Lark Ride to Hassop

Twelve Larks on the start line for our ride to Hassop.

We lost Mark (mechanical) and Andrew (biological) at mile 4, where we were joined by David H; We lost Dave W at mile 9 (mechanical) and in Longnor at mile 17 waved goodbye to Dave H (parental). Are you keeping up? After my first ever visit to Hassop Station Café at mile 27, which was as busy as one might expect a café at a busy station (er, just a minute) to be, having enjoyed (well, I enjoyed it, at any rate) what may well have been my first visit to the charming village of Great Longstone at mile 29 to Monsal Head at mile 30 before suffering the long and extremely steep climb out of Cressbrookdale at mile 31 (the steeper of the two choices thanks to the sadist that planned this route) along the misnamed Bottomhill Road and then waving goodbye to David H  at mile 33 in Litton and Paul at mile 47 in Whaley after we had diverted to refill our bottles courtesy of the kind folks at The Bike Factory where I took the sensible opportunity to invest £1.50 of my pocket money in a Clif Bar (peanut butter), without the efficacious effects of which I should probably still be crawling through Kettleshulme even now.

Tough ride with a lot of climbs. Official route was 57 miles with a pleasingly symmetrical 5795 feet of climbing. I did 63 miles with one million feet of climbing at an average of 12.2 mph, getting home at 16.15 to the hero’s welcome to which I have long been accustomed of a Saturday afternoon: “You’ve done too much.”

Chris

Photo credits: David, Christian

Larks and Larklings mingle in South Park with the casual disregard for rank and formality that has become a defining characteristic of these rides. L to R: Greg, Ewan, Bennet, Dave W, Christian, Eddie, Andrew, Pete, Ian, Steve, Elliot, Russell, Mark, Paul, Dave H.

Christian

Ride Leader demonstrates how he offers David Gandy no competition in the marketplace of 21st century male modelling.

Dave, Elliot

Foreground: Christian, Eddie. Background: members of the cast.

We rest our returning legs approaching Litton on our return leg.