The duo's first 100 miler?

It was our first ride out together since we were about 12/14 years old and it was to be an epic 100 miles through North and South Derbyshire.
Hoping to start out at about 9.00am we were delayed by one thing and another but got going about 10.30am. Our route took us down the A610 to Ambergate then along the A6 to Matlock.
After the first mile or so it was clear that a mountain bike was not a good choice, as Matt, being on a racer, took great pleasure at travelling past me at 30MPH and the fastest I could get out of my stupid 26" wheels was a miserable 22MPH!!
On reaching Matlock Bath, we took a break to assess my bike. My front derailuer was broken and I was stuck on the middle chain ring so we bodged it to make it so I was stuck on my outer chain ring hoping this would make thing a little easier.
We carried on the A6 through matlock and into Darley Dale where we made a right down a smaller B road towards a small place called Winster.
Two mega steep hills and a relativley flat ride later we hit the junction with the A515. At the junction we turned left, heading down towards Alsop-en-le-dale. At this point we were on top of the moores and the view was awesome so we stopped to take a few snaps......

It was a pretty good ride into Alsop and Ashbourne from here, with some fair hills. We stopped outside the co-op in Ashbourne to re-fuel, this is were I began to consider a more road-friendly bike.

We headed out of Ashbourne towards the A52 but the route took us through some of Derby's cracking little villages, Osmaston, Yeavley, Hungry Benltley and Longford. It was on this lovely detour we got lost, around a very small place called Trusley, after cycling around in circles I tried cosulting the google maps on my phone, but with an accuracy of 1Km it wasn't much help. We cycled on looking for a sign post or even a road name!!

We eventually found our way to Sutton on the hill a place refered to on my route, but by now we were pressed for time and the fact my knees felt like they had been stapled to my legs did not help either. So on reaching Willington where we were due to ride towards Repton and further, we made the decision to ride back towards Derby through Swarkstone & Chellaston. Finishing my ride at 70 miles approx. and Matt riding on to Ripley finishing off at about 80 miles, it was'nt a bad days riding, certainly a lot different from the last time we rode together over 10 years ago!