Monster Munch 200Km - 16 March 2019

 I'd spent a while humming and hawing about which ride to enter this weekend, the Scottish Borders Randonee from Selkirk or the Monster Munch from Duffus near Elgin.  I've hardly visited the North East of Scotland except for a trip to the Kart track at Boyndie my trips to the North East limited to being south of the A96.  That and the Organizer of the SBR confirming that it was the "snow" route was being run again, last years adjustment to deal with snow on the more remote roads saw the decision made.

In the days before the event the forecast was bad, strong winds in the days leading up to it before calming down to allow a load of precipitation of the white kind to fall, heavily over the borders which resulted in the SBR being cancelled, but there was the possibility it'd nudge far enough north to affect us.



I had Annual Leave left to take and I considered making my way up with a series of stops the preceding three nights however with work to do on the motorhome I ended up staying at home in the run up and drove up on the Friday afternoon, a sunny, dry but windy and chilly day via the Cairnwell and Lecht before stopping to have a look at the old bridge at Craigellachie.  Arriving in Elgin just down the road from Duffus I went on a quick sightseeing drive to Burghead and then along the coast to Lossiemouth before returning to Elgin to peer over the railings at the Cathedral ruins and check in.

Robbie arrived late on having been Bustituted due to a broken down train, every forecast we looked at showed something different, but the consensus was that we were going to get soaked.

The Start

I drove down to the start while Robbie rode down, Mark the organizer had provided pancakes and laid out nearly 50 cards for the 200km and a good few for the 100km ride due to set off an hour after us, as 8am approached there was considerably less than 50 riders waiting to set off, the weather was dry and not too windy. No sooner had we set off than the drizzle started, almost imperceptibly at first but building.

The Start

The first couple of riders on the road were going a bit slow for my liking at the start and I shot off ahead of them, but by the first turn I had a small train behind me as well as the wind, this didn't last though as inevitably as the route carried on I drifted slowly backwards before losing all contract, passing the first info control I decided to memorize rather than stop as there was a check point not too far up the road.

Dava Muir in the snow

On reaching the checkpoint most of the group ahead of me were just setting off and a few others caught up with me as I got ready to set off, I fixed a wiring issue with my lights before cracking on up to the muir.  It was a fairly gentle climb up but as we climbed the drizzle turned to hail and then to snow, the sides of the roads changed from Green and Brown to White and Brown the expanse of the muir hidden by the encompassing whiteness of the snowfall.  I must admit I've never been up here and I wished to see it on a nice day feeling fed up already of the conditions and contemplated riding down to Aviemore to get the train back rather than continue. The rocks with names like Creag na h-Iolair (Rock of the Eagles) jutting out of the whiteness, the road started to descend but patches of snow and not being sure if there had been a chance to freeze since falling tempered the pace as much as steamed up glasses and cold hands did.  In Carrbridge "The Kitchen" was the location of the control and I got out of the now heavy snow for a quick break, other riders sat round a roaring log burner but I knew foul as my mood was that to sit by the fire would be terminal for the ride, I procrastinated briefly and then took a lump of Rocky Road to go and got back out on the bike, eating as I rode up towards Slochd. 
 

The Road to Slochd

 At the junction the Yellow road to Slochd village was white, cycle and car tyre tracks cut into the otherwise pristine whiteness, I chose to try and ride in the tracks cut by a 4 wheeler, skittering around, not considering what the other cycle tracks were telling me.  Under the A9 and past the old hostel that still claims to be a bike shop the gentle climb to 400m continued to another junction, here the cycle track heads up through gates onto the old A9, with only a single line of tyre marks I knew the group had taken the road, but on my own that wasn't an option I was considering, presumably the sole other rider to take the track thought the same.

The Track up Slochd

Slightly surprisingly I soon found that cutting fresh tracks was easier than following existing tracks and other than the odd bump I could see the outline of the track well enough to avoid plunging off the side.  It perhaps also helped that I've been over here twice before and knew that the road surface having not been touched by heavy traffic since the late 1970s is although littered with stones rather decent.  Finally I passed the railway summit where a new surface is in place as the old road is partly swallowed by the current, up a bit more and I was on the track alongside the A9, sections having been caught by the gritter and so quite clear.

I stopped for my second ever snowy picture at Slochd Summit, though this time with a Road bike rather than MTB.
It was cold, I was cold, I was wet, but it was down hill from here, the Findhorn road was clear so some decent pace was achievable, unfortunately I hadn't uploaded the "alternative" route option that avoid the second Muir of the day which had been found to be impassable during a route check on the Friday. I kept dropping, increasingly worried I was getting a bit close to Inverness.  I had in my head the statement "Turn under the A9 at Moy", but Moy village passed and I was miles from being beside the A9 I kept descending, what if I found myself at Culloden where this road enters Inverness? What if, oh wait! Moy Junction on the A9 is at Daviot, of course.  I rolled up to a flat junction on the A9, slightly confused again, peering south up the hill I saw the sign for Fort Augustus that I was expecting... The road was quiet and it looked about a 500m sprint up hill to get into the turn lane, I went for it, 2 cars passed before I got there but all was good.

