Heartbreak Hill at Kirri is the first one that sprang to my mind – not technical but steep. Having said that I have a 2 from 2 record on it, whereas I frequently fail to clean the first climb at Grizedale – there’s a tight corner followed by a rocky section about half way up that always catches me out

Did this recently across Houndkirk (Sheffield) – a route I know pretty well but quite rocky in places. Great fun, but I did find that it was very hard to tell the difference between a puddle and a rock!

Worth mentioning that Go outdoors has funded the second phase of the Lady Cannings development – as a Sheffield based company they were keen to put something back into the local area

(I assume that this is unaffected by the take over, as that section has been delayed, but is now promised by Spring)

Survey done, but just want to say what an excellent piece that was by KotP

Thoroughly depressing, that was a great descent (though a pig of climb). I also think it will lead to conflicts between MTBs and walkers – MTBs will go faster, and have to brake on gravel. And that plaque is bizarre and a bit sickening.

As a NT member I am very interested to hear what they have to say about it. Thing is that it is quite a wide track in most places – could they not leave one side of it “interesting” ?

Not a website, but Garmin Base Camp is the best tool I’ve used for comparing, editing, stitching etc

do you know of any good bits we could weave in to keep it on the technical side?

Agree that Esme’s link is perfect for the OP – worth noting that there is a cafe at Longshaw so you may want to put that in the middle of the route (or at the end if you want cake before and after the ride!)

As to more technical bits, you could incorporate one or more of the Blacka descents into that loop. You could even do Fox House – HoundKirk – Lady Cannings – Jumble Lane – Blacka (hope that makes any sense !).

Often thought it would be great if you could get onto the moors from the A57 without having to go down to LadyBower or Rivelin, but it’s not likely to happen without major land reform !

Rode some of this a few weeks back (and lost my keys, so please keep an eye out for them !)

As said above Charity lane and Cumberland brook are great fun, and Macc Forest and Teggs nose not bad either. Yep 120 FS is the most you’d need (that’s what I used), but I’d be happy to do it on a HT, especially given the roads.

Not sure how they’ll be after a bit of rain, but I found bottom oven and the start of Cumberland a bit awkward – loose tennis ball sized rocks. Not sure if tyre choice, skill or confidence is the remedy to the problem.

Mam Tor from Barber Booth is a lovely climb – much nicer than Winnats and less steep – but it’s still long and gruelling. And I certainly wouldn’t advise descending Winnats unless you are absolutely sure of his bike handling skills. It’s very steep, narrow and can be busy – there is a real risk of being unable to control speed.

Depending on where you are coming from I’d say there are much quieter parts of the peak that are just as nice. For example you could do something that involves Monsal Head and Longstone edge (great climbs) but come back along the Monsal trail through Cheedale

Another vote for Cavedale, with the caveat that I’ve not done the stuff at Hollinsclough and can’t remember what Doctor’s Gate is like (I know it was tough, but I was a novice on a fully rigid). As to Parkin – shudders at the thought ! But then again, something that steep has no appeal for me – I prefer a flowing descent than one where I’m constantly at (or way beyond) my limit.

Of all the one’s mentioned, Jacobs Ladder is easily my favourite

Cheers for posting – got a long road route through unknown territory planned for tomorrow, so this will come in handy !

#WeStoodWithMaria #WereAfraidOfTheFancyBears #PleaseDontHackUs

Macc forest. Rode 10 miles, realised I’d lost my keys, retraced my tracks, still didn’t find them…..

Think I must win the muppet of the weekend prize!

This is what I use for listening to podcastslink

works well, and you can stop and start them without access to the phone. Only in one ear too, which may or may not appease the critics. Tend to turn it off when doing anything technical as I don’t want the distraction and it gets harder to hear with a bit of wind noice, but great for uphill sections when on your own.

Remember folks the K101 is not the K100 from a few years previous, its a new beast.

