The Peak District Riding Thread

Big Peaks Loop report

I think me, @Po and @jmg412 were all a little surprised the Peaks route on Saturday, which is kind of dumb because it was clear it was going to be hilly. Normally you have hard sections but then the road relaxes so you build in physical and mental space to recover, but not with this one. It was serious business all day long.

The weather was fine fine fine for the first three hours. Lot of the roads were taken from the Hard Day in T’Peaks route, meaning start in Greggs in central Sheffield, Rivelin Valley out and the immediatly shit-got-serious Rails Road to the perfectly named Uhghill. Chilly but the sun was out, wow do the Peaks deliver views.

Along the top it was fresh and expansive, and then to spin and coast down the A57 instead of arriving at Ladybower out of breath from 130rpm spinning. Hit the left at the intersection perfectly and it was such good fun nailing it with the sparkly reservoir to our right. We did our best to not park the bus at the bottom Bamford, tricky to scrub off all that speed and go straight to little ring. Bamford is another wicked climb but the descent was pretty sketchy. After Bamford the climb through Abney was tough but through Hucklow we saw those patchwork fields with greens and browns and purples and it was so, so beautiful. Those 2 miles were “chill”. Took Pindale into Castleton with again great views and an excellent descent.

It started to get a little serious from here. Mam Nick is obviously a 10/10 climb but we got tinkled on the way which was fine if a bit ominous. Mam Nick is maybe not fixie friendly but definitely fixie doable, what a road! From the top went down the Broken Road and as we’d stopped earlier in Hathersage for a quick mechanical and coffee it was straight back up Winnats.

We lucked out. Hardly any traffic, and with only a small whiff of clutch from a police van heading down there were long stretches where it was empty and the gorge was silent and vibrantly green. Once was enough as it was steep and by all accounts choked with traffic but I can only report what I experienced which was that it’s absolutely banging, with scale and scope and drama. A total headline climb. Winnats is awesome.

Regrouping at the top we suddenly saw our breath which was a bad sign. Wherein 2 mins later we got smashed with freezing rain interspersed with hail which was not very welcome on the A road descent. We couldn’t see shit. The rain let off after a while and we struggled to get warm and it wasn’t until we were through Cowlow and to the Top of Pyms Chair that I felt sort of normalish. Which btw Cowlow / Whaley Bridge to Pyms Chair was so good but the Goyt Valley was maybe the highlight of the ride for me. I am bringing my fixie back for that. Smooth roads, gurgling stream at to the left on the ascent, say 3 or 4% one car, no wind, it was on another level good.

Then a slightly unwelcome climb to the Cat and Fiddle. Name me a more iconic A Road pub, I’ll wait.

Back in Whaley Bridge we decided to shave off some distance and elevation - at that point we had done 45 miles and 5.5k feet of climbing and with a later start and being slightly caught out by the road book we wanted to be home in good time. So from Meerbrook we changed it up using Po’s knowledge. He said “we can cut up North and and head more directly East. We'll do The Roaches to get north - which is a great climb! It sort of flattens in the middle and then you disappear around the side.” I’d say this underselling it because it was fucking hard. The sun did come out for the climb and it was hot on our backs but eesh the Roaches has ramps. From there I thought it was going to be easy rolling to Bakewell - which it sort of was - except for Crowdecote which is NOT chill. But after that it felt borderline reasonable getting into Bakewell. I was a bit sad to miss Larkdale’s terrifying descent and brutal ascent but that’s ok because it’s only a small sharp thing and the run into Bakewell was fast and flowy.

In Bakewell we went full audax in the Co-op and we were all feeling the elevation. Po was short on time for his train and JMG was also keen to be at the hotel so they did a reroute up Froggets. However they were both very supportive and said ‘do what you came here to do!’ so I went ahead with the original route. I accidentally missed some kind of steep thing out of Bakewell (booo) and instead went through Hassop with JMG and Po. From there said thanks for everything and bye and I continued to Sir William Hill and then the Dale. Sir William was total garbage, and straight and boring, remarkable only for it’s consistent dinner plate pitch. Then back to Hathersage the Dale for which I was richly rewarded for my effort. The sun came out 2 mins out of Hathersage, I had golden views back over the valley in the evening sun, rainbow over the moor at the top, traffic free the whole way. I crushed it down Ringinglow, sunnies on, looking pro af - but inside a total husk of a shell of a shadow of a person.

Arrived in Sheffield absolutely fucked. JMG and Po were excellent. Joe particularly, he is on terrifyingly good form. So that’s what people mean by ‘race fit’. He jumped on a train home and JMG and I found a vibrant wetherspoons to top it off. You all should give the route a go sometime. I've had my fill of the Peaks, my cup runneth over with hills.