Once there I saw the perfectly metalled farm track running under the dual carriageway oh well.  The snow had stopped for now, but was soon on again, I rolled on and eventually rejoined the route on my Wahoo, now with the comfort of having the line to follow to the next info control, the surprisingly large number of roads out here forcing us a bit further west before descending to Dores. Again I chose to memorize and then started day dreaming dreaming of the food stuff it related to.  Again I found myself at a pretty spot that would look great if only for it not snowing, I considered taking a photo at Loch Duntelchaig but I decided against it. I then started day dreaming about a roaring log fire at the Dores Inn. But when I arrived the bar had only a halogen lamp to get some heat into my soggy kit. I was told a group of us had just set off not long before I arrived, and while there two other riders appeared.  I didn't get the food I'd been dreaming of but the Chicken and Bacon sandwich was excellent.  I steeled myself and headed back out into the rain.

From here the ride became a bit of a trudge once into Inverness, and I managed to catch the Culloden Visitor centre just before it shut for the day, the bonus here being that it's almost all down hill.  The North Easterly was now blowing sleet into my face and as I wrapped up against it by lifting my NotBuff over my mouth a steamed up my glasses, a bit of a fight ensued to try and clean the glasses enough  but eventually I won jsut in time for speed to build along the last long flat section back to Duffus.

On arrival at the finish I found out there was another 5 riders still out there, with Robbie, Richard and another couple of riders still hanging around in various states of showered and defrosted.  The soup was great, the left over pancakes and spread of sweet treats even better. I had a shower and deforested myself and then moved the car out the now muddy field, thankfully I hadn't taken the M+S marked tyres off for the mild weather we'd been having so plenty of grip was available in the mud, but unfortunately others needed some assistance to extract their vehicles.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/2218300942

Central Scotland 300 - 8th March 2019

With the previous weekends crack at the Twilight 600 postponed due to strong winds we were weather watching all week in the hope that things would calm down and it would be decent for our attempt at the Central Scotland 300; this being a loop of the Midland and Borders Spa towns of Innerleithen, Peebles, Dunblane, Bridge of Allan, Callander, Lochearnhead and Crieff.

Due to accessibility we chose to start at one of the towns on the route, Auchterarder, this being accessible by train from Aberdeen for Robbie and an easy 1 hour drive or 2.5hr cycle from home for me.  A spanner was thrown in the works of our planning when the Sunday trains were all cancelled north of Dundee which meant that riding on the Saturday wasn't a suitable option for Robbie.

The forecast wasn't looking much different from when we did the Snow Roads, a stiff but manageable breeze with the odd strong gust, a bit of rain around but nothing much to worry about.

I drove out to the station early to try to get a snooze in before Robbie arrived, although I don't tend to suffer much from the Dozzies it's always worth getting a snooze or two in for a night start.  The biggest problem with snoozing is I never know if I've managed it or not and in no time my alarm was going off telling me to get my bike out the car and ready for Robbie's arrival.  I had decided to test out the "new" bike for this ride it having already had a short test and fix ride on the Monday vacated by Twilight recovery.

The location of the station at Auchterarder at the foot of the Glen of the Chaples (Gleann na h-Eaglaise) meant we needed to ride up to town thanks to a lack of facilities, and then to ride back past the station. We controlled at 2012 and set off up through Gleneagles village to cross the A9 on the over-bridge rather than the flat shared use crossing we had used to get up to town.  The strong westerly wind hit us briefly as we started to climb the Glen but we were soon in the shelter of the hillside.  The sensory deprivation of the dark only allowing us to see that we were indeed moving and our perceived effort telling us that we were climbing.  Some light drizzle started to fall and the odd loss of shelter showed us the strength of the gusts.  Effort perception changed, the outline of the hills at the edge of the glen stopped dropping and started rising back into the sky as we crossed the watershed and entered Glen Devon, wet brake discs squealed as we cut our speed to match the capacity of the bubbles of light.  Plunging through Glen Devon village the drizzle increased in strength and Robbie stopped to put on a rain jacket under a street light at the Yetts o' Muckhart. I invented a fictional bus shelter in my mind and rolled on looking for it in order to put mine on without the wind interfering with the actions.

A lone bus stop pole passed without shelter and I kept rolling at a gentle pace, checking the sky which was now showing stars rather than clouds in front of us, waiting for Robbie to catch up without stopping.  The drizzle had ceased by the time we rolled down past Powmill Milk Bar and turned onto our second climb of the night, Knockhill rising gently, sheltered by surrounding hills we didn't really feel the wind, and then once out the shelter it was imperceptibly pushing us up. Over the top the long descent down through Dunfermline to Rosyth began, in Dunfermline a drunk local thought she'd tell us she could ride a bike as we whizzed past.  The road system in Dunfermline isn't exactly the nicest for cycling on but we were soon feeling the gusts on the new roads at the foot of the new Forth Bridge.

As we rode up the access track to the West Footway of the old bridge Robbie thought he could see the way ahead barred, however I reminded him about the bus shelter in the middle and as we passed that we could see the barrier sitting in its open position.  As soon as we were out of the shelter of the rock-face the full strength of the wind howling down the Forth Valley was evident, bikes cranked over to the west to counter the constant wind, bars being tweeked to avoid smashing into the barriers on the gusts, it was truly a horrific experience, particularly with the low barriers of the Forth Bridge not aiding confidence, the towers of the new bridge seemed to alter the constant wind as did some of the features of the old bridge such as the concrete parapets when crossing the approach viaducts piers, the workmen's cabins and even the suspension cable to our east altering the way the wind affected us; on reaching the other side we resorted to McDonalds to recover out nerves.

