Sunday, 28 April 2019
Auld Alliance - 26th and 27th April 2019
A gun shot rings in my ears, waking me with a start, another goes off shortly afterwards. It's still raining outside the bus stop that I've propped myself in the corner of, avoiding the water dripping through the gap between the roof slabs.
My first thought is how long I've been here? I get up and look at my average speed, it's still well above 15kmh good to know or perhaps not, after all sleeping past the time limit would be the easy way out now.
I'm soaked through but still warm and feel much more awake than when I sat down, it's time to crack on.
Tuesday, 23 April 2019
Easter Arrow - 19th/20th April 2019
The simplest description of this ride I can think of is to call it a 24hr Team Time Trial in Audax form.
More specifically, you put together a team of between 3 and 5 riders, devise a route of over 360km (15kmh minimum speed) based on shortest distance between the controls you set, on a route that ultimately leads towards York and then ride it; if you are ahead of time you need to have suitable extension controls ready to up your distance by no more than 20%, or you could hang around at your penultimate control situated over 25km away from your finish control (although not too long) to ensure you meet the requirement of riding 25km in the last 2 hours, if you're down on distance you need to be within 20% of your declared distance, and finally 3 of the riders must finish for the team result and for the finishers in the team to be validated. Confused? Complicated? Aye me an aw!
I was tempted by an Arrow partly due to it being a requirement for the Audax UK Brevet 5000 and 25000 and ACP 5000 and 10000 awards, but mostly because it's a very different beast from the other types of Audax UK rides and I liked the idea. Robbie was also interested.
At the Yorkshire Grit ride back in February Aiden Hedley was riding with a "Arrow Team Wanted" poster on the back of his jersey and at the Arivée Steve Scott of the Lakes Velo team was hunting around for up to 3 more riders to join the Lakes Velo Arrow team for this years arrow. A brief discussion was followed up by e-mail from Steve and we had a team together.
Paul Revell had decided to take a year off captaining the team so Steve was getting to grips with the rules in the role of team captain with Paul's assistance when required. We agreed to target a reasonable points distance of 426km on a route of around 440km of riding however this was soon whittled down just over 430km with a bit of tidying up of the route plan.
I darted out of work at 4pm on the Thursday afternoon to get home and changed for the journey south, my packing and repacking done in advance to keep my time comfortable. At Dundee station a friend from the hiking club got off the train with her bike, unfortunately confusing the guard into thinking we were trying to overload the bike spaces, thankfully after some prompting he saw that the space I had booked was free and I got on, had I missed this train it would have been an expensive taxi to Glasgow or a long drive south. Neither of us had eaten before getting the train and for all Glasgow has to offer, when you've got a bike and 50 minutes between trains about the only location that is suitable to eat is the Glasgow Central Burger King, which is distinctly average.
We arrived at Steve's just after 10pm and after socializing settled in for the night, I opted for the motorhome as it suited me best, I'm used to the sort of cushions used and need a fairly solid bed, I also reckoned on getting woken by the dawn. With our start planned for 9am there was time for a leisurely awakening and breakfasting. As hoped I woke early and naturally as the dawn light streamed into the motorhome helping me avoid my normal morning sluggishness.
Steve prepared a cracking breakfast of Porridge, Eggs and Toast to set us up for the day.
Paul and Aiden were ready for us at Asda when we rolled in well before 9am allowing for a chat and relaxed collection of Brevedence.
I had got dressed for the morning chill but at Asda I adjusted my kit. I could tell it was going to be a much warmer day than forecast, leg and arm warmers were off Robbie remarking on how pale my "Peely Wally" Scottish skin is, he's so used to riding with me when the weather calls for wrapping up.
For the first time this year I was coating my arms with sun cream.
At 9 we rolled out of the car park and set off south for Lytham, it'd been a long time since I'd ridden in a group with the mentality required for staying in the group so it took me a few minutes to get the hang of things again. The hardest mentally was getting positioned behind Aiden on the trike, an activity that was new to me, stay too far back and you'll not get any assistance, get too close to the cassette in the middle of the rear axle and you'll be half-wheeling between the wheels. Aiden and Robbie would be setting the pace for most of the ride, pumping out the necessary speed so getting the hang of this was critical to staying on.
