Bolsover & District Cycling Club

Yet again the Badger picked a great day for a little trundle in the Peak District. It was cold, dry and sunny with a dusting of snow higher up. Unfortunately this made some of the climbs on this ride harder than normal. Sorry guys!

Five of us met at the car park in Millers Dale. Simon Gaddes, Ty Jones, Tony Patterson, Dave (Tony's mate from Worksop) and myself. After a bit of chat and bike adjustment we set off down the road towards Litton Mill. We then hit the first climb of the day up grassy swithbacks towards the top road into Cressbrook. We then dropped down the road towards Monsal Head. Just as the road starts to climb we branched off right onto a trail that climbs up to meet the steps up to the Monsal head pub. There was then a little technical descent with a tricky entry and either a blind drop off or slippery right hand alternative (We all chose the get off and push option). Ty had a little tumble here when he ran into the back of Tony?

We regrouped on the viaduct and decided to look at the alternative bridalway to start the next climb. The first short section was a push up, but the next bit would be ridable in dry conditions. We soon hit the rocky climb up towards Brushfield were we all put in sterling efforts. I am now confident I can clean this section given better conditions under tyre :-)

The next section is great rolling tracks which lead eventually towards Blackwell dale. We then joined the pennine bridalway for a fast slippy descent into Chee dale followed by a hard slog back out in the gloopy conditions. Farm tracks and road with a small dose of grassy climbing led round to Wormhill. We were distracted on this bit with a couple of guys with a pack of hounds who were out hunting rabbits.

From Wormhill there was a great walled rocky singletrack descent down into the bottom of Monk Dale. This is starting to become a regular place to repair a puncture as Simon ended up with a flat. Its getting the balance right with enough air to cope with rocky descents but not too much to give traction on the greasy climbs.

A slog out of Monk Dale on tarmac, led to a great cyclocross style mud sliding descent down to Millers dale were the final few minutes back on the road saw us at the car park.

We finished off by heading up to Tideswell to the Vanila Kitchen for drinks and cake. IMHO this cafe is the best in Derbyshire and one we should incorporate into the road riding.

All in all it was a great ride with a good bunch. looking forward to the next one!