South Queensferry McDonalds

We stopped awhile at McDonalds in South Queensferry, our pace was decent enough at 20kmh and a chance for Robbie to snatch a snooze was part of the strategy, 30 minutes later we left and set off through South Queensferry, Dalmeny and into Edinburgh on the Ferry Road.  The provided route for this Perm goes through Central Edinburgh which I'd decided wouldn't be a great idea around Midnight on a Friday with pubs starting to kick out so we took the marginally longer Cycling Ring Route that skirts round Edinburgh with such Highlights as Sighthill and Wester Hailes countered by Collington and Fairmilehead; somewhere out here Robbie swears he saw a Knife in the road; I missed it, or perhaps I didn't, as while we climbed out of Collington and past a lit bus shelter I realized I had a demoralizing flat rear tyre. My luck with puncturing next to well lit bus shelters continued, however this was nothing like the small bead of glass that had gone through in Carlisle and I found a small sliver of metal pierced through my tyre tread and puncture strips.  On trying to push it out I realized just how big a bit of metal it was and my attempts to get a grip on it with tools failed until Robbie woke from a power nap and pinched it out with his fingers.  More time was lost trying to get the rear wheel back on as one of the caps came off the hub through trying to force the wheel on the tight fit of the new frame, some slight cold setting will be required on a warm day in far off the sunny future.

Getting going again Robbie made me aware that our average speed was right down to minimum, it was clear he wasn't enjoying the ride and to be honest I wasn't either but to show it would have ended the ride there and then. When we turned towards Laswade the strength of the wind hit us again, but now it felt much stronger on land than before.  A small dip in the elevation profile proved to be a steep drop and climb that we could have avoided on another route, but we were soon climbing out of Bonnyrigg on an easier gradient that would hardly let up until the summit of the Granites for the descent into Inners.  Despite this gentle 3% gradient our average speed only sat in the high single digits, time slipping away from us slowly as we rode into the strong gusting wind; I was starting to think of how to bail out, Robbie mentioned he was struggling again, and I could see that he needed another power nap to deal with the Dozzies if we were to continue.

My preference for plugging on in silence when struggling with conditions clashes here as talking is one of the best ways of keeping a dozzy rider alert until they can stop for a snooze and tank up of caffeine.  On the Nae Bother To Us 400 I rode on the back of the group listening as best I could but not taking part in their game of 20 questions. Something I must get involved and start if required to keep a sleepy rider alert enough to ride to a rest location.

The road eased off, but there's a false summit and descent before the final one, this took place in shelter so we got some speed up and started to look forward to the plunge into town; then that final summit happened, and in terms of the overall route it is also the highest point of the ride, so we had loaded the majority of the climb at the start with our Auchterarder start. As we summited the gusting wind sent us wobbling all over the road, rather than gaining speed on the descent as normal we got slower despite the steady gradient of the descent.  Further to the low descent speed and strong winds blasting us on the descent, Robbie was really struggling with the dozzies now and it was as on the Snow Roads affecting his perception of the road.

By the time we'd reached Inners the thoughts had turned to how to get out the wind, despite this we still got proof of reaching Innerleithen at 0324; our time limit was 0401, giving an hour to ride the 10km into the wind to Peebles, it wasn't happening, Robbie was sleepy, cold and fed up, I was cold, fed up and declared it Type 3 fun.

After 112Km of the 307km route we'd both decided to accept our first DNF of our Audaxing careers, a moment you would think would be tinged with disappointment, and perhaps it would have been had a mechanical or injury caused us to pack or go OTL. But we were both just glad to be finding an escape from the wind.

Hotel Innerleithen

A limited sense of smell is sometimes a godsend

I had a quick scout around for bus shelters of which there were none in town, then went to find out if the toilets were open; we found that one of the toilets was operable and that it would open with 30p, we didn't have 30p in coins but we did have a pound coin so chose to overpay for the shelter; the toilet was surprisingly clean but unfortunately unheated. Foil blankets and warm layer adjustments were made, and Robbie was soon asleep and snoring.  I tried to snooze and I may have managed it but as I say I never know. I got uncomfortable repeatedly and moved around, my legs cramped and eventually I couldn't get any of my warmth channelled down the blanket to my feet as I'd ripped it with the movement.
I could hear the wind howling outside on occasion as strong gusts hit, the fairly sheltered location of the toilets adding to the relief that we had stopped; I wondered where we would have been?
On the bridge (was it open?)?
On the exposed road to Penicuik?
I decided I was still just glad to be out of it.

As I sat there awake, I pondered the options for when we got mobile again, how do I get back to the car, do I ride to Edinburgh on the route and take a train from Edinburgh Park? What about Gala.
When Robbie woke he made it clear he preferred the 20km with the wind behind to Gala option, I was still tempted to ride up to Edinburgh Park, but I quickly came round to the Gala option, it was only going to cost an extra tenner for the train, and we'd get there in time for a McDonald's breakfast.

A "Happy Train" failing to whisk me along to Stirling.

After the McD's breakfast we got on the train to Edinburgh, Robbie went direct to Aberdeen but I decided that since Gleneagles was going to cost the same as my local station, I may as well go and get the car now.  Unfortuantely my first Stirling bound train failed in the station, and the second had no heating. A long wait was needed at Stirling but I eventually got to Gleneagles and went to explore the wares of Synergy cycles.

Changing Plans and my first RRTY validated - 02 March 2019

The plan for the start of March was to ride one of the old classic Scottish events that's now available in the form of a Permanent, the Daylight 600 though in this guise it's known as the Twilight 600.