Yep, I’m aware of that, and I’m interested to see how the route compares. I suspect that I’m not the only one who, having completed the K100, said never again. But if they have managed to fit in all the singletrack into a shorter route, and eliminate the long fireroad sections, then I might be interested.

But not this year, cos I’ve seen the forecast !

Did the 100 miler in 2012 and a 29er HT was the right choice.

Good luck to all entrants and remember to take a few spare brake pads – that place just eats them in the rain. Oh, and know how to change them, so you don’t mess around in the rain, cursing your stupidity, like I did for 35 minutes in 2011. And then missed the final cutoff by 20 mins so it was all in vain and you had to go through the whole ordeal again the following year.

Got an 11-32 put on my road bike when I bought it and have never thought of changing it – there’s rarely a ride I do when I don’t use the full range. Though I have to admit that I slightly obsessed by finding and riding up steep hills. Oh, and live in Sheffield, where there’s no lack of them.

There are a couple of top 100 climbs in Matlock – Riber and Bank Road. The latter was featured on the women’s tour this year, but the former is steeper (and really tricky when damp). the A6 through Matlock Bath is quite spectacular, but will be busy on a BH.

There’s loads of nice roads to the North and North West of where you are staying, just go and explore. Last year I found myself unexpectedly gate-crashing a street party in Elton and being greeted with the words “We have too much cake, please eat as much as you can”.

Then again last Sunday I rode to Carsington from Sheffield and had to dodge a cow that jumped over a wall straight onto the road.

These guys seem to have an excellent range of spares

Link

Not the easiest website to navigate and I can’t comment on the service as I only ordered from them on Monday

Brilliant, thanks for sharing

Careful Boardman. There’ll be letters

A minor twitter spat did ensue, a female journo got upset, ignored those who suggested she’d misinterpreted the remarks, including Mrs Boardman, who pointed out that “What’s for tea” doesn’t mean “What are you making for tea” and her husband is very much a feminist himself !

It also turns out that Kenny does most of the cooking, wheras Trott has been known to set the kitchen on fire trying to cook a baked potato. Can’t be brilliant at everything I suppose!

Oh I also hear Vogel thinks the British performances are suspicious. I find her performance suspicious then.

She was saying that before the event, not afterwards. Did you see her on the start line against both British girls – staring hard from behind mirrored shades ?

Clearly she was doing all she could to unsettle them and undermine them – can you blame her ? And maybe it made the difference. Not that she was lacking in skill, ability and experience, but she had also had that killer instinct

The only problem I’ve had with my joystick is that they keep on bringing out brighter versions , tempting me to upgrade!

Weight is a really key factor with a helmet light, I did try a Hope 1 and it was really offputting, but barely notice the joystick. Also makes for a great emergency light for the road bike – put it in the back pocket on the off-chance you might end up later than planned.

Oh dear, I was just about to enter a sportive , run in aid of the community shop in a mate’s village. Obviously I won’t now.

That’s the only sportive I’ve ever done and the organiser takes littering very seriously
Tweet

Whilst Armitstead got all the negative publicity for going to CAS, Zabelinskaya seemed to have gone under the radar. Hardly raced at all since her comeback, so not much in-competition testing. And as to out of comp testing by her home federation during the last few years…….

Looks like the Russian doper is going to win – sounds like Boardman is ignoring her

What are the odds on Thomas not crashing today ?

have you done any of those BWs between West Burton and Coverdale?

Rode from Carlton to WB via Howden House about 4 years ago. Seem to remember a long draggy but rideable ascent followed by a steep rocky farm track type descent. Wasn’t particularly impressed, but then I don’t like losing hard gained altitude too rapidly

Can I just check that “Dukes Road” is the BW that goes up from near Wigtwizzle

I seem to remember that there was some mention of upgrading the paths that lead on from this, and the Strines/ Back Tor BW, and go down to Derwent Reservoir, to BWs. It does seem daft to have dead ends.

