Great day out in the hills on Saturday with
@Martin Archer @BRounsley and a couple of my friends. Bright and breezy weather and ridden at a pace that kept everyone interested but not exhausted. I was official "lantern rouge" for most of the climbs but that was just me being polite so as to let my fellow riders have a recuperative rest at the top of the hills. The things I do for folk
Very nice, fast run over to Ladybower with a strong tailwind. Some nice little back roads around Bradwell and then, the real reason for doing these rides....the first café stop. Tideswell, excellent scone with cream and jam. Made that morning with buttercream and you could tell. Rather sketchy, steep descent on a back road out of Tideswell that had us waiting for Brian (to be fair he has to wait for me going up the hills so it's only fair). Hitting the headwinds now on the run back towards Buxton..
When we got to Buxton there seemed to be a morris dancing competiton on. Loads of traditional troupes (is it a "troup"?) and some of those somewhat politically incorrect blacked up ones too. stopped at the free Buxton water spring for a refill then onto the Cat and Fiddle. In theory, the easy side as you're already 1000ft up in Buxton at the start. In practice, with a 30mph headwind, rather challenging. By the time I got to the top the others were hiding on the leeward side of the C&F pub.
Down the C&F then off to Bollington. Another really nice café. Scrambled egg on wholemeal. In hindsight, with the Brickworks climb immediately after, that was a bit of a mistake. But it tasted great.
Lots of ups and downs, then goodbye to Brian in Disley as he was heading back to Manchester (having ridden from Mcr to Glossop to start the ride!). The wind was starting to become a bit of a tailwind again, hurrah! And we pushed on back to Glossop.
Time for a couple of pints in the Oakwood, then home. All in all a really good day. The climbing felt a bit easier than the last one. I suspect it was the fact that most of the climbs were of the longer more gentle gradient nature. 65 miles all in. Much discussion about how much climbing; different devices suggesting different figures. It was probably about 6,600ft which sounds a lot but the camaraderie and banter on the ride (plus the café stops) meant it felt quite a bit less.