This route starts at South Queensferry and heads north through Fife and Clackmannanshire before climbing Glen Devon to Strathearn and then crossing into the Highlands at the Sma'Glen before heading West for Acharcle where Moidart, Sunart and Ardnamuchan meet. The return route is to cary on North into Morar at Lochairlot before taking the Road from the Isles to Fort William, heading south to Oban and then returning via Callander to South Queensferry, a cracking ride in good weather but ideally timed for the quiet season or at least to hit the busy roads with no alternatives at night.

While the weather forecasters were talking up a wind storm with gust speeds of up to 70kmh, I was looking at the gust speeds forecast for Mull and Ardnamurchan which were forecast to be over 100kmh and with a lot of Rain/Snow also forecast to hit, we decided that it wasn't going to be this time.  The Sunday night hotel was cancelable but I'd booked a saver for the Saturday and Robbie had advanced fare train tickets to Inverkeithing.

With reference to the forecast wind speeds and direction we determined that rejigging plans to do the Central Scotland 300 instead wasn't an option either, but with a strong southerly and Aberdeen being quite easy to design a 200km route to from Edinburgh we set out a plan to ride north to Perth before following the east coast route to Aberdeen.

Crossing the Forth

I met Robbie at Inverkeithing and we rode over to South Queensferry to make use of the friday night room booking; a McDonalds breakfast set us up for the day and record times were set on the way up and over Hill of Beath to Kelty and onto Milnathort and Glenfarg, with our average speed sitting at the highest we've seen for a while by Perth we were fairly happy with our progress and I was starting to wonder how long I'd have to wait for my 2130 train home.

Preparing to climb Kinnoul

The Carse of Gowrie redeemed itself for being so horrible on the way to East Lothian and we were soon rolling along the cycle paths through Dundee, we stopped at the Bridgeview Station roll carriage for lunch before carrying on along the Esplanade and then we took the new open access route through the Docks to the Grassy Beach in Broughty Ferry this is much better than the old enclosed permissive access route and saves on the climb up to the Broughty Ferry road.

Along the waterfront

The Ferry was busy and we lost a bit of pace along here but once out onto Barry Buddon things got much quieter, Easthaven to Arbroath is a compacted earth/lightly gravelled section rather than sealed surface but it was fine on 28mm tyres and we were soon taking in the sights of Arbroath with Pleasureland and Gayfield park greeting us, the town improves as you pop through the edge of the Harbour where creel boats of varying sizes still operate from before riding along Arbroath's waterfront Esplanade with the grant concrete pillars welcoming you to a big desolate stretch of road before a climb up a gap in the cliffs takes you onto a quiet road out to Lunan bay and then into Montrose where I hadn't cleaned up the GPX that was submitted for the mandatory route and we found ourselves riding back up hill in order to carry down stairs, just incase it was beyond the threshold.

Robbie discovers the wonders of Arbroath

Traffic got busy again as we left Montrose on the A92 and the going got lumpy, the wind was picking up and some spots of rain fell and I feared a soaking. However it didn't come to anything as we carried on up the coast, the Stonehaven Cycle Club catching us on the descent into Inverbervie, some members taking a tow off us briefly, claiming to be knackered (fairly sure they hadn't ridden 180km at this point!)

Crossing the railway south of Montrose

We stopped at Greggs in Stonehaven for some food for once with no time pressure, the rain threatening again so we set off quickly for the Netherly climb which looks horiffic from the town but turned out to be not bad, I'm sure it will be horiffic when I ride it without a strong wind giving a helping hand. At the top we stopped to add rain jackets as the threat seemed to be getting stronger, but by the time we'd descended to Maryculter and started cycling along the Dee into Aberdeen the threat had gone. Once over the finish line at Union Street we set off to the university grounds to visit the BeCYCle workshop where Robbie volunteers, there was cake and an odd fusion of Dance music and Bavarian Oompah playing.

It finally rained while we were there, and there was still 3 hours to spend before my train home.
While checking my e-mail I discovered I'd recieved confirmation of my first RRTY being validated. This is a challenge to ride a 200km or longer at BR time schedules each month of the year; often started accidentally I realized during the summer that I had started on in March and carried it through with Calendar events, ECE'ed BPs, DIYs and Perms.


My first RRTY series was as follows

Mar-18	200 - Scottish Borders Randonneur
Apr-18	200 - Moffat Toffee
May-18	DIY - 200 - Aberfoyle and Back
Jun-18	300 - Snow Roads
Jul-18	DIY 200 - Highland Perthshire
Aug-18	200 - No Work for us today
Sep-18	DIY 200 - Back fae Arran
Oct-18	200 - Brant and Slape
Nov-18	200 - Long Dark (Wet) Tea Time
Dec-18	Perm 400 - Kingdom Come
Jan-19	DIY 200 - MULL
Feb-19	Perm 200  - A Ride Around Ben Klibreck

The Snow Roads - 23 February 2019

The Snow Roads is a classic hilly 300km Scottish Randonee; we chose to start from Banchory as it was the most suitably accessible location for us.

We set off just after the abnormally civil time of 8am and were soon riding through the flatter sections of the Aberdeenshire country side, the route via Echt and Kemnay took us past a Maiden Stone wrapped up for winter and then on to the Gairoch and Oyne where due to the absolute lack of facilities we answered an information question, I already had hints that I was still recovering from the East Lothian efforts as I wasn't maintaining a particularly good pace despite the strong tail wind and the gentle grades. 

Curving round Bennachie

The mass of Bennachie one of the "twa landmairks frae the sea" and possibly the site of "Mons Graupius" where Tacitus claims the army of Imperial Roam routed the Caledonians, is the primary navigational landmark here with it sitting prominently to our left.  Robbie pointed out the Brindymuir and Suie hillclimb roads which cross the foothills to Alford.

