Over coffee on Monday I’d arranged to go for a bike ride with one of my local friends, starting from the wonderfully named Parsley Hay. We decided to compromise on the original plan in case it was too far and go with a circular route that had lots of escape options back to the cars.
The route we took was down the Tissington Trail past the old Hartington station. We then cut across and back up minor roads to the head of the High Peak trail which we followed back down to the cafe at Parsley Hay. We just timed it right for drinks (coffee for me) and lunch (a sausage cob which was literally two large delicious sausages, whole, in a roll).
The route was reasonably easy riding for the most part with one long uphill drag and a couple of very steep bits. One of the latter defeated my best efforts, even with 250w (just over half a Chris Froome or a Bradley Wiggins) of boost courtesy of Bosch. It was good to get a mix of trail riding and quiet roads, with most of the climbing on tarmac which is easier. Inevitably the headwind when we were going down the trail didn’t seem to become a tailwind when we had to make the height back!
Our total mileage, according to the bike computer, was 16.59 miles in 1:38 actual riding time (16.14 miles, 1:37 according to the phone SatNav, with 1640ft of climbing). That’s about as far as I’ve ridden for a long time! I’m grateful to Doug, my riding partner for the day, as it’s probably not a route I would have picked myself. It was just about the right distance for a morning ride for me, although I could have done a bit more after lunch I was happy. The bike battery was still over 50% charged at the end indicating an effective range in those conditions of around 35 miles. I was running in level 2 (Tour mode) mode most of the time with a couple of forays up to Level 4 (Turbo) on steeper bits.
Plans for tomorrow have changed slightly, and are still fluid. The original plan had been to cycle into Ashbourne from the caravan site but there’s no easy way to avoid a long stretch of busy road so I’ve rejected that. That leaves two alternatives, I can either drive into Ashbourne and park there or I could park at Tissington and ride the bottom end of the trail into town. That’s only about 4 miles each way, If I’m feeling particularly fit (unlikely) I could start higher up the trail but that’ll probably do me.
Hartington box with the trail running in front:
Time for a breather after a steep road section! Lovely spot though.
Thanks for the company.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the company.
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