Kell, Bell, and Bikes

Monday mornings have become my sit in bed and plan mornings. I checked the weather for the week and was literally blinking in disbelief at the forecast; sun, serious? Daniela and I had scheduled a ride in for Thursday and the weather gods were on our side. After my last Komoot experience I was down to plan my next epic tour. We’d decided our meeting point was the Ladybower Inn, so I planned a round trip from there. With a sunny day ahead of us and a need for some delish views I added in plenty of decent view points along a tour around Ladybower reservoir. I planned the ride there and then, ready for Thursday, easy peasy lemon squeezey.

Wednesday night I packed up my riding kit-(T-SHIRT WEATHER) and swimming kit (yeah that’s right). 5.00am arrived pretty abruptly, but this morning I welcomed my alarm with excitement of what my day had in store for me. I headed out the house after a good bowl of porridge and a soya latte (cus I’m vegan) and drove to Chatsworth for my first activity, wild swimming. I met 4 other keen women, all set and stoked for a swim in the sunshine.  The water was grand, if not a tad bit cold. I’m still too nervous to take the plunge and swim across the river but I’ll get brave soon! Standing and swimming around in circles is enough to get the blood pumping. Refreshed  and revitalised I set off to Cafe Adventure for my second breakfast- beans on toast (and another coffee). I then wandered over to the good people at Cotic and picked up a sweet Rocket for Daniela because some numpty stole her bike. It was 9.30am and it was already boiling outside, mega. Next stop Ladybower Inn, to meet Daniela. We unloaded the bikes, grabbed what we needed, fired up Komoot and we were off. The tour took us over the reservoir and it looked so good, I could have gone for another swim. We climbed up through some quiet lanes where there were little lambs chillin’ in the sun, so cute.  The climbs were dry and grippy which made everything much easier and view-taking-in a doddle. We headed to Hope Cross and then to the top of the Beast. Just like my last Komoot ride, I found ‘Highlight’s’ a great feature on the app, The Beast is a classic Peaks descent, and needs be shouted about, so I stopped to take a quick snap of Daniela at the top. Highlights are great because they can be shared with others using the app, so making them informative and as helpful as possible is the way to go. Also, a great way to share an experience, I’ll get into that a bit later.

My Rocket flew me down the beast, and then splashing through some very welcomed streams to cool the legs off before shooting up into a little climb. We were then navigated by Komoot up to Hagg Farm Descent, but up… At this point it was 24 DEGREES which is VERY warm for me. I need some summer training, riding and climbing in heat is most definitely not the one right now haha! I’m not going to lie, I did push up this climb (don’t tell Aiken), which gave me and Daniela chance to have a good old chat and put the world to rights!We stopped for some lunch before heading over to Lockerbrook descent which takes you through some sweet singletrack in the woods that gradually widens out into a great loose, rocky and fast trail down to the reservoir, stopped for a quick snap to add a highlight (because that trail is sweet) and we were off down along the road. As we passed through the Ladybower visitor centre carpark Daniela suggested an ice lolly stop, what a shout! (Added a highlight here to, because its a lolly).Cooled down, and ready for the next leg of our tour we were pointed in the direction of one of my favourite Peak climbs, and I haven’t yet completed it without getting off and pushing.  I’m not sure what its official name is or whether it has one, but I went for ‘paved climb’ on my highlight… because it’s a climb that’s paved. It starts off pretty easy but gradually gets steeper and requires some out of your seat efforts, one day I won’t give up and make it. At the top there is a little building which has small illustrated tiles hidden amongst the bricks and a good bench for a nice sit. After admiring the location we then headed up the final climb of the day. O

En route, we stopped at a river and Daniela had the great idea to pour some water down our necks. Now, this again is a highlight because it’s an experience I’d like to share with the Komoot community. I think it’s great to stop and take in moments like this on a ride, especially when it’s a mega warm day, what better way than to stop and cool off in a lovely stream, and if you’re not in a rush, make the most of your surroundings. Back to a lovely steady climb up to Whinstone Lee Tor viewpoint, another great trail that looks down over the beautiful hillside. Once you’re at the top, it’s grab your bike and get a photo time because the views are pretty epic! If you haven’t got a photo at this viewpoint I mean did you even ride here?!Photos, highlights and snacks time done we were ready for the last descent down to the pub to grab a bowl of chips and a nice cold drink! What a day, what a ride, cheers Komoot.