Rolling into Rhynie we were glad to see the shop open and stopped for a top up, which comprised of a pastry, juice and sweets.  One of the down sides of Audaxing is there's never a swanky delicatessen selling health foods when it would be handy, then again a sausage roll is a good concentrated source of carbs, protein and fat.

The realization that it's going to be a long day

The start of the Cabrach climb is directly after leaving Rhynie, in the summer I had hardly noticed it but today I was realized I was struggling already and this was the easy bit. I ground out the climb, it eases for a bit which gave a chance to recover slightly before the last dig up to the Aberdeenshire/Moray march at the summit.  A windfarm is under construction up here and Robbie was telling me about how the unique Aircrane helicopters had brought in the new style pylons, these are comprised of two fibreglass towers wrapped to look like large wood pole style pylons.

Robbie taking water from the water spout

The drag to the Lecht from Dufftown

The descent is long and fairly smooth except for a narrow section where we stopped at a water spout so Robbie could top up his bottles, I didn't bother as if I kept to drinking "schedule" I'd have two empty bottles for filling when we reached Dufftown where we stopped for a long lunch break in which I looked enviously at Robbie's cooked breakfast while I ate a distinctly average burger and chips.

The Lecht

Lecht Summit

Sunset at the Gairnshiel

The stretch through Glens Rinnes and Livet from Dufftown to Tomintoul feels like it should be down hill, but it's actually a very long and lumpy 100m climb that takes 300m of rise and 250m of fall to do it; not only is this a horrible drag on a good day we had the strong southerly wind head on now and rather than watch our average speed start to climb following the stop, we were watching it drop further.  There is little to credit Glen Rinnes with and Glen Livet has little more than the old shop in Tomnavoulin for interest, unless you like Knockandu?

In that slog I started to wonder if I would turn left at Crathie, what would it be like to pack there? I could go back to the car and wait for Robbie to finish, but then well once you're there you've over the worst, just the ride into Braemar, over the Cairnwell and then round to Kirrie and the Cairn O' Mount.  I decided to ignore this thought process and let it work through.  Eventually Tomintoul was approaching and we took the turn for the Lecht, I had suspected we'd find shelter here and I was proven right, the wind now hidden from us by the steep sides of the glen we rode onto the 20% ramp.


The Lecht beat me at the same point on that ramp last summer but the driver behind was a bit more forgiving this time, Robbie was a pink dot up the hill; He had chosen a 32t cassette for this ride while I had stuck with the 30t option, the only option I currently have.

Amazingly at the summit where the sides of the hills open up the view there was still no wind; Robbie set off down the hill first and I watched him as much as my line down to see where he wobbled due to wind, but he didn't. This was enough to give me comfort to go for it on the long straight sections but the twisty switchbacks and the corkscrew onto the 25% ramp in the trees beat me mentally, why can't I turn Right properly?

There isn't much of rest as you ride between the crossings of the Don before the first BH hits you and the return to relentless climbing saps more of your strength.  I got over here without too much trouble, the odd motorist offering encouragement as we went.  The sun started to glow red as we reached the Gairnshiel.  BH2 isn't as bad as the first sadly the sky turned to a mid-blue just before we summitted so never got to see the sunset properly.  The descent to Crathie is probably the most technical of the day with many tiwsts and turns and a couple of cattle grids you can hit at speed, on approach to one of these I realized Robbie was slowing rapidly before Bunny Hopping a huge hole on the approach; I spotted the raised centreline of the road was clean and shot past rather relieved to get over the grid in one piece.

The thoughts of packing were long gone from my mind now and I easily turned Right for the blast in to Braemar where we raided the Co-Op of their wraps, sweets and juice.  We chose the Golf Course Road route out of Braemar, the gentle climb up here beside the river seems to be nicer than the main road which climbs early before dipping.  Near Fraser's bridge my lights picked up a mountain hare bounding across the road, looking splendid if vulnerable in it's winter coat of white making it stand out against the green of the unseasonably clear grass.

In the darkness I couldn't see the ski centre or the road climbing up ahead of me, the sensory deprivation helping to alleviate a large part of the mental struggles with roads like this where you can see the suffering ahead.  Rather surprisingly I reached the start of the Clearway section seemingly without too much effort although looking back at the data I can see that it's more a case of being unaware of just how slow I was riding!

At the summit I again expected to be assaulted by the wind in some way or other but it was once again perfectly calm on the descent to the Spittal although those right handers play with me.  Rolling through Glen Isla a column of fire rose into the sky from a garden  and cows stared at us from lit barns while frogs hopped across the road in front of us.

Robbie takes a snooze in Edȝell

We rolled into Kirrie too late for the knowhead shops so we had little choice but to descend into the town centre, unfortunately we'd missed the town centre shops by minutes so a tour of the cash machines to find the one with receipt paper.

A sharp climb up the Roods took us up to Northmuir where we skimmed along to Edȝell on roads I'm sure weren't this lumpy back in May.  At a bridge not far out of town I saw Robbie clearly not judging what was ahead and only just missing the Parapet.  He told me he needed a snooze so we agreed to stop at a bench outside the Panmure Hotel before carrying on along to Fettercairn and Clatterin' brig.

On the Cairn O' Mounth climb the first ramp beat me within a few meters, and it was a stop start climb all the way to the summit viewpoint. Sadly mist down over Angus meant we didn't get the normal amazing night views across to Edinburgh.  The climbs on the plateau hit harder than normal and after crossing the Bridge of Dye the sharp climb out beat me too.

