Flagg but dinner at Monyash
Under somewhat dreary conditions, very windy and drizzling, eight of us left Bents Road. The initial part of the ride took us through Holmsfield, Barlow and the Top Road. We left at the top of Rowsley Bar to head down towards Farley and in to Matlock via bank road. By this point we were down to seven, Matt Cooke had bailed around Eastmoor.
The quietest route from Matlock is to climb Salters Lane that takes you up to Brightgate and on to Elton common. As we passed through the barriers that now makes this road a dead end we had our first accident. Whilst adhering to the warnings of the posts, Luke Milnes then ignored the ice and hit the floor. Sorry I nearly forgot, Simon Keeton was suitably off the back up here, and looking for bail-out options. Luckily there were no “Get out of Jail” cards, so Simon continued with us.
Parwich was the next village we passed through and then on to the long climb to the A515. Dave Baillie punctured, fortunately it was a quick repair as it was starting to rain and get cold. By the time we reached Biggin and Longdale we had all warmed up.
A short stint on the A515 took us onto the lane that drops to Flagg, where despite seemingly being so well behaved up until then, Rob Fowler and Darren Otter treated us to the joys of half-wheeling and hammering it. The “club” run was in tatters, after regrouping at a junction where they were unsure of the way they were bombarded with the necessary abuse. Will they ever learn?
Being somewhat unsurprised that Flagg was closed, we rode on to Monyash where the process of charging is rather illogical. “Have more, pay less”, is the policy.
The ride home was a straight forward affair; Kirkdale, Ashford, Great Longstone and on to Calver, where a rather dubious vote was conducted. We “elected” for Froggat. Halfway up it was Darren’s turn to mend a puncture. Thankfully for him, and us, we stopped outside the Grouse pub. By the time we got home we had covered 70 miles.

See you next month,
Justin