So the team Boss said to me 'do you fancy a day out in the Peak District riding the latest bikes from Ribble and wearing some of their new winter kit ?' - just a bit ! was my reply about a millisecond later. So that's how I found myself in a car park at Castleton in the Peak at 8.00 o clock on a cool but bright morning last week meeting the other 'models' and the photo shoot production team from Ribble . The above picture from the shoot courtesy of the design team at Ribble is your's truly riding the Limited Edition Sportive-Racing-Green which is a lovely bike and great value, winning the Cycling Plus Magazine Bike of the Year Award in the 'Best Value' category. See the full bike here
My first ride of the day though was the Ribble Matt Black 872 carbon road race model. The guys at Ribble had done a great job of setting the bike up for me and all I had to do was add my own pedals and a Garmin mount. I felt really comfortable straight away on the 872 it felt as if I was riding my own bike, just as well as five minutes after leaving Castleton I was climbing the famous Winnats pass on cafe legs! See the full bike here
We started the day with some pictures of the soon to be released Ribble Nuovo winter clothing range and combined getting the shots with a nice cafe stop at Tilly's Tea Room in Castleton, a very civilised start. The staff at Tilly's really looked after us and we had a coffee and warm Bakewell tart (and very nice it was too) while Sean the photographer got the shots he needed.
After the cafe and straight on to Winnats Pass, my first ever visit to the Peak and I can see why it is such a popular cycling destination. Winnats is a tough bit of road though, no question about it, the climb cuts through a limestone ravine and the average gradient is about 10% although there is a significant section near the top at 20%. The climb ascends through a sort of natural amphitheatre with steep slopes on either side, from where this picture was taken. The traffic was light when we made our first ascent at about 10.00 am but it built up as the day progressed and later it was really busy although it was half-term week so there were probably more visitors than usual in the Peak.
Andy Roberts who works at Ribble as a technician is a talented BMX rider and turned out to be no slouch on a road bike either. He took the ascent of Winnats in his stride riding the Ribble Gran Fondo Disc Gran-Fondo and then descended like a pro giving the Gran Fondo's brakes a really thorough test in the process. Andy also acted as team mechanic for the day although his services were not really required as the bikes all performed faultlesly so he could just enjoy the day riding the bikes that he normally spends his days working on. See the full bike here
To get the some good riding shots Sean Hardy the photographer had to perch in the back of a car while we climbed as a group. All in a days work for Sean who specialises in cycling photography. His next assignment was to be with the Movistar Team in Pamplona, Spain capturing images of their first team get together and new kit launch. Have a scroll through Sean's website to see some of his incredible cycling images HardyCC The pictures on this post are all just phone shots captured by the team on the day, I can't wait to see what Sean's pictures are like.
The day was a real team effort with four models/riders and a team of four from Ribble taking care of the fairly complicated logistics, organising bikes and kit and picking out the best locations. Rebecca Brejwo, Joe Davenport and the irrepresible Hope Cooper did a brilliant job and the day went without a hitch.
James Vickers Head of Marketing at Ribble astride the Aero 883 the bike that the newly launched Ribble Pro Cycling Team Ribble will be competing on during the 2018 race season. I got the opportunity to ride the 883 for the first time on the day as James and I did some motor pacing behind the car with Sean taking pictures. I can confirm that in addition to looking incredible the 883 is very stiff and very fast. See the full bike here
Athena Mellor pictured on the Ribble 872 Matt Silver See the full bike here. Athena had stepped in to do the photo shoot at very short notice but she was a total professional throughout the day and great fun to work with. Athena has lots of experience of long distance cycle touring and she is also a very talented writer, check out her travel blog athena-mellor/riding-new-zealand-by-bike
As the light started to fade we just had enough time to go off-road and capture some images of Ribble's latest cyclocross model the CX5 James is an accomplished cyclocross rider and really put the bike through its paces. Above James explains to Athena and I the key features on the CX5 along with some of the finer points of cyclocross riding technique while Sean captures some more pictures focussing on the soon to be released Ribble Nuovo winter clothing range.
One of the final phone shots of the day is of James skillfully ascending near Mam Tor on the CX5 See the full bike here It was quite a long day as we didn' finish shooting until 7.15 (in the pub The Rambler Inn at Edale - nice) but what a brilliant day out it was, everyone got stuck in and we all got on really well and as someone commented as we parted to go home there hadn't been a single moan from anyone all day. Having said that we had spent a beautiful day in the Peak District having a laugh with a great bunch of people riding nice bikes and wearing nice kit - what's not to like?
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