End the sportive season on a high, with Dark & White Cycling Events' short but tough Matlock Top 10 sportive. The Matlock Top 10 takes place on Saturday 24th October at Darley Dale, Matlock.
The Matlock Top 10, like the BOB, is a new breed of sportive: short and tough, it's designed to push you physically but demand less in the way of endurance and time. Be home for the family lunch!
Matlock and the surrounding area is steeped with road biking hill climb history. Bank Road, Riber Road and Rowsley Bar are just three 'infamous' local ascents. The Matlock Top 10 celebrates the richness of the area's brutal, 20% plus gradient hill climbs by creating a route that ascends 10 of them in just 60km/37 miles. That's 1750m of ascent, or 5742ft in old money.
For those looking for a slightly less extreme challenge, come and take part in the Matlock Top 4 - 33km/20miles based on the same route as the Top 10 but just climbing 4 out of the 10 climbs.
Starting from the Whitworth Centre in Darley Dale, both routes head west up through Two Dales. The first climb of the day is Sydnope Hill, and at 2.5km with an average gradient of 7.3% it will definitely shock those cold legs into action.
Dropping straight back down to the Derwent Valley the route passes through the centre of Matlock before swinging left up the renowned Bank Road (av. 10.3%). From there it is down and up to Starkholmes and the base of the most famous of all the hill climbs, Riber Road. With a maximum of well over 25%, Riber will punish anyone who doesn't have appropriate gearing.
The short route will split off shortly after Riber to rejoin the long route at Cromford. The long route heads south over Holt Woods and down the fast and narrow descent through the picturesque village of Holloway before finally bringing the riders out at Whatstandwell.
Now heading west, the riders will ascend the long, relentless climb of Alderwasley before dropping down to the historic market town of Wirksworth where a short but nasty climb awaits. After descending Cromford Hill the routes rejoin for the long grind up through Bonsall. Bonsall is the final ascent for the short route which now returns to the finish.
The long route, however still has another three climbs to go! The first of these is the 1.9km ascent of Stanton Lees, a real challenge with gradients once again over 20%. The second to last climb of Stanton in Peak shouldn't cause too many issues, but take care on the steep descent to Rowsley that follows.
The final challenge is Rowsley Bar, steep at an average 10.2%, and it goes on for 2km so not that short either. A narrow descent brings riders back to the finish in Darley Dale where a well-earned cup of tea or coffee, cakes and snacks awaits.
The whole route will be fully signed with a marshalled checkpoint and feed station approximately halfway around. In addition to the regular signage there will be bespoke en-route climb boards at the roadside like you find in the Alps and Pyrenees, depicting average gradient, metres of ascent and length of all the 10 major climbs.
Get the Road book
Click here to download the comprehensive Matlock Top 10 event guide for all the relevant event information, as well as to gain technical insights and organisers' comments about all the climbs.
On the day expect:
• A clearly signed/arrowed route
• Beat the Bonk feed stations providing a selection of the best sports nutrition along with usual juice, biscuits and bananas
• En-route climb information boards
• Colour route map including emergency numbers
• SPORTident chip timing for an instant post-event time
• Refreshments at the finish
• Event Photographer Chris Meads
• Finishing certificates: Gold, silver and bronze awards based on your finishing time. Separate women award times.
Click here for more information including route maps and climb profiles.
Click here for Online Entry.
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