Although Good Friday is a Bank Holiday in England the roads were not as busy as I was expecting, the surfaces in Cumbria were fantastic but deteriorated as we entered Lancashire. We whizzed towards Lytham on flat or descending roads some of which I remembered from BGB. There weren't too many distractions from the task in hand, only the Cartford bridge and Singleton Fire Engine shed were if much interest to me along the way.
We had split the GPS route into the segments between controls which meant we could focus on each one individually, seeing there is 20km to go to Lytham is much nicer than 410km to York when you're thinking about Lytham and York is another 20 hours away, this also meant that when I was struggling I could only see how far until the next rest, ideal of the mental aspects of the ride.
As we rode into Lytham a 3-way roadwork light controls halted our progress briefly just before the control, however we were targeting a 25kmh average for this section and had exceeded 27kmh, a very good start to the day that we wanted to maintain, the schedule said we were to take a 30 minute break before setting off again.
As part of ride preparation Steve had scoped out the café at Booths in advance and rejected it as a stop option due to service time.
So we raided the lunch food section of the supermarket instead, in the heat and with the effort expended already I wasn't thinking straight enough to work out the £3 meal deal so ended up spending double that instead on a Sweet Chilli Chicken wrap and a mince and pea Samosa.
We sat out in the sun next to the bikes to eat, watch comedy parking and speak to some curious locals.
In what seemed like no time the 30 minutes were up and we set off again but had a longer delay at the traffic lights as we chose different methods of dodging round them, the one that involved pushing the bike across the active arm of the 3 way light sequence was the slowest, pushing along the pavement was fastest, but no-one thought to ride on the adjacent cycle track, although it was packed with pedestrians. Once past the blockage we were back out on the same roads we arrived on until Lancaster.
After Lancaster we turned inland and started to climb towards Kirkby Lonsdale, our pace was still as hot as the day was becoming and Paul dropped back from the front to suggest to Steve that we stop early at Devils Bridge.
The roads were becoming more interesting both in terrain and what we were sharing them with, the warm weather bringing out classic cars including a Teal "Bugatti" Type 35 and lots of motorcyclists who had, along with many others congregated at the bridge where an Ice Cream van and a burger van had set up stall, curiously a man in full winter cycling kit spent the entire time we were there standing in the doorway of the burger van while we tried to eat our ice creams before they melted. 10 mins elapsed and we were back on the road heading for our next control at Sedberg, the road climbed gently along here with the odd bump and interesting roadside feature to distract from the relentless heat and pace.
We arrived at Sedberg about 45 minutes ahead of schedule and stopped at the Spar for the planned 30 minutes, I took another wrap this time Chicken Tikka, some coke and a pack of two lemon drizzle cakes, as I prepared to fill my water bottles up I realized I'd made a mistake and had only packed enough powder for 400km at my winter drinking rate of 750ml per 50km.
I was rapidly going through liquid due to the heat, I switched my drink plan, using a half portion in each bottle, as the stages were roughly 80km apart I reckoned this would suit and the lower dilution would make it easier to drink regularly with food than the normal mixture does.
The problem with starting on the North West coast of England is you have to get over the Pennines, our chosen route over to the Vale of York was to climb Garsdale and descend Wensleydale to our next control at Ripon; the schedule allowed for 19kmh arriving at 2200.
The road out of Sedberg towards Hawes was used in Paul's "Brant and Slape" a tough day out where this road was the start of a long descent towards Kendal that took us from being Full Value to comfortably in time. Robbie commented on the scenery, the descent although steady is fast enough for focus to be on the road not the surroundings, the climb gentle enough that you can look around you.
I've also been over this road before in the car, not long after I passed my driving test, Dad decided I should get "some" motorway driving practice and we set off at silly AM to drive to the Classic Car Show at the NEC in Birmingham.
Having spent all day driving motorways and visiting the SAAB Owners Club stand (Dad was chairman at the time) we set off home via Hawes where Dad wanted to scope out the caravan site as he fancied stopping there for our next family holiday the drop from 10 lane motorway to twisty 2 lane single carriageway resulted in us swapping seats in the car for the drive into Hawes before we switched back so I could drive us out to the A1 route home.
Garsdale is a good long climb with a couple of steep ramps, though these didn't trouble us much, and as a bonus the surroundings are pretty, just after Garsdalehead the viaduct came into view and as we passed under the Settle and Carlisle railway and into the East Riding of Yorkshire we also crossed the summit of Garsdale into Wensleydale, a short descent towards the Moorcock Inn where a Half Cab bus had stopped was followed by a stiff climb before we'd start to get the main benefits of the descent.
