The Magnificent Seven
Sheffield is special. Well, it is to me at least. I grew up near there, it’s the big city where I went to see Star Wars as a kid, and birth place of some of my favourite bands.
But the geography is also quite special and made it the perfect cradle for Britain’s steel industry – the meeting point of seven rivers provided waterpower and easy transport for coal, iron, raw materials and wood/charcoal from nearby forests.
Those seven rivers carve the “Steel City” of Sheffield up into a series of hills. PROPER hills.
George Orwell described Sheffield in Road to Wigan Pier (1936):
The town is very hilly (said to be built on seven hills, like Rome) and everywhere streets of mean little houses blackened by smoke run up at sharp angles, paved with cobbles which are purposely set unevenly to give horses etc, a grip.
In 2019 and 2020 I returned to my home turf with a few friends from Team De Ver to take part in a very strange and wonderful cycle event, The Magnificent Seven organised by Sheffrec CC.
The format is fairly simple and quite unique. Starting at the pretty village of Bradfield in the Peak District, the route is fairly short at just 28 miles but takes in an impressive 3,800ft of climbing with inclines ranging from 9 to 23 percent.
Riders set off in two mass groups, the young/whippets leave first and the less-young riders follow in their own group shortly after. The groups ride together at an easy social pace along quiet rolling roads, while most of Sheffield is still under the duvet. A race control car leads the way and sets the pace, there’s no heroics (yet) and it’s all very relaxed.
The riders are generally from the local area of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire and everyone I met was really friendly and chatty, with smiles all round. I met a nurse from Manchester who thought she’d travelled further than everyone else until she learned us lot had come all the way from that London – “De Ver? What’s that then, eh? Are thee all divas or summat?” – I guess some of us are occasionally, and we love them for it, haha.
The climbing is split across seven closed-road hill climbs. As the first rider crosses the start line at the bottom a whistle is blown and everyone fights their way to the finish line at the top. 100s of locals, friends and family line each hill to cheer everyone on, it’s an amazing atomsphere! Once you’ve passed the chequered flag you have chance to catch your breath (or throw up into a bush if that’s your style) and wait for everyone to regroup. Then a few minutes later move off again at a recovery pace to the next climb.
Photo credit: Anthony Wood
Points are given for your finishing position at the top of each hill and totalled up at the end of the race. Back at the event HQ in Bradfield trophies are awarded to overall King and Queen of the Mountains and prize money to the top five places in each group.
Sheffield is pretty easy to get to from London, by road on the M1/A1 or by train from St Pancras. There’s good cheap accommodation in the area too, the event is usually held in spring and doesn’t clash with school holidays. It’s worth trying to find somewhere near Bradfield so you can benefit from the picturesque setting and have an easy short ride to the start/finish.
Each year we made it a weekend trip, arriving on Friday afternoon so we could get our bearings and find a nice pub for supper, then on Saturday put our tourist hats on for a ride into the Peak District. We didn’t take the “rest before the race” approach very seriously but it was worth fitting that in for the great roads and amazing views. For local routes I’d recommend Mortimer Road through Strines, Castleton and Winnats Pass, and Mam Tor with a pub stop in Edale. Go explore!
The organiser Marc Etches and Sheffrec CC have done an amazing job putting this event together over the years. It must have been a real labour of love and taken months of planning to arrange the road closures etc, but they delivered a really slick, unique and enjoyable event. Chapeau!
The 2020 event took place in mid-March and was probably the last public cycling event before the UK went into COVID-19 lockdown. The 2021 event was cancelled due to extended lockdowns and plans for the event in following years unfortunately fell through.
I’m REALLY hoping that Mag 7 will return in 2024.
