Round 3 of the Dark and White summer trailquest league involved a drive right across the peak district to the outskirts of Chesterfield. I have only ridden here once before a long time ago and couldn’t remember much about it.
I was a bit hasseled at the start after the long drive over from Altrincham and probably should have spent a little more time working out a route before balsting off. Deciding on a downhill finish I headed north but faffed about with a daft choice of route between the various controls in the centre of the map, wasting time and energy when looking later on the sofa at home I spotted a much better route. I rode strongly considering my legs have done a lot in the past couple of weeks and I was particularly pleased about the way I was climbing the hills.
In the mad dash for home I never found #4. I went past the control site twice but couldn’t find it, not seeing any tape, being tight for time I just had to leave it and carry on which is a shame because it would have brought me up to =2 from 4th. The area is great for trailquesting with lots of steep hills and little bridleways, though as normal a little local knowledge does help.
Full results available at www.darkandwhite.co.uk or straight link here
Stats – 40.31km, 500m climb, 2hours 2 mins