views and take a few pictures to show the "No Shows" what they were missing. We then carried on up to almost where the demise began, this time taking a right turn down a fast grassy slope to a stile where "The Necker" began. I've no idea why it's called that, I keep meaning to ask.

The start of "The Necker"

This descent was an eight inch wide sheep track along a 500 foot ravine down to steam and path below, it was mainly hard mud with the odd rock and some very sketchy bits over loose shale, the surface and the precarious position lead to a lot of "dabbing" and a couple of dismounts but became faster as it widened out onto grass and down through a small wood.

A long but slight climb the lead us back parallel to "The Necker" and the took a sharp right, followed by a sharper climb up to the top of the quarry. This lead to our third descent, it was fast, wide and rocky, with a couple of slow downs as we crossed a couple of real roads. 

We then took a steady tarmac climb upto Eyam, a village steeped in history due to the plague. We took a left from the main road and climbed up towards the "Riley Graves". From here began two fast descents though woods with some great root, rocks & bermed corners, the outcome of which left us with just a mile of tarmac back to calver & left Matt with his second and final puncture of the day.

All that was left then was a quick dash home to get ready for work.

A great circuit with some killer climbs and some equally stunning descents, many thanks to Matt for the ace guidance, I can see this one becoming a favourite.

The view after "Old Man's demise"


See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/55907093