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.