19th July - Peak District Ride

An attempt to summarise the Peak District ride:

12 brave souls rolled out of bed at 6:30 and one look outside with biblical storms and I think we all must have wondered what the hell we were doing. However so far not one HMCC “ride away from the shop” had run due to the weather and with the forecast of better weather later then we all made the drive to Disley (the town rather than Andrew who was busy taking it to the Scots up in the Moray Firth).

We set off at 8:30 just as one of dark clouds we had driven through on the way to the Peak District made it's way over and with a quick cloud burst soaked us through, however this was pretty much it and as Ste says you can only get wet once. Clay joined us for this foray in the Derbyshire hills, who has been absent from club runs due to relocating to Chorlton, and took the front with me for some rolling hills and then a nasty climb up to Chunal. A quick descent down to Glossop where we regrouped and I gave the word that Snake Pass was about to start and we should regroup at the bridge over Ladybower reservoir. As expected the group shattered on the long climb out of Glossop and before long we hit the top and then had our reward of a 14km descent. Great to have Ste back out with us and back to his hooligan ways as he made up loads of time on this (and pretty much every other descent). When I got to the bridge I found no one there, after a quick comfort break, I followed the route for a cpl of miles and eventually found the group at a pub minus Darren who didn't seem to know what a bridge or a reservoir was and had disappeared way off route.

Once we had regrouped we made an effort to ride together as there were complaints that my and Clay's initial pace had meant there was no chat and we had all climbed and descended Snake Pass alone. We then took some lovely quiet roads along Hope valley then into Hope itself before hitting Castleton. One thing that had become apparent at this stage was the head wind which was really starting to bite, however it was yet to do its worst. The group went very quiet as we all knew that Winnats Pass was ahead. We pulled off the main road heading for what can only be described as a cleft in the rock. The gradient starting to bite and the group splintered, past a sign stating that the road went up to 1in5, over a cattle grid and the climb really started. However so did the wind. The natural cleft in the rock had the effect of funnelling the wind, so as we struggled to fight the gradient the wind battered us in the face and side. One gust hit me took me off into a grass verge, I battled for a brief second before the inevitable, I toppled over. Luckily someone was pushing their bike by this stage so a quick push and I was off again. The wind issue also effected John and Vicki who apparently ended up in a heap together. Despite the wind, gradient and the cars we all made it to the top and then onto the cafe.

After battling into the headwind again as we headed West there were more fast descents and wicked climbs we ended up in Pott Shrigley to find a cafe called the Coffee Tavern that was given a decent write up by a local cycling club. However given our experience I can only guess the standard of Cheshire cafes lags behind those in Lancashire. The cafe resembled a scout hut and as we entered the deserted cafe we were “greeted” by one woman who, if I am honest wouldn't have been out of place in the local shop for local people in Royston Vasey. One table was reserved and we were ordered to sit on certain other tables. Please ask the other riders about this place as I can't do it justice on here but suffice to say the service was slow, the woman who served us wasn't the most attentive, she got very stressed when the place filled up and if I am honest had someone started playing the banjo to the “Deliverance” theme no one would have been surprised. We did notice that the menu and building itself had a weird 6 pointed star in a circle motive and Allen from Polocini has informed me that the place used to be a pagan temple!

In the hour and a bit it took to serve us coffee and cheese on toast the weather brightened up so many of us shed a few layers and headed to Macclesfield and the Cat and Fiddle, however without Clay who's knees were complaining after the morning's hills. As we hit the Cat normal service was resumed with Darren leading the way up the climb, but this time he remembered to stop at the agreed meeting point, and after 10 minutes we all regrouped took a group photo by the Cat and Fiddle pub and then headed down a fast descent to Buxton. Unfortunately a descent means one thing, another climb. John Lynch was having a bad day on the bike so I dropped back to give him a wheel to follow. As we neared the top of the climb out of the corner of my eye I saw a wheel, and thought that John had found his legs. However I was more shocked to see a middle aged woman with a step through bike with basket motor past me without looking in too much trouble. By motor I mean motor as she was on an electric bike. We regrouped and with the GPS showing we weren't going to Goyt valley I confidently predicted that the climbing was over cue much smiling and another fast sweeping descent and Ste and his usual hooliganism hitting the front. We got to Whaley Bridge, the GPS took us left off the road to Disley and onto a road that looked more like a wall to much abuse aimed at me about why we enduring another climb. We all slogged our way up the final climb of the day, another quick descent spoiled by speed bumps and we were back.

All in all another great ride out in the Peak District, tough climbs made much worse by the incessant wind. Unfortunately such a tough route meant the social side took a back seat to focussing on climbing or very fast descending however despite that the ride was very eventful which we will be talking about for weeks/months to come.