We were now over our only real hill of the day, the undulating descent of Wensleydale that we were pre-warned of was presented to us with the occasional steep ramp that briefly dropped our progress into single digits. I was suffering from the heat of the day with the first signs of a dehydration head-ache and the water I had was barely enough to get to Ripon at the drinking rate. We stopped at Wensley by the church to adjust our set-ups for the onset of night, warmers and lights were fitted to bodies and bikes in preparation, for now it was still warm and light but it wouldn't be by the time we got to Ripon.
I took the chance to take a pee but there wasn't much there adding to my dehydration concerns. We knew once the sun was gone it would get cold quickly, at 7pm we rode through Masham, past the Black Sheep Brewery with the temperature now down to 12c from the mid-twenties it had reached only an hour or so earlier.
We reached Ripon McDonald's in the cold dark at quarter to 9, 1 hour 15mins ahead of schedule, our average over the dale was 23kmh considerably better than the 19 that had been allowed for.
Riders from a VC167 team were there nearing the end of their control rest there, Audaxers have a look about them so although were in a hodge podge of kit they identified straight off that we were riding the Arrow too, Aiden is a VC167 rider so he socialized with them most before they got on their way.
My dehydration concerns were proven but I didn't respond to this properly.
I bought a large bottle of water from the co-op garage to top up my bottles with while waiting for my McDonald's meal to arrive as it proved considerably cheaper, but I didn't take in enough extra during the stop. I had a beef burger meal but stuck with a coke for the drink.
We stayed the planned 45 minutes, before cracking on for Selby, the big digs were behind us, the route a rolling descent into the flatlands, through the dark night, Knarseborough, Wetherby, Tadcaster and Cawood briefly punctuating the darkness, the odd boy racer darting past in a hurry to go nowhere.
Selby McDonalds: 10 past midnight, 24kmh.Scheduled : 0215, 22kmh
We were building up a good time cushion, not that I knew it, this information I didn't need or want to know.
I get more proof that I'm dehydrated despite emptying 1.5L of liquid into me in less than 4 hours.
I tuck into another McDonalds meal, I go for a Chicken Legend this time, I'm struggling to eat it but I go back for a chocolate muffin because I know I need it, I really wanted an apple pie but didn't order it with the meal and need something quick to buy.
I have coke left in my cup that I can't drink now so I put it in one of the bottles, the cool air and impact of going so long means I'm getting into the territory of stopping for a pee every 5 minutes. I've hit this during 24hr MTB rides in the past, that's fine when riding solo with a good cushion but in a team that's aiming to press on I just have to ride with a filling bladder, it also doesn't help with hydration.
We spend 38 minutes stopped, but were only scheduled for 30, arguably we're slacking now.
It's flat, being able to draft another ride is critical on the flat, it can be the difference between battering along in Zone 4 at 25kmh and ticking along in Zone 2 at 40kmh. I'm tall for a cyclist.
In a sport that favours the those of shorter stature the problem with being tall is that you can't hide in other riders draft so well;
I once entered the Etapé Loch Ness and spent the long flat A82 section along the loch leading a train of riders at a rapid pace towards Fort Augustus. I was flicking my elbow regularly begging someone to give me a break only to find no one coming though much to my irritation, I battered on for my own aim of a fast metric.
When we reached the climb up Glen Doe a mass of midgets split round me and disappeared into the distance as I struggled, grinding away in the granny ring.
I did however catch many of them on the descent back to Inverness, they all tagged on for the lift back to the finish. Only two of them thanked me for the tows at the end.
The other side of this coin does occasionally happen and on one Mukyz Club 100 mile road ride I was placed in the "fast" group with 6' 5" Mark in it, he led us most of the way round the route at a ridiculous rate and on arriving at the Vane Farm junction he was too knackered to stay on the front and I swapped places with him for the last leg back to Glenrothes, this is the only time I've ever seen the fabled 30bpm HR drop between being on the front and drafting.
The ride to Scunthorpe was relatively speaking easy, the novelty of the flatness was difficult for me, I've never ridden only 90m of climb in 50km before, even my flat route at home records over 200m in 27km giving the odd easy descent section to rest between efforts. Although I was behind Robbie or Aiden most of the way I was feeling the South Easterly on my head so I wasn't getting full advantage of the draft and shelter. I tried to get low enough on the bike to stay in the void punched into the air in front of me but my belly got in the way, I also can't cover the brakes from the drops well thanks to the same issue that means Lisa Simpson will never be a Professional Saxamophone player, in a group you need to be covering your brakes.
