Esteli ride recce

I've done the Esteli ride before but thought I'd ride the route this morning before doing it again on 1st July. It really is a lovely ride but hilly. No flat bits, just hills, lumps and bumps all the way. I seem to recall its well over 5500 feet of climbing but might be wrong. Anyway I was quite knackered and my cap was soaked with sweat when I got back home at lunchtime. The climb back from Bamford in particular is a bugger. In parts its a fairly gentle hill that you can spin up easily, in parts it is bastard steep and there are false summits where you lose altitude before you need to regain it all before Burbage. Its also near the end of an already hilly ride. The climb up to Abney Gliding Club from Hathersage seems to go on as well. I'd forgotten about that.

Plenty of cyclists around today. What might have been a race (it looked bigger than a club ride and they were going like shit off a shovel) near Peak Forest and a Calder Clarion club run near Yorkshire Bridge.

The only annoyance was the creaking and groaning from my bottom bracket (at least I think thats where its coming from). Its definitely getting worse. Hold on. It might be my knees!