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