As we hurtled through the darkness in the distance Drax lit up the sky, capable of feeding up to 4MW of electricity into the National Grid, it's a reminder that in some parts of the world Coal is still King though now only a backup power source for when Nuclear and Renewables can't cope, the England and Wales grid is on a record run of days without using this backup, since closing Longannet there is no coal based generation at all, any from Drax or Fiddlers Ferry would be labelled as "Imported".
At the road side a sign proclaims that we've left Yorkshire and entered Lincolnshire, we start to cross many bridges. The roads are long, flat and straight, more over-tuned hot hatches blast past, their engine lives and suitability reduced by race level tuning, the whiff of over rich exhaust gasses perfume the air as a Fiesta flies past with it's exhaust crackling with a fuel mix best described as excessive. Whoever set these cars up must have failed Tuning 101, unburnt fuel doesn't equate to more oomph.
Scunthorpe McDonalds: 0232;
Scheduled Time: 0415
We've been 22 minutes slower than scheduled, despite this we're still well ahead of schedule.
I can't face another burger, I've had beef and I've had chicken, I forget about the Fillet O' Fish option, doesn't everyone?
Aiden is trying to convince the manager to let him buy a pot of porridge, unlike at previous stops where the request has been granted it's not happening this time. I can only face a punnet of fries and Apple pie, however I've got my hydration back to a satisfactory state at last.
Paul presses us on into the darkness, it's another short flat run now, only 40km to Goole but I'm approaching my natural sleep time and the yawns are concerning.
We set out at 0310, if I'm up late this is the time I'm usually asleep by, I can feel I'm going to struggle until daylight.
Robbie however isn't suffering from the dozies at all this time and I can see he's still going strong.
We ride back out of town the way we came in before splitting for Crowle, ahead we spot the unmistakable sight of a mass of rear bike lights. I perceive a quickening of the pace as we ride up the gentle hill into the town, in the centre we hurtle past what appears to be two teams worth of riders moving slowly.
A brief pee stop just out of town and I'm convinced I can see their lights coming up the road behind, forgetting it's a long flat straight and they could be a mile or more away I wonder if they'll catch us. There isn't much to do along here other than hang on to the group, any sights of interest hidden by the darkness of night.
The 'umber bridge lights up the sky in the distance as we ride through the marshes between the Trent and Ouse, we reach the Don on the way into Goole, the teams we passed haven't caught us.
I could say the river here is a bit like the Danube in Vienna, it's been split into a river and a canal, but that's all it has in common with Wien.
We cross the two lifting bridges and enter town. The GPS route tells us to go right at a junction, Paul, navigating off a route sheet is convinced it should be left. We go right and leave Goole reaching a junction that we shouldn't be at yet. A quick discussion and we work out the fastest route to the services, we've wasted distance and nearly missed the control, the route we take is the one we would have taken to get to the junction from the services, we'll soon be back here.
We go to the Spar in the petrol station, the McDonalds "dingied" this time of which I'm thankful as I really can't face another McDonald's and it's too early for the breakfast menu to inject some variety.
Robbie and Aiden want to use facilities which aren't present in the petrol station and end up there anyway, they return reporting about 6 teams worth of riders splashed out, sleeping or eating.
It's 0440 and we're now 37km from York. The teams sleeping here will almost certainly sleep to 6am and then ride the 37km to York in the last 2 hours in order to meet the 25km requirement. I can hardly face eating anything,
I stagger around the aisles of the Petrol Station Spar looking for something that I'm willing to eat and leave with a water bottle top up, a bottle of cherry coke that mostly went in the water bottle and a couple of bars of chocolate. This was a mistake.
We ride out of Goole Services, Steve and Paul are on the back as Aiden and Robbie take turns on the front, I'm hanging on between them as best I can. The discussion behind me is about the route to take to extend. In front of me there is no discussion, the locomotives of the team continue their pedal mashing.
We've got 4 hours to go, and in the last 2 we must do 25km, there's no way we're slowing to a crawl for 2 hours. Steve and Paul have scoped out routes in advance and know exactly where we'll get a photo for the 22hr control that'll also show the start of our extension leg.
