Peak District route advice

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29693147

It's around 75k with about 1650m climbing.

A route of mine for your consideration.  Beginning and ending near Flash, the highest village in the UK, where there's a layby cafe/shop and pub.   It's pretty lumpy with some good climbs and good descents and fantastic views.  On the climbs it takes in The Roaches, Gun Hill, Wincle, Coalpit Lane, Rainow, The Brickworks, Long Hill, and The Goyt Valley.  Some of them are narrow and twisty and some are wide, expansive views.  You could easily add in the full Cat and Fiddle if you wanted to.

Enjoy your trip!

The Peaks is a fairly big area - where are you planning on staying? Buxton is a good bet, on the edge of the white/dark peak border. Both hilly, but the white peak is a lot quieter, esp at weekends, and imho the riding is better and villages a lot less over-run with lost day-trippers. The hills are just as high but less steep (not all of them mind - get half way up Crowdecote and you'll not think so). You can easily tick off Long Hill, Peaslows, Rushup, Winnats, Mam Tor, Monsal Head and (a bit further) Snake Pass but there's loads of lesser known ones which you'll probably stumble into. If you're into a bit of cx/gravel there's plenty there too.

If you are there on a weekend you're more than welcome to join in a Buxton CC Sunday morning ride. Normally a fast and a less-fast no-drop group leave 9am - check out the facebook page.

If you're after a solo ride or not here at a weekend have a look on Strava heat maps - it'll give you an idea of what roads are used most, and more importantly ones which aren't. There are a few which we all avoid - some A-roads (or specific sections of, eg A6 from Buxton to Chapel) look quite tempting on a map but can be a little Gran Turismo at times. 

If you want to take in three classic climbs, you could start from Holmfirth and ride up the north side of Holme Moss (#1). (hold tight, and) Descend into Glossop, then head out over Snakes Pass (#2), down into Bamford and swing a right to Hope. Head down the lovely Edale valley, and take in Mam Nick (#3). Finally, descend (via a really smooth and fast road) into Chapel en le Frith. About 4,500 ft of climbing.

I've dropped it into this route in Ride with GPS https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29680614

It's only about 45 miles in total, so there's scope to keep going, but it will keep you occupied for a few hours. From Chapel, you could head out towards Macclesfield and then back up to do the Cat & Fiddle (the A537), and drop into Buxton at the other end. But my legs would be a mess at this point ...

Check out the Matlock top ten. Or just go mad with a route plotter and keep an eye on the elevation graph. You'll struggle to make a flat ride no matter how hard you try. Some of my favourite quiet riding is in the Derbyshire Dales south of the Hope Valley, starting with Pindale from either Hope or Castleton.

https://velotastic.co.uk/peak-district-challenge/the-velotastic-mini-me/

Here's that Cycling Weekly ride:

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/hill-climb-country-taking...

Well "somewhere central" would be roughly Tideswell / Bakewell, both of which have any number of places to stay and are well set up for outdoors activities.

Classic climbs - presume you mean Winnats, Snake Pass, Cat & Fiddle, Monsal Head...anything else you specifically want?
There's some good and lesser known climbs listed here: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/hunting-for-the-hidden-pe... and also here: https://roadcyclinguk.com/sportive/ten-best-cycling-climbs-peak-district...

It's then a case of sitting there with a map, marking them all out and working out which route between them you want to take. Cycling Weekly did a ride a while ago where they hit all of the climbs in the Peaks that had been used for National Hill Climb Championships in one big loop, might be worth looking that one up?

Trust me, you can make this ride as hard as you want so I'm not even going to try coming up with a route for you.