Eroica Brittania has been described as the ‘Woodstock of true lovers of cycling’. The festival celebrates all things related to vintage cycles. It takes place in the heart of the Peak District. This year it had a new home, Friden Grange, and to those who had attended previously it was clearly biggest version yet.

Our good friend loves all things cycling, and especially, old bikes. We had, almost by chance joined one of the Eroica rides for a short while when completing the Pennine Cycleway.  And then Andy attended last year.  ‘Would you like to join me next year?’, he had asked. ‘We haven’t an old bike’ we replied. ‘Not a problem’ he said. So, for the 2017 version, here we were.

Friday

We arrived early in the afternoon. It was a lovely sunny day.

After picking up our ride details, our first port of call was to visit the stand of our good friends at Woodsons Cycles and Cera Cycloan.

Then it was time to relax and have a look around.

In the evening, we met up with some of our other friends who were attending – Alan, Kairen and Maz – and went to listen to the artists on the main stage. The headline act was Norman Jay MBE.

Saturday

The following morning we went in search of breakfast and found this double decker bus that had been converted into The Great Little Red Bus Tea Room. This became a firm favourite of our over the weekend.

Afterwards, we went for a wander around the festival site.

Below is Simon Warren, author of a series of books populr with cyclists about hills climbing in the UK.

After lunch we met up with our friends again and went for a practice cycle ride on our old bikes along the High Peak Trail.

Later, we finished our wander around the festival site.

The main headline act in the evening were 80’s band ABC.

Sunday

The temperature over the weekend just kept getting hotter. So, it was already sultry as we left our tent and went over for some breakfast.

TheEroica Brittania main Sunday event are the rides over 25, 55 and 100 miles. We had chosen to register for the 25 mile ride, and in these hot conditions this proved a wise choice.

The ride set off down the High Peak Trail.

There are lots of characters at Eroica Brittania.

Eventually, the 25 mile ride reaches Monyash, where we took lunch.

The route returns to the High Peak Trail, where we enjoyed an ice-cream at Parsley Hay.

Before picking up the Tissington Trail.

There were some fantastic views out over the Dark Peaks.

Finally we returned to the High Peak trail, and back to the Eroica Britannia festival site. This had proved a great route which you can view below:

Finally, it was time to go home. For tomorrow we set off on out Lochs and Glens South tour. However, we would definitely like to return to one of the future editions.