It's still dark but I can see the darkness of night lifting from the sky, the dark blue of night slowly lightening. As we roll into dips where the cold air is trapped, we#re chilled to the bone despite the warmer night wear, it's probably below freezing at the bottom. Climbing out of the dips we feel the temperature rise significantly only to repeat the process as we go.
The sun rises while a light mist envelopes us, hanging low over the fields and road.
We cross the York bypass and enter Fulford just before 0620, it's only 3km to York City Centre but this is our 22hr control, originally planned for Goole at 0630, we're 34km ahead of schedule.
We have 2hrs 40mins for our extension of 45km to Sherburn in Elmet and back; I have no idea it's this long not the route on my Wahoo but I'm told there's shops at the turn and thanks to my fueling error at Goole I need them, Gels have to do the job for now.
I'm at my most tired, despite the strengthening daylight, I try to hang onto Aiden, Robbie's behind me, I'm struggling to keep in line with the cassette on the trike, my tired eyes make me feel like I'm bouncing between his wheels, fearing it's going to go wrong I drop back, swing out and ask Robbie to go in front, thankfully I can hold his wheel better in this state.
The road looks and feels like it's a perpetual 1% gradient, the world is getting brighter and warmer all the time. A swing bridge appears ahead in a town whose name I recognize but in my tired state I can't think why, I'm sure we've been through a Cawood already as we cross our earlier route at a cross roads. I don't see much more than the wheel in front and the road seemingly rising ahead, I need to focus on them to keep going.
A town starts suddenly with an industrial estate, Paul shouts to turn left at the lights and pick a shop, Spar or Tesco. I've not even made it off the bike at the Spar before Robbie exists and crosses the road to Tesco, the words "15 minutes for hot baked foods" was mentioned in the process.
I wander through Tesco, tired not quite figuring out what I want, there's no baked goods here either, I coudl go a sausage roll. I spy a pack of two Cream Slices, Robbie reminds me I need to be careful with Dairy, I tell him that right now I don't care, they'll get me to the finish even if I'm doubled in pain on the train
We're ready to set off before 0740, there 25km to go until breakfast and we have 1hr 20mins to do it in.
It's mostly down hill, the sun is up, the Cream Slices have given me an epic sugar high and I've got a bottle of Cherry Coke as well as energy drink to top up the sugar rush, both with added Caffeine.
Suddenly I'm awake again. We're riding faster than on the way out, back through Cawood and over the bridge, past York Marina, and we're back at Fulford, we've got 23 minutes to do the last 3km, the last hours happened so fast I can hardly believe it was that long.
The into York feels like a gentle descent, it's early enough that there isn't too much traffic, I don't know this road or how far there is to go. Suddenly Paul's taken the lead and indicates a tiny gap in the central reserve that allows us to turn onto Picadilly, before I know where I am, I'm trying to figure out how to fit my bike into a space amongst a mass of other bikes without blocking a door in the pub's courtyard.
We've arrived with 20 minutes to spare, time enough to get breakfast ordered for that critical final piece of brevidence.
The pub is heaving with cyclists in various states of knackeredness, although some are looking surprisingly fresh, others clearly show signs of a day and night on the bike.
I still can't face a full meal, so opt for pancakes instead of the cooked breakfast that everyone else tucks into, I'll get my fry up later.
It was an utterly epic ride, a cracking route for making progress while still having scenic interest.
Thanks to Steve and Paul for letting me be on their team, designing the route, setting the schedule (which we smashed) and keeping me going when I was struggling mainly by sitting behind me to make sure I didn't drift back and by reminding me to stay on the wheel. Aiden and Robbie did a fantastic job smashing that pace out all day and night.
It's been so long since I rode in a group, and so long since I set out to ride in a group that I wasn't sure I could ride at group pace at all, my normal Audax pace and strategy being around 20kmh and just letting groups go by riding at my own pace.
This ride really opened my eyes to what I'm capable of; I used to be able to push 25 to 30kmh moving averages on shorter routes but had thought I'd lost it with spending so much time pootling along.
Clearly it's still there I just need to dig it out.
We won't know exactly how we or others did until validations come through later in the year, we rode 477km on the road; our declared distance before extension was 426km, and we think we should get the full 45km for the extension as it appears to be the shortest route, making 471km.
Not bad, Eh!
