Unfortunately I had signed up early in the year and entered the 150Km Dick McT's Century Classic rather than the 200Km Etal-U-Can route that I enjoyed in 2017.
Sadly the original route for this using the two valley roads out of Selkirk was considered unsuitable due to road surface deterioration on the muir road to Moffat so it was rerouted to Etal via Wooler and returning via Kelso to get my distance up to the 200Km to keep my RRTYs alive I found a 50Km loop to ride afterwards taking in Lauder, Stow and Thornylee more on that later!
Dick McT's Century Classic plus 50Km ECE 13th October 2018
With the Motorhome still off the road and the tent pitches in Moffat being closed for winter I went looking for stone and mortar based accommodation, my first choice the Kailzie bunkhouse near Innerleithen handily with a nice looking 25Km ride each way that could have made the ECE was sadly booked out until Jellember when I contacted the owner back in September however I found a decent B&B that rarely appears as available on Booking.com for the two nights.
The forecast was looking horrific, similar to what was originally forecast for the 600Km Borderlands Explorer back in July, but as with that time the conditions forecast eased off to a slightly more tolerable minging. This had however reduced the number of riders starting considerably and a large number of cards remained on the table while I sat and socialized with the other riders who were braving the weather.
The day actually started out not too bad with only a bit of occasional drizzle for the 9am start which saw my departure delayed by trying to get the back up GPS recorder to work, this was necessary in case the Wahoo failed as the ECE was to be following a mandatory route so paper proof of purchase as a back up even if it was possible, wouldn't suffice.
Riding out of Galashiels Dick directed us via the Midlem route towards Morebattle before joining the St Boswells route near Nisbet; I had decided to generally follow the route even though I had extra time pressures, but I made my first diversion at Nisbet by carrying on and taking the Eckford corner cut. Despite the delayed start I had started to catch the other riders and appologising for battering on rather than taking the social pace that comes with the less demanding average speeds of a Brevet Populaire, because I was having to ride at Brevet Ranndoneur speeds as I have to complete the full distance of both the BP route and ECE in the time limit of a BR, and also I don't get the BPs route distance I have to ride it at BR time for 150km and this ride was nearer 170km.
I had fitted my mudguards during the week due to the forecast and was starting to regret it as the noise from the rear guard was becoming increasingly irritating. On arrival at Morebattle I took one look at the rear guard, swore and walked into the shop to get a control receipt before setting out to tighten up the stay nut which required lifting the wheel out of the drop outs to get room. The bulge of other riders arrived while I was doing this and they chatted while I grumbled. This however did give me a chance to explain my hurry to them.
Setting off again, I made it a few meters before stopping to make another adjustment, this time the stay was rubbing on the tyre, however only a few KM later the bike was on the ground once again and this time the guard was removed as the bolt had loosened off and now was nowhere to be seen. Once again the other riders arrived as I was working on it and one even offered to carry the guard for me on his Carradice!!!
I shot off into the distance again at my unsocial pace, rolling through to Town Yetholm still amazingly dry and promptly rode into the rain somewhere on the Kirknewton road; some of the other riders caught me on the main road towards Wooler and I advised them I was taking the fast route into Wooler for a short sharp hill to the Co-Op; they carried on the back road and rolled in as I was exiting the Co-Op with a top up of water.
From Wooler I took the Doddington road and then the back roads which were in places more like Canals towards Etal.
The first Etal-U-Can rider I saw was just after Fenton, I was not surprised to see it was Richard who is a pretty quick rider, however what was surprising was the hoard of Bromptons that seemed to be chasing him down! I rolled into Etal absolutely soaked and found Russell and Michael who were also on Etal-U-Can had just sat down for lunch. I joined them after ordering after as usual searching the menu for items that work without cheese!
We were joined by another rider before Russell and Michael left, after which the café owner made a joke about cleaning chairs for the next soggy person to occupy!!!
