Nae Bother To Us - 400Km - 21st July 2018

So with two 300Km Randoneés successfully completed the next challenge was a 400Km; for this I wasn't sure what to expect, the time limit was 30 hours; the days are starting to draw in, such that there would actually be night time, though not much of it.

The motorhome was off the road having failed it's MOT on rust on a section of the chassis we were expecting, it had been fixed on the other side the previous year so this was no surprise, what was proving surprising was our inability to find a welder to do the work.

I booked into a tent pitch at the Melrose campsite and tried to get to sleep, of course there was very little darkness and I had nothing to cut the light out so I slept very badly.

3 other campers were doing the ride, so Robert, David and I set off together for the start at McDonalds in Galashiels 8km away with enough time for some McDonalds pancakes; Simon set off shortly later as he didn't to bust a gut trying to keep up with us as it was going to be his 1 PBP pre-Qualifier of the year (400Km is expected to be enough to pre-register before sell out in 2019).

Tortoise and Hare with the SBR Locals

At McDonalds there was a reasonable crowd assembled ready to set off; with a decent warm up I set off fast, keeping up with the fast locals ignoring the route sheet and taking the direct route to the turn off at StBoswells; a scan over the route in google street view had shown me a few points where the GPS track was not to be followed and the dirt track at Nisbet was one of them; a horde of riders both in front and behind disappeared up it, one remarking that I must know a different way, which of course I did!

I missed the corner cut to Eckford and met some of those riders at Kirkbank and we rolled into Morebattle together, too early after my McDonalds breakfast for anything substantial I grabbed a snickers bar for the receipt and shoved it in one of my bags for later discovery.

Cracking on now for Wooler I had somehow got the fast locals behind me, they must have stopped somewhere, and they corrected my route into the town so I didn't take the lumpy route to the high street but the fast route to the petrol station on the junction; a water top up and a sweet; they were hanging around to I cracked on for Berwick on my own, picking up another rider for a short period later on before they caught me on the run into Berwick and again directed me to a shop that only just qualified as Berwick!

They however had a plan for eating and we climbed up to East Ord for the Café at the Garden Centre where I thought I could do with eating something; however after using the facilities I quickly realized it was still to early for me to eat anything sizeable so took a cake and then cracked on retracing my wheel tracks for a short period (unnecessary distance?) the route headed back towards Wooler and I passed a number of riders still on their way to Berwick; the  route then turned sharp east for a period to head for Chatton where I missread the route sheet and took in an unnecessary bit of civil engineering spotting.

Tankerville Arms Eglingham

145Km and I'm at the pub in Eglingham, and finally I can eat something decent, so why did I pick one of the lightest options on the menu? A Salmon sandwich took my fancy and it was polished off in no time; a brief chat to Richard about the Strahpuffer which he wants to do sometime and I was outside looking for my bike; it turned out one of the neighbours wasn't too happy and had been re-arranging bikes so they weren't resting on her window boxes.

I knew the next leg was going to be lumpy to say the least, it's back to the café in Elsdon from the 300 earlier in the year. This section also included avoiding the NCN 68 route which my GSV and RWGPS reccie's had indicated were very much off road! Thankfully I'd spotted this and remembered where to escape to when faced with poor surface but others followed the GPS along it.

Leaving Greenhead after a good feed

After a wait that was probably much shorter than it felt the beans on toast hardly touched the sides and I was paid, stamped and out the door; I wanted something else though, which turned out to be Popcorn, so at Bellingham I rolled into the Co-Op; at this point Alistair caught up with me and then cracked on, only to stop for some sightseeing at which point I caught up; he suggested riding together along the Hadrians Wall road might be a good idea, it's very undulating and there was some headwind blowing!

Gretna Services

We took it in turns of around 1km to haul ourselves along the road before we added Darren and another rider (sorry I've forgotten your name) to the mini-chain gang and cranked on to Greenhead where we spied a pub; I didn't feel ready to eat but after sitting down and sorting myself out I'm glad we stopped there as it also gave us a good run to Gretna where I didn't feel the need to eat a KFC and I hung onto the McDonalds at Johnstonebridge.

Johnstonebridge Services

At Johnstonebridge after eating I was ready to crack on, and Alistair seemed to be too however the others were snoozing on the comfy seats; looking rather fresh Leighn and Carolyn along with a considerably less fresh looking Robbie arrived having had a rest on the way as the route went right past Leighn's front door!

The five of us set off into the darkness; I don't tend to struggle with awakeness at night and even with the poor nights sleep in the tent the night before I was still pretty much bouncing at this point and my poor hearing meant that despite being no more than half a bike length behind them I hadn't a clue what was going on in the game of Twenty questions.

Climbing the tail

We rolled into Moffat where it turned out the 24hr Garage no longer had a 24hr shop just a pay at pump, so we carried on to the ATM where a pair of pished up arseholes in one of the houses were finding it amusing to lob abuse at us. As the road started to climb to the foot of the Grey Mare's Tail I was aware that my poorer climbing was holding me back; the others took a rest at the foot of the main climb and I caught up, though our talking woke one of the camper van dwellers who asked if we were going to be there long; due to my slower climbing speed I chose to set off slightly ahead.

Robbie showing his delight at reaching McDonalds

I could see from the light on the clouds that dawn was breaking to the east and the dark climb gave way to a light summit which the others reached shortly after me; from here it was a downhill ride in the dawning day to Selkirk and a deserted A7 allowed us a fast roll into McDonalds; I have never been so happy to see those Golden Arches before.

My second McDonald's breakfast of the waking period was purchased and eaten and a small group of knackered, sleepy cyclists amassed; some waiting for trains others just to be sociable.

Never before have I been so happy to see a McDonalds

One of the other campsite visitors arrived and we set off back to our tents together, I pretty much flaked out as soon as I lay down but was awoken by the light and heat; I took this as a reason to go and buy lunch and sit by the river, where I found a few other spots to sleep including a bench in a shelter which took me to 4 in the afternoon! Tea and then straight to bed again for a decent nights sleep in the tent.

As my first 400 I didn't know what to expect; I knew from my Snow Roads pace and how I felt that a sub-24hr ride on that route is possible for me; I'd only need to find 10 mins of time saving, which the unnecessary trip to the Berwick Garden Centre and bouncing Elsdon would give; but had I done all that I wouldn't have got in the same groups where and when I did, would I have rolled into Gretna knackered from solo headwind bashing, grumpy and hungrily eating the wrong stuff off the KFC menu?

What I did discover is that this 400 isn't massively different from 24hrs on an MTB in a freezing forest; there isn't a campervan with jelly babies, liquid top ups and a pep talk every 10km though.