Total Distance Ridden: 477.6Km
Time Taken: 23:40
Average Speed: 20.18Kmh
Moving Time: 19:30
Moving Average: 24.5Kmh
Estimated Energy Used: 13432Kcal
More specifically, you put together a team of between 3 and 5 riders, devise a route of over 360km (15kmh minimum speed) based on shortest distance between the controls you set, on a route that ultimately leads towards York and then ride it; if you are ahead of time you need to have suitable extension controls ready to up your distance by no more than 20%, or you could hang around at your penultimate control situated over 25km away from your finish control (although not too long) to ensure you meet the requirement of riding 25km in the last 2 hours, if you're down on distance you need to be within 20% of your declared distance, and finally 3 of the riders must finish for the team result and for the finishers in the team to be validated. Confused? Complicated? Aye me an aw!
I was tempted by an Arrow partly due to it being a requirement for the Audax UK Brevet 5000 and 25000 and ACP 5000 and 10000 awards, but mostly because it's a very different beast from the other types of Audax UK rides and I liked the idea. Robbie was also interested.
At the Yorkshire Grit ride back in February Aiden Hedley was riding with a "Arrow Team Wanted" poster on the back of his jersey and at the Arivée Steve Scott of the Lakes Velo team was hunting around for up to 3 more riders to join the Lakes Velo Arrow team for this years arrow. A brief discussion was followed up by e-mail from Steve and we had a team together.
Paul Revell had decided to take a year off captaining the team so Steve was getting to grips with the rules in the role of team captain with Paul's assistance when required. We agreed to target a reasonable points distance of 426km on a route of around 440km of riding however this was soon whittled down just over 430km with a bit of tidying up of the route plan.
I darted out of work at 4pm on the Thursday afternoon to get home and changed for the journey south, my packing and repacking done in advance to keep my time comfortable. At Dundee station a friend from the hiking club got off the train with her bike, unfortunately confusing the guard into thinking we were trying to overload the bike spaces, thankfully after some prompting he saw that the space I had booked was free and I got on, had I missed this train it would have been an expensive taxi to Glasgow or a long drive south. Neither of us had eaten before getting the train and for all Glasgow has to offer, when you've got a bike and 50 minutes between trains about the only location that is suitable to eat is the Glasgow Central Burger King, which is distinctly average.
We arrived at Steve's just after 10pm and after socializing settled in for the night, I opted for the motorhome as it suited me best, I'm used to the sort of cushions used and need a fairly solid bed, I also reckoned on getting woken by the dawn. With our start planned for 9am there was time for a leisurely awakening and breakfasting. As hoped I woke early and naturally as the dawn light streamed into the motorhome helping me avoid my normal morning sluggishness.
Steve prepared a cracking breakfast of Porridge, Eggs and Toast to set us up for the day.
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| Ready to set off |
I had got dressed for the morning chill but at Asda I adjusted my kit. I could tell it was going to be a much warmer day than forecast, leg and arm warmers were off Robbie remarking on how pale my "Peely Wally" Scottish skin is, he's so used to riding with me when the weather calls for wrapping up.
For the first time this year I was coating my arms with sun cream.
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| Riding on the flat of the Fylde |
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| On the road |
We had split the GPS route into the segments between controls which meant we could focus on each one individually, seeing there is 20km to go to Lytham is much nicer than 410km to York when you're thinking about Lytham and York is another 20 hours away, this also meant that when I was struggling I could only see how far until the next rest, ideal of the mental aspects of the ride.
As we rode into Lytham a 3-way roadwork light controls halted our progress briefly just before the control, however we were targeting a 25kmh average for this section and had exceeded 27kmh, a very good start to the day that we wanted to maintain, the schedule said we were to take a 30 minute break before setting off again.
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| Lunch Al Fresco at Lytham Booths |
So we raided the lunch food section of the supermarket instead, in the heat and with the effort expended already I wasn't thinking straight enough to work out the £3 meal deal so ended up spending double that instead on a Sweet Chilli Chicken wrap and a mince and pea Samosa.
We sat out in the sun next to the bikes to eat, watch comedy parking and speak to some curious locals.
In what seemed like no time the 30 minutes were up and we set off again but had a longer delay at the traffic lights as we chose different methods of dodging round them, the one that involved pushing the bike across the active arm of the 3 way light sequence was the slowest, pushing along the pavement was fastest, but no-one thought to ride on the adjacent cycle track, although it was packed with pedestrians. Once past the blockage we were back out on the same roads we arrived on until Lancaster.
