I’m in that area this Sun and wondered if any locals know of any good 35-40 miles starting and ending in Bakewell. Not too many hills if poss as building up the mileage after an Achilles tear last year and months of no real biking….cheers

Bakewell – Cromford on A6

Cromford – Newhaven on the Via Gellia (A5012)

Newhaven to Monyash on A515 then back to Bakewell

That way round its more of less a steady climb all the way to Monyash with a rolling section to the top of Bakewell. The other way round its a climb up to Over Haddon then more or less down hill back to the A6.

Not the most exciting ride but the only way to completely avoid hills is to ride to Derby & back.

The section of the A5012 between Cromford & Newhaven can be interesting if there are a lot of HGVs around (weekdays) but the rest is reasonable.

Expected more cake content

* is disappoint *

Thanks – doesn’t need to be totally flat, just no killer climbs 🙂

Tart

Surely a little pootle past Chatsworth should be involved

* reported for abuse *
😉

Think Richie B has given you the flattest option.

Alternative might be to go Bakewell to Matlock on the A6, then A615 to Tansley, turn left after Tansley then run back parallel to the A6 over Beeley Moor, down to Beeley and back tbrough Chatsworth. Can be exposed on the top with the wind in the wrong direction, and the descent to Beeley is best in non slippy conditions.

You can probably manage a decent cafe stop every 5 miles as well 😳

Thanks Dash – that looks ok – any idea how many miles that would be?
Other than getting directions on Google maps between the towns I’m not sure of the best way to do so.
Don’t have any mapping/GPS other than in the car so working out routes prior to going is tricky.

Unless I’ve got the wrong end of the stick, try Bikehike
Scroll down the lower right window to “Find UK Place/Postcode”, make sure that the “Follow Road (google map)” is ticked and away you go. If you tick “Elevation Data” it replaces the OS map, and you can print the finished route
It took a couple of minutes to map the route, which came out at 23.72 miles (if I followed the directions accurately). It took some zooming in to find the road that descends to Beeley though!

PS if you use the “Follow Road” option, you can click at each junction/turn and the route just appears, make sure it doesn’t follow an alternative route to get there
If you deselect “Follow Road” you can map directly from the OS mapping for offroad, but you need many more clicks to follow bends, etc.