Hi all.

I am heading to the Peak district with my good lady wife on Friday. We are staying near Matlock.
I have looked at loads of guides but all are very vague and seem to spend over 50% of the ride on roads.

Does anyone live localy to Matlock that knows a good 10-25 mile loop that is mainly off road.
My wife is new to cycling so I am looking to avoid short steep clims, looking for longer but gentler ones.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Hi,

Park at Ladybower either in car park on A6013 or main road near Ladybower Bridge (marked on mao near Ashopton).
Up bridleway by Crook Hill Farm right hand side past the Crook Hill 2 peaks
Over the top tracks past Hagg Side.
Down through Nabs Wood
Up the road round the top of Derwent and Howden Reservoir.
Then down the other side (West side of Derwent)
(You can cut across at the bottom of Derwent (marked near Fairholmes)
Up the bridleway over Derwent Edge and over to Whinstone Lee Tor and down to Cutthroat Bridge.

Great ride with some great views, depending on weather of course!

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/idld.srf?x=419500&y=386500&z=120&sv=419500,386500&st=4&mapp=idld.srf&searchp=s.srf&dn=800&ax=419500&ay=386500&lm=0

Cheers,

Jon

Was up that way the other week.. the snow was still quite bad (good, depends on your point of veiw..!)

there were shots on here of some parts of that ladybower ride (which btw isn’t that close to Matlock, and some of it may scare the bejebus out of a beginner) and the snow was VERY deep

get hold of the white peak Vgraphics book. Stanley fern cycles in matlock should have ’em..
I’ll have a dig round and see if I have anything useful

Cheers for the help.

MartynS, If you could see what you could find that would be great.

on sunday it was verging on unridable/ very unpleasent to ride. Most has however melted today and by friday should all have gone.

it is however sodding wet. rivers on most trails, so wear glasses, get a crud catcher etc and dress accordingly for getting very wet indeed.

still be fun though 🙂

If your based in matlock then maybe something in the white peak, rather than the further north (tends to be steeper climbs) dark peak would be better?

The V graphics white peak book has been pretty good when I’ve used it I thought. Plenty of suggestions to join up to neighbouring routes in the book.
You coulf always get out the map, get the/a guidebook, pencil in all the routes they use across all the routes and pick your own from their essentially reccomended set?

“If your based in matlock then maybe something in the white peak, rather than the further north (tends to be steeper climbs) dark peak would be better?”

white peak is hard work when wet though isn’t it? Dark peak is gritty mud but ridable, whereas the limestone of the white peak is incredibly slippy claggy mug from my experience. Not done much white peak riding so willing to be corrected

I live near Matlock and can confirm that there is alot of mud about at the moment!

if she’s new to cycling for god’s sake don’t take her up the crookhill and derwent edge climbs that jk33 recomends. i’d say a loop of the reservoirs in the derwent valley would be a good choice. pretty much everything is steep in the Dark Peak, have a look at some of the bridleways around the Monsal Trail

The loop round the reservoirs is much flatter as mrmichael suggests.
Fair comment if your wife is extremely new to biking as the Crook Hill ascent is pretty steep but is pushable and the downhill through Nabs Woods needs care if your a newbie but overall is a quality ride with amazing views and plenty of opportunities to take the road back to where you’ve parked.

For White Peak specific if the drive from Matlock is too far then this could be useful, and also has high level ride locator map on this page
http://www.bikemaps.co.uk/peak_district_white_peak.htm

If she’s an absolute beginner to biking, the high peak trail is pretty flat except for one big climb at the start, wide and easy, with nice views. It isn’t hardcore mountain biking (it’s a sustrans type trail), but it won’t be muddy which is always a bonus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Peak_Trail

It’s an out and back not a loop. Starts from Cromford, about 2 miles from Matlock. If you want, you can park at Middleton Top, which is sw of Matlock, not very far from it, you can skip the climb too.

Joe

For beginners there is also the route around Carsington water.

As stated by joemarshall the former railway lines that are now the high peak trail, tissington trail, monsal trail offer flat less muddy options as well

You could cycle to Cromford and get on the canal towpath which runs to Ambergate. There are numerous detours into the surrounding woodland but to be honest they are a quagmire at this time of year. Unlikely to be much fun for a beginner.

The route around Ladybower/Derwent and Howden is a preferable scenic option if you don’t mind the extra driving.

part of the towpath between Cromford and Ambergate is shut for repairs, cycling is not allowed on the the diversion (it is a footpath) 😉

You could do a lot worse than: a qiick blast into cromford; onto the canal towards ambergate for a couple of hundred yards; up the incline past blackrocks and onto Middleton Top; hang a right through a few fields (muddy) to the cross roads at Grange Mill at the top of the via gellia (dont laugh); up onto Bonsal Moor, past a biq quarry, through Bonsal village and a quick bit of cheeck to drop you into Cromford again. – It’ll all make sense if you have a look on an OS.

JK,

I like the sound of the route you suggested. I have no probs getting and off and pushing. I am primarily a downhiller so am used to pushing up!
Does anyone have a postable (forum post) os map with the route on it?
I have to confess to not being particularly good with navigating off a map so a set route would be better.

Thanks for all the help and keep the ideas coming.