Cracking on again as 200km and 160km riders dripped in I decided to return on the Doddington route, with the amount of rain falling I was preferring the quiet canals to the main road, that was despite knowing in places the puddles were bottom bracket deep, something I thought I had left behind when I stopped MTBing so much! Back in Wooler I decided an ATM receipt would do as I didn't need anything from a shop, I did my best to protect my wallet of reciepts from the rain at the Barclays hole in the wall.
The return route via Kelso I knew from the Borders 600km and this time my knees weren't aching and I discovered that after 120Km the lumps over to Kelso from Mindrum is actually pretty easy going. I did now have a technical problem, my Wahoo wasn't charging from the USB-Werk and I was starting to run low on battery; I had spotted issues on the last few rides so thankfully was carrying my Powermonkey Explorer II however I didn't want to go plugging things in while it was raining.
I rolled into Kelso still in the rain and went to the Sainsbury petrol station for a water top up and sweet; on inspecting the reciept I spotted there was no date and time, that was no use, so I went up to the main shop for another ATM reciept. After Sainsbury's I promptly got my directions wrong and started to follow the Selkirk road, and on realizing the error doubled back and headed into the town centre where I spotted a Blue Cycle Route finger post with the distance to Melrose on it. As I didn't feel there was enough battery left in the Wahoo to use turn by turn navigation for any period of time and my routesheet was getting rather soggy as I constantly extracted it I decided to follow the cycle route, this actually took me onto Dick's recommended route and eventually it stopped raining!!!!
The air now dry, me soaking and Dicks route doing a bit more climbing up to Smailholm I decided to stick with the blue signs, these took me down a quiet road with suspiciously major road looking markings, past a "No Motor Vehicles" sign, round a barrier, and onto a wooden bridge and narrow path. Typical! Fearing a dirt track I pressed on aware that there was no time to return to Dick's route now and cursing myself for listening to a Sustrans route over one of the most experienced riders in the area. Starting to climb on a widening track that I was still unsure of the surface due to bumps and a layer of leaves I soon heard the rumble of a pickup truck descending the hill. After the short climb I discovered I was in Newton St Boswells and all I needed to do was follow the signs to the "Rhymers Stone" road and I know the way back from there.
Back in Gala I got the Wahoo on charge while I stumbled into the Arriveé soaked and aware I needed to crack on, I handed Lucy my Brevet card and the jumble of receipts to sort while I got stuck into some of the food on offer. She also spotted that the Sainsbury's petrol receipt had the date and time and other Audax useful information on the rear of it so I had no need to go to the main shop after all.
Now I just had to haul myself round the 50km loop and keep my average speed for that section over the 15Kmh BR minimum; I also now had to follow the GPS trace that I had submitted for the ECE.
Setting off into Gala town centre to get onto the A7 before climbing Station Brae into Langlee and then turning up onto the backroad to Lauder, it now hit me just how much of a climb this was and I had decided to ride anti-clockwise in order to avoid the Stow Hillclimb course! Darkness set in and I returned to existing in my small bubble of light.
Houses and street lights started to add light to my bubble and then my Wahoo chirped a turn off and suddenly I was in market place in Lauder, people, cars, rain... I rode through the town, another chirp, a turn off and back into my bubble; the road started to climb again and the mist set in.
My bubble and I moved slowly through the mist, climbing 198m, 269m, 322m, 357m the road summit of Lauder common, and then down into Stow, out of the mist, out of the dark, over the A7 and back into the dark.
A long gentle climb followed, the A7 across the valley and the railway were visible, the mist not covering the sky here, I could see beyond my bubble, but not much, houses dotting the country side, their dry occupants safe and warm, I wet and cold passing through the country side. A train passed, the road diverged from the line and A7 and I climbed on in the dark. Bowland, Windydoors, Blackhaugh, the house lights shone in the dark. Blackhaugh, a junction I turn off for Thornilee and the dark narrow road starts to descend, eventually spitting me out on the A72.