I’ve only done Back Tor once in 25 years – and that was with a full rucsac to climbing on Dovestone Edge. Mind you, I still have yet to do Cutgate without an epic !

British Cycling in “Supporting Female Cyclist” shocker !

I think I’d have pro-actively challenged that first whereabouts failure before it became a big problem!

She says she did contest it immediately, but UKAD rejected her case and stood by it’s officer. It’s only after the crucial third case that she got a lawyer in and went to CAS. With hindsight she should have gone to CAS earlier, but it isn’t cheap.

BC might have been feeling a bit guilty that the guy they assigned to help her had left and no one had told her.

My understanding is that tests 2 and 3 hinged on inconsistent data being input and he was supposed to spot this.

But what sort of shit system allows input of inconsistent data, let alone penalises you for the mistake ?

However, they’ve already destroyed the other side which was good fun going north from Wigley:
https://goo.gl/photos/zbyqC8nXzjQgrZqV7

Is it like that all the way to the stream ? It’s been a couple of years since I’ve ridden it, but it was a nice bit of singletrack.

Then again I did have an altercation with an angry walker there. He jumped off the path even though we stopped a good 10 yards before we reached him, then claimed we had no right to be there.

This is the problem with the off-beat areas of Derbyshire – lots of BWs that are unrideable due to vegetation or water damage, but stripped of any value if DCCC get their hands on them.

Hmmm, I think if she had been called Petrova Dodgymissedtestovitch we might be seeing a wee bit more criticism…

Have any Russians ever been banned under the whereabouts rule ?

Actually it would give a pretty good indication of a countries anti-doping agency if we knew how many missed tests they recorded.

Lots of people (including UKAD) wanting to know why she didn’t challenge the first one at the time. Fair question, but is there a process of appeal to UKAD and would they have been likely to rescind it (without an appeal to CAS)? So you can understand why she didn’t bother with the hassle of a challenge at that stage.

The second came soon after, so it is a bit more odd that she didn’t challenge the first then – rather than having the sword of damocles hanging over her for 10 months.

If she is to be believed, the third test is one of those situations where we accept that mistakes are made. Of course, if he story turns out to be false (and you can be sure someone will be digging) then it’s going to be a hard one to bluff.

be so complacent as to miss 3 in a row

It’s not 3 in a row, it’s in a year and we don’t know how many times she has been tested in that time. Quite a lot of in-comp tests due to her wins, but it would be interesting to know how many out of comp tests she has done.

What is clear is that her reputation has taken quite a hit – she needs to explain herself more fully.

I was hoping for something with a screen at least as big as the 800 but with all the newer features. I think the 1000 is just to big!

I’m starting to think that the screen on the 810 is too small – i find it really difficult to navigate on the fly. Not planning to upgrade anytime soon, but if I was I go for a bigger screen

Sticks Pass is the dullest descent off Helvellyn

Nice pics, but on the basis of those I’d choose Sticks – not a fan of riding down steps. And I’d always favour length of descent over steepness, but then I’m something of a wimp

A lady friend of mine claims that the reason she’s got 6 pages of QOMs is that she’s female, not cos she’s quick.

Just discovered I have a running KOM, which is odd because I’m quite slow, and the route in question is one which I did as social night run, with people even slower, and a dog who occasionally sprints but mostly dawdles.

Turns out I actually 5th out of 7 – the 4 ahead of me are all women !

Did an accidental century last saturday – 6 hours of riding and 3 hours in two pubs watching footie matches. But it was very easy riding on flat roads – most of the climbing was done in the first 5 miles on my way out of Sheffield. Once you get a bit further east you can be riding on quiet roads, chatting to your mate, and you simply don’t notice the miles clocking up. Easiest 100 miles I’ve ever ridden!

(N.B. Long pub stops are not recommended – much easier to get going again after a short stop)

Slightly off at a tangent, but has anyone tried to inflate an air mattress with a track pump ? Totally different valves I believe.