I missed the AA box for the dark but the lights of Strachan were glimmering ahead. The last drag into Banchory was a major relief and climbed past the car to reach the ATM we started at just after 3am.

A full value day on an epic ride.

A Tour to, of and home from East Lothian - 16th and 17th February 2019

With the Tour of East Lothian running on Sunday there was nothing else for it but to get a second 200 in for the month on the Saturday. 
It took a bit of clicking on Google Maps and RWGPS to figure out how to get to Musselburgh from Dundee without being either 2km under or 20km over distance, eventually settling on what should have been an easy route...

Captain RF Scott's RRS Discovery

I met Robbie in front of the RRS Discovery and within 2km we'd stopped for a rest at the roll carriage at the end of the esplanade to kill our average speed. 
Not to worry the Carse of Gowrie is great for getting speed up as it's the only extensively flat bit of ground in the area, however being a vast expanse of flat in an otherwise steeply sided river valley it's also a nightmare when there's a 30kmh South Westerly blowing.  

Curious locals on the Carse of Gowrie

The shelter of the Balthayock was welcome for once and we were soon getting the views over Perth the climb rewards you with.  Perth was largely uneventful and we took to Necessity Brae to get out of town, a stiff wee climb but at least it's sheltered from that wind.  Strathearn was exposed and we struggled into Dunning where we got some shelter from the Ochils, plans for a relaxed lunch in Auchterarder were scrapped in favour of bouncing the Co-Op.



We passed another Audaxer going the other way in Gleneagles village (which isn't in Gleann na h-Eaglais at all, and someone needs to point out to the incomers that it means Glen of the Chapels, nothing to do with Iloaire before they put up their eagles).  Back out in to open at the top we were back in the wind, a large slow moving group of riders from a stirling club passed us near Braco and in a change from my usual route we took the Auchinlay road to get round Dunblane rather than go through.

The Water Horses in Falkirk

The ride into Doune wasn't too bad at least, and we stopped at the Spar for a quick snack and water top up before heading down the A84 which was thankfully relatively quiet to the Kippen turn off where the road ramped up, this was meant to be the "hard bit" of the ride but it didn't seem too bad in comparison to the incessant headwind.





After a bit of respite on the descent into Fintry and then it was the "Highlite" of the ride, the Climb over to Lennoxtown on the Crow where we hard our arses handed to us by:
Someone doing hill repeats on a commuter
Two mountain bikers
and a Squirrel.

The top was a major relief as we knew we "should" get a tail wind through to Musselburgh after the Gravity assistance down to Lennoxtown, right enough we got a good shove along through Kilsyth and Bonybridge before deciding that having meddled with a deil of a headwind all day we'd visit the Kelpies in Falkirk.  I had thought we'd be here about 2 hours earlier than we were, but we also managed to be early for the Café opening... by a month and a half.

From there it was a boring flat route through Grangemouth and then Borrowstounness  before climbing up to the back of South Queensferry.
The ride finished with a rapid ride through Edinburgh on the old railway lines with a couple of wrong turns in Drylaw (where we also went wrong on the return ECE) before the blast through Leith and onto the Portobello Prom and the ride into Musselburgh, much later than either planned or expected.

TTEL: https://www.strava.com/activities/2154034950

A warm and sunny start, but there was a nasty wind blowing

The Tour of East Lothian is the season starter for a lot of riders in Central Scotland, a 100km ride in the surprisingly hilly area of East Lothian, from the start the route takes you up a series of small rises and descents to tease you into the harsh climb of the Red Stane Rig.

I was feeling the efforts in the wind from the previous day and I was soon dropped by Robbie and the pensioners "slow" bus that we'd been set off in.  I was to tell the truth struggling with the efforts from the ride down and it was showing on the climbs.

Gifford

On the rig I stalled at the same place as the previous year, partly down to the brain fart of "I stopped here last year".  The descent was interesting in the howling wind and I got down to Dunbar just as Robbie was preparing to crack on having also been dropped by the pensioners.I controlled as fast as I could and set off for the next control at Haddington, which I'd managed to forget the location of... 

The Rig

 On arriving I couldn't see any piles of bikes against any buildings and scanned my memory for where it was. Costa possibly, but I couldn't see a Costa, I climbed up towards the A1 junction where I decided it might be a drive through, but on the way up I thankfully remembered I had the e-mail on my "normal" phone which I was carrying for once.

More of the Rig

Finally determining Costa was in Tesco, and that I had just passed a junction that could take me there I turned and headed there to get my stamp.

I grabbed some sweets from Tesco as I wasn't waiting in the queue for the Empire biscuit I wanted and set off again towards the A1 overbridge, from here the route is thankfully easy with a long shallow descent to the coast road and then a blast into the wind back into Musselburgh.

Randonneurs au café?

I arrived with just enough time in hand for brief socializing and to coax Robbie away from the social occasion. I'm sure I said I wouldn't ECE a Brevet Populaire again due to missing on the social aspect the more relaxed schedule allows.
We set out through Edinburgh retracing our wheel tracks from the previous night, the Portobello Promenade was busy, and despite going carefully through the crowds pinging the bell someone had a moan at us for trying to get somewhere on a shared use, take note Sustrans, Not Fit for Purpose as set up...

I was concerned about the wind strength for crossing the bridge but as it was now coming from the SWS we got a good shove across and then into the darkness through Fife, finally rolling up Newport High Street where we set the finish control just before 10pm.

