I did the ‘classic ride’ from issue 69 two weeks ago, this was what I ‘d said in another post (result is a no brainer for me, get to the Mynd but it looks nothing like James’ loveley photo’s at the moment…)
Got there for 10am and couldn’t see my hand in front of my face at the top because the cloud was so low, but as I was getting the bike out the cloud lifted (a bit) so I just had the cold and wind to deal with (the met office are a bunch of lying b******s !).
I got lost twice (once at the start over the first hill and once at the end in the ‘forest’) but other than that really easy to navigate.
The trails are like nothing else I’ve done before. Despite the damp conditions the ground is really hard almost all along the route. Those same weather conditions in the Lakes, NW or the Peaks would undoubtably result in the Somme effect. In fact if anything the short grass, wet and hard ground make the ride a little skitty.
Loved the descent to Little Stretton and the descent down Minton Batch is also good but needs to be tried in the dry.
I had planned on doing some extra drops off the back of the gliders club but as it says in the article there’s something out there that saps you energy and I couldn’t be arsed with another climb to the top… maybe in the summer.
4.5hrs including the two diversions at either end, so I think the 6.5hrs quoted in the article is a mis print.
From what I saw there is loads of extra routes out there. There seemed to be lengths of ST almost everywhere I looked.