it is a good gauge to compare miles/feet i agree if its in the same area
but then the climbs in the peak district are really quite techy and you cant just steadily grind up them like say in surrey hills or more xc type routes, the peak climbs are pretty brutal as will has mentioned above, something id not really taken into consideration, hence why my 27 mile ride had 4400feet of climb compared to your 43mile 4870feet of climb
its like cannock i go there every so often and the total climb for that is only something like 2400feet in 14 miles, but because its manicured and designed to ride, you can easily put a decent average speed on as its always continuous, the peak/lake/welsh hills etc you cant really continuously carry speed and momentum up the climbs the same
the rides we do of an evening are sometimes only 13-15 miles long, which doesnt sound much, but have 3000-3400 of climb in, and the climbs involved arent just ones you can sit and spin comfortably at a nice pace, they are techy and slow and pretty punishing and then you have to do the techy type descents that follow on from the climbs, so again not just as straight forward as pointing down a hill, nor doing singletrack at speed, the descents often require a bit more concentration than the climbs…
so my thread was a bit shit in the way i worded it, i should really have been asking for a direct comparison for peak riders really…..
it still does give me some perspective though, njee and a few others race, and getting 11mph average over 50 miles is bloody impressive no matter where it is as thats a race pace, and over that mileage at race pace is something else!