The Two long hard days had really taken it out of me and it was a few days before I felt recovered

TOEL + ECE: https://www.strava.com/activities/2156780135

A (Wintery) Ride around Ben Klibreck - 2nd February 2019

"There's tyres come in the post for you" - Not a text message to normally elicit nervous excitement.
"Which ones?" I asked
"Schwalbe Winter" was the response, it could have been the GP4Seasons I'd ordered.
"That was quick, I'll come for them at lunch time"
"I'm heading for Dundee, will bring them over"

That really was quick, I'd ordered them from Spa Cycles on the Wednesday and had them in time for setting off into the frozen north for a cycle that just wouldn't have happened without them.

Arrived in the nick of time

Friday night I leave work, the tyres are sitting in the boot of the car and snow starts to fall heavily as I drive up the A90.  I stop in a lay-by to check something and I get a message from Robbie about a jackknifed lorry at Keith on our route north west.  I checked it out and Google was suggesting a tolerable 18 minute delay.
Once I'd collected Robbie in Aberdeen, it was clear when travelling along the A96 why the lorry had jackknifed, a rough surface created by resurfacing in progress had turned into an icy mess on a descent. Thankfully it was now clear but the treacherous conditions meant it took until 10pm to get to Inverness where we were booked into the hostel.

We had both studied the weather forecast and determined that we needed to put the studded tyres on, getting to work outside the hostel reception, I had my first tyre on before Robbie had finished scooping the fluid out of his tubeless tyres but within seconds of removing the pump's chuck there was that dreaded sound of air escaping through a split valve base, lifting one of my spare tubes from my bag I started again on the front wondering what time Velocity opens in the morning.

Robbie, having got the tubeless tyres off and rims cleaned was now going through the pile of "new" tubes he's picked from his box of bike spares and was trying to find one that wasn't pre-punctured. My dubious choice of electrical tape for rim tape on my rear wheel added extra concern for the ride but it had survived 400km with imprints in the tube, so it was going to have to last long enough for me to purchase some tape. With bikes finally set up and breakfast ordered we retired for the night at near midnight.

Morning dawned, breakfast was eaten and we set off for the starting point at Tain. Robbie had suffered further deflation overnight and now had his last two usable inner tubes supporting his tyres; I went into Tesco to see if they had any. They didn't.

Our plan had been to follow organizer Andy Uttley's advice for the route and ride Anti-Clockwise, up the A9 to Helmsdale and then up Strath Ullie and over the muirs via the Garvault to Crask Inn before returning through Lairg and Bonar Bridge, but now with only 2 spare tubes between us, and with the only bike shop in the area in Ardgay we set off on the Clockwise version to get to the shop before the fairy caught us.

Rolling along the Dornoch Firth

Setting off along the south side of the Dornoch firth at 10am it was a late start for a 200, but it's not a particularly hilly route with just one big hill and descent with the odd bit of undulation so we didn't think we'd be pushing our limits too much. 
However almost instantly I realized I was in Zone 5 while seemingly just rolling along and had to back off, I quickly ascertained that I'd put my HRM on a tad low so it was thankfully a data error and after a bit of adjustment got a much more reasonable reading, however it was still high for just rolling along at a normal speed.


The winter tyres are heavy, they take a lot of energy to spin up, don't hold speed very well and with the Carbide spikes clattering away make an absolute racket!  As we clattered into Ardgay I spotted the building where the bike shop was the last time I was there, however it appeared to now be some sort of tartan shop. Worrying!
Thankfully a local woman spotted us looking at the shop and told us that "Heaven Bikes" had moved to the post office in Bonar Bridge, just across the Kyles of Sutherland.
I'm not sure I'd say the bike shop was in the Post Office, more that the Post Office was in the bike shop, where Chris had plenty of parts on sale including most importantly the items of use to us, 700x30c tubes and rim tape.

Passing Carbisdale Castle at Invershin

Despite a fairly flat route out to Bonar Bridge we'd only averaged 20kmh, with the shop stop we were down to 17kmh and we had the long drag up to Lairg and on to the Crask Inn to climb.
In Scottish Geographical terms this is the Far North, but in Norse terms at Bonar Bridge we entered the South Land from Ross.
Sutherland was part of lands controlled by the Jarl of Orkney to who this was the South before the Kingdom of the Isles and Mann was formed.
The road climbs and we push on into the desolation of central Sutherland.

Lairg

The railway, ever present either by our side  diverged from our route at Lairg, the village is spread out along the Shin in the shadow of the Lairg Dam; not only were we saying goodbye to the railway until Helmsdale but we were also saying goodbye to civilisation at the same time, from now the odd outposts along our route would be marking junctions or remote travellers rests rather than sizeable habitations.

The junction just out of Lairg demonstrated this perfectly, with the next nearest signed destination being Scourie, 41 miles away.

The Altnaharra road

The fold down signs were showing their "Road Ahead Closed  - Snow Drifts" message, but the actual Road Closed sign was leaning against the wall, the necessary cones pushed to either side of the road allowing passage.
The road becomes single track here and the passing places were filled with snow, we plugged on.  Occasionally the spikes went quiet or the back wheel gave a squirm in the snow but in the most part it was clear enough to maintain a decent enough speed as the road weaved through a landscape of snow and frozen rivers, on occasion I wanted to stop for a photo I couldn't capture on the go but chose to miss it in favour of maintaining momentum.

