OVER THE BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND WE DECIDED TO END OUR SUMMER ON A HIGH. A SUGARY CAKE INDUCED HIGH. CLAIRE FROM OUR LONDON OFFICE AND 'CURLEY' FROM THE WOMEN'S TEAM JOINED FORCES FOR THREE DAYS OF RIDING. YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN OUR TWEETS?
Would it be fair to say cyclists like a cafe stop or two? If so, then these riders took that notion and ran with it, deciding it was time to test out the tearooms of the Midlands, finding and sampling the cakes from Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Leicestershire and Yorkshire.
Why that part of the country? Well, there are some great views, fantastic roads and it's always nice to discover a new road and new cafe. Their route took them over the Cat and Fiddle, to a Marina south of Derby, and on the final day they met up with Dan Craven and Ben Greenwood to find out if pros have a taste for cake - which, they concluded, they do...
Over the three days the riders/turned cake critics sampled some very fine baking. If you are riding in the Peak District try and visit the Peak View Tearooms. Inside, a long table of home-baked cakes run through the centre of a small room. The Hummingbird cake stashed a banana and pecan sponge with a layer of buttercream tucked inside, and crystallised pineapple in the base of the lower sandwich layer. It is well worth climbing the Cat and Fiddle for.
To the south of Derby town centre tucked just off the main road was Breedon Priory Garden Centre. A small tearoom run by Beth houses a very mighty slab of caramel slice for just £1.75. The apricot flapjack is a fair old door stop of a cake, too, with thick and delicious apricot jam sandwiched between two pieces of flapjack.
Total mileage was roughly 300km with some wind and some rain. A plan has been hatched for a Tour de Cake - London and the South Edition.
Images from the Tour are now our Flickr.
The Caramel Slice from Breedon
Hummingbird cake from the Cat and Fiddle