Bolsover & District Cycling Club

What a great turnout for our first peak MTB ride. The sun was shining and 10 riders met at the Curbar Gap car park. I was joined by Simon Gaddes, Martin Young, Bob Smith, Scott Ellis plus a mate, Conor McGuigan with his 2 mates Nick and Chris and new club member Ty Jones. Apologies to Scott's mate for forgetting his name.

We set off along the top of Baslow edge, dodging people and horse riders. Bloody sunshine brings out the crowds! We then dropped down below the edge for a great bit of muddy technical single track, that will be even better in the dry. The final section that climbs back up to the parking area was a little too slick and saw everyone pushing for 50 meters or so.

A rapid descent down the hill to Calver before cutting through the village to meet the Hassop Road. we branched off straight away and started the long slog up towards Longstone Edge. Just as it levelled out Conor's rear mech hanger snapped. A bit of mechanical work ensued and Ty converted it to a single speed to allow Conor to continue with the ride. He very quickly earned the new nickname of Michael Flatley as his legs became a blur keeping up on the flatter bits!

We soon reached the track which descends down to Rowland and proceeded to have a quick blast down to the village. We then turned towards Hassop and had a couple of run ins with irrate female drivers coming towards us who decided that they had to give way to bikes because there cars were too big....

Very soon we turned onto the track which leads over towards the 13 bends road and Si decided to wipe cowshit all over my arm with the bottom of his shoe. Cheers mate! The next section was icy ruts followed by a rocky roller coaster down to the ford. A great section of riding that needed to be much longer. Hardpack then followed through the woods before we hit the 13 bends road with a quick stop to change a flat on Martins bike. The next climb up to Pilsley was muddy and rutted at the bottom, which I was pleased to ride clean. The climbing was starting to take its toll on Nick at this point, and we regrouped at the top before a quick road blast down to Baslow.

The long climb back up to Baslow edge followed past the Spar shop up Bar Lane. Nothing technical about this one, just a long slog which we all started to notice. A fun section back down to the road saw Bob turn right to head off back home and we headed left up the road back to the cars.

It was a good ride with a great bunch of lads. I think we all enjoyed it and hopefully these rides will continue with a large group getting out. Potentially there could have been at least another 6 riders out with Dave Ford last minute apologies, big Kev only just getting back from a trip to the states, Scrapper, MBS being in London, Lee, Matt and Dan, Gav, Tony etc.

Already looking forward to the next ride round the Wye Valley on the 28th January