My average speed for the ECE so far was low, around 16kmh, it seems so tight close enough that a mechanical would leave me with only the 150Km Calendar Event. THankfully the A72 descends on an old railway alignment to "The Nest" roundabout and my speed was considerably higher than my average along here and down to Fairnlee Farm, 8km and 30m of descent on a good road makes all the difference for maintaining speed. All I needed to do now was carry on over the hill to Gala town cross to finish the ECE and then head back to get the car from the Swimming pool.
Soaking wet I rolled into Gala, Dick and George were just leaving the Arriveé as everyone was back, so I collected the car, drove the 500m to my B&B and got warmed up. By the time this was done all there was left for tea was the late night Subway. That'll be a steak and cheese, without the cheese please.
Once I extracted the GPS data I discovered the Wahoo reckoned I'd climbed less than 1000m since Bikehike had the ECE loop down as 750m alone I knew this was rubbish, the corrected climb being 2691m in 222Km; 22km over points distance with no allowance for the extra, just like ACP validated rides, I was fine with that.
Ride of the Valkyries 100Km 14th October 2018
Thankfully I didn't need yet another 200Km and could now actually enjoy the 12Kmh minimum of a BP, even better the sun was out!A rather pleasant ride from Gala over to the Tweed and then along the south bank from the first crossing, passing various MTB locations before climbing over to Mountbenger in the Yarrow Valley from Innerleithen on a rather pleasant climb. At the Gordon Arms we were served tea and cake in the breakfast room while the residents made do with breakfast in the bar and then we set on for another couple of long muir land climbs first over to Tushielaw in the Ettrick Valley before climbing once again towards "Little Bleak Law" and then down to Roberton by the Borthwich Water and continuing down to Lilliesleaf for tea, cake and sanwich for lunch, before a short sharp climb back over to the A7 route and into Galashiels on the now well known route to the town cross.
What always makes these rides special is who you come across along the way or at controls.
As I climbed one hill I was surprised to discover Michael catching up with me! My first thought wasn't "what happened" it was "huh I didn't see you at the start or at the Gordon!", Michael had had a bit of a mishap, he was today ECEing from home and had misremembered the start time arriving 30mins late to the start, thankfully able to obtain his Brevet card and crack on!
I caught up with George Berwick near the top of one of the climbs, where he was later adamant he heard a bird that sounded like a telephone ringing, I never heard it but I know the bird call he heard, it does indeed sound like an old landline telephone buzzing, of course modern landlines and mobiles tend to ring like birdsong, or at least human attempts at birdsong.
Rolling into Lilliesleaf, it was a bit of a riot, bikes propped everwhere, non-cycling customers confined to a single table in the corner probably wondering what they were doing there! I found a seat that had just been vacated at the table with Aidan and Dick, Dick on card stamping duty doing his best to shout across the riot whenever anyone arrived to get their attention. I was also jammed against the counter so all I could do to order was stand up an ask, my food was also passed over to me directly over the counter!
There were two trikes on the ride, Aidens and Edwins, unfortunately they look identical and I'd spotted that one of them had a single rear disc brake, I asked Aiden about whether that causes brake steer, he of course doesn't know as his has two rear wheel brakes and a front v-brake although I did learn a few other things about trikes.
George arrived asking everyone if they heard the bird which no one had, Dick suggested it was his phone with his wife calling him and the pair kept me and anyone else in earshot amused with their jokes, stories and general hilarity probably until they had to leave the café.
The last wee dig up over to the A7 was a reverse of the previous days route and that was it, 100km done in a leisurely 6 hours.
The Yoga for Cyclists session was interesting although I could do most of the routine, there were extended periods spent with weight on the hands and I was getting pain from where I had been holding the hoods and there was some extended time with the head lower than the neck and that causes me reflux problems.
After the previous day's soaking, the dry, gentle, sociable ride was a great wind down; I did spend the next few days with discomfort from some areas stretched by the Yoga session that don't normally stretch!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.