The Crask Inn

Eventually I spotted the trees I knew the Crask Inn was situated in and although they didn't have their sign up and the cars outside were submerged in snow, a tentative knock on the door revealed that the bar was tendered, the fire was roaring and the Vegetable Soup on offer was hot and delicious.
Of course I had the Victoria Sponge too.
The roasting bar room was hard to leave. The proprietor told us that Altnaharra may be "different" due to it being in a dip and about being snowed in only the previous day, or at least her husband was. She had been snowed out!

A clear bit of the descent to Altnaharra

From the Inn it's only a short climb to the start of the descent to Altnaharra and when we crested the summit we realized conditions were going to different here.Altnaharra vies with Braemar for the title of "Coldest Place in Scotland" this dip in the vast emptiness of the cleared interior of Sutherland showed its hand with rough snow and ice slowing our descent, now after our stop we were only just holding 15kmh and road conditions were deteriorating.
Robbie has ridden cyclocross so is used to road bikes moving in soft conditions, but I'm not and saw him rolling off into the distance as I struggled to get the hang of my squirming bike.

The Syre road junction, we decided to give it a bash

At Altnaharra the road turned to sheet ice on the approach to the bridge, I held my breath but the spikes gripped as I knew they would and crested the bridge without worry.
Just out of the village we found the turn for Syre, this was our first real point of concern as we were leaving the Primary gritting routes, should this road be impassable then it was game over, the Garvault control would be out of reach, the only options would be to ride the North Coast from Tongue or turn back.
The junction was snowy, and icy, and the rest of the road was pretty white, we chose to press on into the snow and see how it went, our tyres squirming and on occasion spinning.

Riding along Loch Naver

We stopped to drop some air from our tyres to get a bit more grip in the snow shortly afterwards and we were able to ride with care after that.  In the shade the road was snowy, and on the edges it was icy.  In the areas exposed to sun, despite the chill in the air a clear path had cleared through melt and so we could ride faster here.
Somehow we maintained a 16kmh average along the way to Syre despite in places resurfacing works providing bombholes and drop offs to deal with if not the 2hr delay threatened by the signs.

Garvault bound

At the Garvault road junction again things looked sketchy, the driver of a winter tyre shod pick-up told us that the road wasn't great but it was passable.  The initial climb facing west was covered in a shallow coating of snow just deep enough to overcome the limited grip of our road treaded tyres, the spikes having no value when there is no ice to grip.
At times the road camber sucked us down onto the verge, small ridges of snow kicked our wheels out to the side and cleared tracks sent us wiggling across the road to find the best speed. Eventually the Garvault loomed into view ahead, its white walls camouflaging it against the white hillside of Ben Griam Mór.

We already knew no one was in, and photographic evidence had been requested by Andy of the sign by the road as a substitute. We posed just long enough to get the pictures and crack on before we cooled down too much, the temperature was -8C and would be for a long time to come.

I knew that there are some estate houses not too far east of here and was hoping they'd cleared a route out to Kinbrace, which was a wish partially fulfilled as they'd cleared the road fully between the various estate buildings but had only left tracks out to the junction.  The lights of Kinbrace station lit the sky, but it was too late to catch a train South should we want to pack, but we also hoped things would get easier from here.

The descent down Strath Ullie was a mix of fast clean road and an icy mess, at one point while riding a clean tyre track at speed I caught the ridge of snow with my back tyre and got a bit of a wiggle on, thankfully gaining control after the fright. A farmer tending his sheep passed us in his canopy pick-up on a number of occasions during the descent and expressed his amusement with a jocular evening as he passed me for the 3rd time.

Finally down at sea level in Helmsdale we piled into the shop to warm up and eat, the talkative shop girl more than happy for us to eat her stock as she told us about growing up in the area and her work.

When we left the shop our drinks bottles had frozen completely, I had plugged my power bank into my Wahoo while we ate and gassed in the shop and this affected the recorded temperature but I had recorded -8C on arrival rising to -4C before reaching the coast where it "warmed" to -3C.

We had over Nine and a Half hours on the clock and hadn't yet reached the 100 mile mark, but from Helmsdale the route rises and falls along the cost back towards Tain on a trunk road that receives 24hr treatment so we knew the surface would be good for a bit more speed.
Riding along the coast and through villages there was a bit of warmth in the air, but we still had to stop repeatedly to consume some of our Isotonic Slush Puppies as we counted down the villages, Brora passed without ceremony, Golspie with the bastard on the hill hidden in the darkness and across Loch Fleet on "The Mound" a causeway and bridge from Telford's time that was considered an amazing feat of engineering and a significant shortening of the route along the coast.

On the A9, in the dark but almost home.

The route sheet indicated taking a slightly longer route on the minor road along the coast to Dornoch Village and then towards the bridge over the Dornoch Firth, a good idea on a nice day but we chose, quiet as it was to stick with the A9.

One of the reasons for the 5km diversion became obvious with the 95m climb to Poles, a drag at this time of the ride, but the roll down to the bridge was worth it in the end.  Crossing the bridge we knew there wasn't far to go with the lights of Tain glowing in the vicinity and we started to think about where to control.



At the Burgh sign we took photos just in case then rolled into town to find an ATM, the first we found had no receipts.  Further into town at the other ATM we waited for some of the local night life to obtain more beer tokens, discovering once again there were no receipts there either.
We weren't sure whether to roll down to Tesco or up to ASDA to see if they had an outdoor ATM, but Robbie spotted that the bar of the St Duthus Hotel was still open, who allowed us to stagger in for a celebratory drink.

Looking back from the Crash Inn

On the road up to the Crask, rivers frozen.

The drag to Lairg