This is Nat's route and frankly all her fault!!!
First things first I need to do some big shout outs. This is Nat's route, she's ridden it several times before and her knowing it really well added greatly to the day. She also totally kicked our butts up those ridiculous hills. Then I must thank Andy Pendred for his magnificent pictures from his infamous bum cam (in case you're worried this is a backwards facing camera that sits under his saddle taking pictures automatically on a timer.) To Andy Ferguson for thinking up the great club that is C&D Cycles CC and for keeping our bikes running. To everyone else I have to say you were just great company so: Pete, Heather, The Marks, Marcus, Steve...cheers for a great ride! The final thank you must go to the weather. It was simply glorious!
Before the ride started I was warned that we would be straight into the hills and that was not wrong! In Northamptonshire the climb out of Bakewell heading towards Chatsworth House would be a local club hill climb course. Here it's just par for the course and goes on forever!
The picture above is the gradient profile from Strava. You can see the first climb. It's a cat 4 straight away...but it's nothing compared to that next big peak you can see! The second peak is Rowsley Bar.
This is what Rowsley Bar did to Andy F. He wasn't amused by this climb and at that stage wondered...in no uncertain terms, if this was the ride for him. I'm just pulling into view and felt in a very similar way. I stopped twice on this hill which is a cat 4 or 3 depending on where you count it to. To me it stops at the highest point so it's a cat 3. This hill is famous. It's number 34 on the 100 UK best cycling climbs and has featured in National Hill Climb championships. Here's what the https://cyclinguphill.com/rowsley-bar/ blog has to say. I really struggled up this slope using a 34x28 gear. I'm astounded to read that in 1997 the Hill Climb racers did this on fixed gear bikes and the gear of choice was 42x21 for the winner and 39x20 for the runner up!
After all that uphill we got a bit carried away at times and this groupshot is the confusion of wondering what to do as Marcus had shot off down the road. Luckily Pete was very keen on the day and chased him down to bring him back. It's no wonder he missed this turn though because this 'barely a road,' was about to chuck up loads of fun. Firstly we rode through a tiny ford and then the road became a bit rough, at one point a car appeared and a pedestrian and we were all dodging holes. Bikes were going everywhere. It wasn't dangerous and luckily for us, most of the motorists were very patient...it was just mayhem and very very funny!
I think in the picture above Heather was asking Nat about what was coming up. Clearly Nat is saying...it just goes up! For a very long time...UP!!!
The road painters in the Peaks have a wicked sense of humour. SLOW! Yeah mate good advice, I was considering a full gas sprint!!! What bum cam also captures is STEEP!
Oh looky here...Nat might be good at hills but I'm keeping up...yeah...I'd imagine this was nearer the bottom than the top.
Having wanted to pack up, go back to the car and wait after Rowsley Bar I really started to enjoy the ride. The views were spectacular and no more hills beat me, despite some similar steep gradients and long climbs.
This for me is the shot that showcases the terrain we were riding in. You can see the beautiful weather and you can see the hills we've come from.
Now look at Steve's face! We were all loving it. Look again in the background. We'd probably been to the top of that hill too!
I'm fairly sure the Inbetweeners will have visited this road on their tour of naughty street names however Peak District...you haven't got a Bell End like we have in Northamptonshire!
Grind, grind, grind...we're going uphill again. I was thinking at times: "why didn't I bring the CX with it's 42x42 gear?" I guess it would be easier for the uphills but I think I would have missed my Giant Propel on the descents. Pete was also on his Propel. Others had left the aero bike behind. Bairdy and Andy F squabbled about whose made in Taiwan bike was more Italian, Andy's Basso or Bairdy's Bianchi. In the one problem we had with a car all day, Bairdy was sledged with: "you've got a horrible little bike." The driver was in the wrong but for the sake of banter we all agreed about the Bianchi! Back to the debate though...the topic was recently covered by GCN.
I've talked bikes, banter, effort, wattage, fun etc. However the star of the day is captured in the picture above. I cannot believe how good the Peak District is for riding. Just wow!
After slogging uphill all day behind the skinny riders, the last ten miles was pretty easy actually. Nat lied to us though by saying there were no more hills. There was a least three more! However there was some long flat bits where we got back into a more accustomed rhythm and had a bit of a blast. Then we went down the amazing Beeley Village Descent which is almost two miles long and drops 673ft. I averaged 29mph down this which wasn't the fastest in our group. I blame Andy F for getting in my way and that inconsiderate car that was coming around the bend I passed him on. I got lucky actually...I locked up, went sideways, missed everything and then carried on downhill laughing my head off. Not big or clever really. Andy rightly told me what a silly twerp I am. I just acted like a tellytubby who'd slid down a ski slope...AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN!!!
Back in the carpark I was mistaken for some kind of Peak District Mr. Helpful. Firstly a young lady asked me to help with her bike and as she needed a spanner, Andy had to break out the tools. In return she took a groupshot for us. Seconds later an old lady drove into a deadend in the carpark and insisted I helped her to back out again. It was a very bizarre few minutes...so the fact we then walked into a rubber duck race really wasn't a surprise!
I took some video which does show how good things were on the day but also unknown to me the lens had a splodge of mud on it. So it's not the greatest footage. Look out for the bloke on the recumbent handbike though!
All of this uphill effort has put some silly ideas in my head. Firstly...if Rowsley Bar is climb number 34...can I do all 100? Here's the list, you can also buy a book or get an app...https://cyclinguphill.com/100-climbs/
Yeah but it appears some people are already doing it!!! Not only are hey doing all 100 they are going to do it in one epic journey, riding from climb to climb! https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/epic-cycle-challenge-tackle-100-iconic-climbs
Okay I've probably still forgotten some things I wanted to say but that will do for now. I think that's much closer to describing just how good it was in the Peak District on Sunday!
Morning edit: Yep I forgot something. We rode through Ripley. I didn't twig at the time that my MTB a Forme Ripley is named after the place. I have three Formes with the other two being a Calver and a Longcliffe. Here's Calver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calver and then Longcliffe is a Hamlet near Matlock. Also we passed a beautiful windmill at Heage which I couldn't get a good photo of. Details here: https://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/things-to-do/heage-windmill-p677931
Happy Pedalling!
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