In my eyes this was the perfect local ultra-endurance mountain bike loop, and simply thinking about it got me stoked. The route I had in mind was much more raw, with hike-a-biking, off pistes, secret loamy tracks, and all of the fun, fast and gnarly classics including Cave Dale, Jacobs Ladder, Potato Alley, Lockerbrook, Cut Gate, Les Arcs and Stanage Steps - with very few of the 100 miles being on road. I looked at The Peak 200, an established 136 mile loop of the Peak District that clocks 16,345ft (5000m) of climbing, but the route doesn’t include many of the most iconic descents in the area (or my personal favourites) and involves more road riding than I'd want to do on a mountain bike. The prospect of riding the entire Jacobs Ladder circuit and the Cut Gate loop (difficult routes in themselves), as well as everything in between in one go, was ludicrous it was the perfect challenge. It wasn't long before I conceived a new idea I was sure would take me to the edge - to ride every classic MTB descent in the Peak District in one outing. While I was proud of raising over £1000 for mountain rescue, thanks to the generosity of the 45 people who supported it, I wasn't fulfilled. A few weeks ago I competed my fundraising 15k ft elevation challenge. Despite the ride totalling 85 miles with over 16k ft (5000m) of elevation, it didn’t take me to my limit like I thought it would.
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