On Ya Bike: The Peak District

With everyone away for the Bank long weekend, Jabs, Tarns and I came up with a good way to amuse ourselves on Bank Holiday Monday. Having not been on a decent bike ride since France last year, we were keen to get out of London and clock up some serious miles - a good but of climbing wouldn't go amiss either. After a bit of searching the on the internet I found what looked like an interesting ride up in the Peak District.

Some on the Monday morning we jumped on to our bikes and rode to Kings Cross to catch our morning train up to Chesterfield, which is just east of the Peak District. This of course nicely increased the length of our ride so that we could raise the bat - taking the distance from 62km loop to 110kms all up - and the total climbing to somewhere in the vicinity of 1300 metres. Arriving in Chesterfield we keenly jumped on our bikes and headed out of Chesterfield.

I quickly made friends with locals on our short trip out of town. Riding a little out from the side of the road because of debris, I got a couple of short blasts of a horn as some idiot went by me with plenty of room to pass. As luck would have it, he pulled over just 200 metres up the road and as he was getting out of the car I rode past him and mumbled something to me. I kindly let him know that "there was plenty of room back there, mate", of which his reply as I rode off was "(mumble, mumble), you little prick". Friendly fella!

So with the cheerful Chesterfield locals behind us, we got into the impressive countryside and started some serious riding. The weather wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worse either. There was the odd shower which departed as quick as it arrived, though that was because of the quite significant Northwester wind we had to toil into for the first half of the ride. But we didn't mind, he was just great to be out and riding without having to stop at lights every kilometre.

The first hour or so of the ride was pretty uneventful, with plenty of rolling hills to keep the legs working and plenty of stunning views to keep the eyes amused. Dropping into Hope Valley we had our sites set on Castleton for some good pub grub to refuel the body. Though not before we came across what we did not expect to see - a traffic jam. The cars were backed up for about 2kms and we were starting to wonder whether we would have to put up with this the whole ride. But then we came across the cause of the commotion, the Hope Show - Hope being the local town. Resisting the urge to join the locals for the agricultural show and sheepdog trials, we were in fact glad to be past the cars and back up to a good speed. And even better, lunch was just around the corner.

Pulling into Castleton we spied Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and thought that looked a good spot for lunch. Stepping into the pub, I kindly asked the rustic bar tender whether there was anywhere we could put I bikes while we had lunch. Replying with a grasp of english that told of some mis-spent school years "I don't think we could put them anywhere here". Looking around at all the space in the pub, I shrugged my shoulders and considered that maybe we had had a lucky escape. Two doors up was The Peaks Inn, were young lady behind the bar said no worries and showed us where we could leave our bikes out back. The pub certainly looked pretty popular and stayed that way despite a trio of smelly cyclists. Ordering the chili con carne with a side of spicy cheesy chips, Jabs and I also indulged in a pint of Black Sheep Bitter. Of course, what we hadn't seen before we ordered was the sign saying "We might not cook your food quickly, but we will make it tasty". And mindful of the fact that we did have a train to get back for, we did have to wait a while for the food. But it was certainly tasty and it didn't take 3 hungry riders long to tuck away their lunch.

Lunch over and we were back on the saddle and taking a wrong turn. Fortunately it only cost us 10 minutes or so, though most of that was uphill. Knowing what I did 15 minutes later, I wish that wrong turn had lead somewhere else. The direction we were suppose to take was through Speedwell Cavern up to Winnats Pass - that's that very steep climb in the profile map above. But it wasn't the steepness that was so much the problem, but the funneling of the wind coming through the thin gorge - and those spicy cheesy chips weren't helping either. Halfway up we were reduced to just being able to rotate the pedals every 2 seconds or so and the wind was just about blowing us off our bikes. So, we had to do the unthinkable and dismount and push our bikes up the rest of the gorge. Nothing a biker ever likes to do (it is not comfortable in the cleats for a start), but there was no other way we could have got safely up that gorge.



Happy to be riding again, we were off again and now very much looking forward to turning around and having the wind behind us. That finally happened after we got to Glossop and what a relief it was - it made quite a difference to our average speed as well. Just after Glossop we hit what was probably the best bit of the ride, and climb up and descent from Snake Pass. The ascent was all up a new piece of smooth road and the gradient was consistent all the way up, and with that wind now behind us you could get into a great rhythm. After the climbs into the wind, this was a joy. And the reward, the descent that lasted 20kms and only required a rotation of the pedals every now and then - and much appreciated rest after that slogging into the wind. We were no on the homeward stretch, though the bodies were now starting to feel the effects of a long hard ride. With only one hard climb left though, we steeled our muscles and headed for home.

In the end, despite some concerns a little earlier in the day, we cruised into the train station with 20 minutes to spare before our 6.40pm departure. The bodies were definitely weary, but there were smiles all round after such a good ride. Of course those smiles doubled on the train journey home when I pulled out my special stash of peanut slabs that I had brought along for a reward. Though we might have been the only people smiling on that carriage, sitting there in our smelly sweaty bike gears!

The 2 hours return trip to London was more than long enough for us to start dreading the ride home from the station. Though surprisingly, we hadn't seized up as much as we thought our the gentle cruise home was nearly enjoyable. With the ride to Kings Cross and back, that took the clock up to 144kms for the day - a distance I have only beaten on the Round Lake Taupo rides. Getting home though, I was very happy to have a shower and tuck into the leftover lentil curry from the night before. And boy did I sleep well that night!









For some more pics, click here.