After Lancaster we turned inland and started to climb towards Kirkby Lonsdale, our pace was still as hot as the day was becoming and Paul dropped back from the front to suggest to Steve that we stop early at Devils Bridge.
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| Teal Bugatti Type 35, based on the Bugatti Type 35 race car |
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| Heading for Sedberg |
I was rapidly going through liquid due to the heat, I switched my drink plan, using a half portion in each bottle, as the stages were roughly 80km apart I reckoned this would suit and the lower dilution would make it easier to drink regularly with food than the normal mixture does.
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| Climbing Garsdale |
The road out of Sedberg towards Hawes was used in Paul's "Brant and Slape" a tough day out where this road was the start of a long descent towards Kendal that took us from being Full Value to comfortably in time. Robbie commented on the scenery, the descent although steady is fast enough for focus to be on the road not the surroundings, the climb gentle enough that you can look around you.
I've also been over this road before in the car, not long after I passed my driving test, Dad decided I should get "some" motorway driving practice and we set off at silly AM to drive to the Classic Car Show at the NEC in Birmingham.
Having spent all day driving motorways and visiting the SAAB Owners Club stand (Dad was chairman at the time) we set off home via Hawes where Dad wanted to scope out the caravan site as he fancied stopping there for our next family holiday the drop from 10 lane motorway to twisty 2 lane single carriageway resulted in us swapping seats in the car for the drive into Hawes before we switched back so I could drive us out to the A1 route home.
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| Climbing Garsdale |
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| The Moorcock, soon we'll be descending |
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| Descending Wensleydale |
We were now over our only real hill of the day, the undulating descent of Wensleydale that we were pre-warned of was presented to us with the occasional steep ramp that briefly dropped our progress into single digits. I was suffering from the heat of the day with the first signs of a dehydration head-ache and the water I had was barely enough to get to Ripon at the drinking rate. We stopped at Wensley by the church to adjust our set-ups for the onset of night, warmers and lights were fitted to bodies and bikes in preparation, for now it was still warm and light but it wouldn't be by the time we got to Ripon.
I took the chance to take a pee but there wasn't much there adding to my dehydration concerns. We knew once the sun was gone it would get cold quickly, at 7pm we rode through Masham, past the Black Sheep Brewery with the temperature now down to 12c from the mid-twenties it had reached only an hour or so earlier.
We reached Ripon McDonald's in the cold dark at quarter to 9, 1 hour 15mins ahead of schedule, our average over the dale was 23kmh considerably better than the 19 that had been allowed for.
Riders from a VC167 team were there nearing the end of their control rest there, Audaxers have a look about them so although were in a hodge podge of kit they identified straight off that we were riding the Arrow too, Aiden is a VC167 rider so he socialized with them most before they got on their way.
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| Brief stop at Wensley for a quick snack and switch to night set ups |
I bought a large bottle of water from the co-op garage to top up my bottles with while waiting for my McDonald's meal to arrive as it proved considerably cheaper, but I didn't take in enough extra during the stop. I had a beef burger meal but stuck with a coke for the drink.
We stayed the planned 45 minutes, before cracking on for Selby, the big digs were behind us, the route a rolling descent into the flatlands, through the dark night, Knarseborough, Wetherby, Tadcaster and Cawood briefly punctuating the darkness, the odd boy racer darting past in a hurry to go nowhere.
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| Ripon McDonalds Steve's on the Ice Cream |
We were building up a good time cushion, not that I knew it, this information I didn't need or want to know.
I get more proof that I'm dehydrated despite emptying 1.5L of liquid into me in less than 4 hours.
I tuck into another McDonalds meal, I go for a Chicken Legend this time, I'm struggling to eat it but I go back for a chocolate muffin because I know I need it, I really wanted an apple pie but didn't order it with the meal and need something quick to buy.
I have coke left in my cup that I can't drink now so I put it in one of the bottles, the cool air and impact of going so long means I'm getting into the territory of stopping for a pee every 5 minutes. I've hit this during 24hr MTB rides in the past, that's fine when riding solo with a good cushion but in a team that's aiming to press on I just have to ride with a filling bladder, it also doesn't help with hydration.
We spend 38 minutes stopped, but were only scheduled for 30, arguably we're slacking now.
It's flat, being able to draft another ride is critical on the flat, it can be the difference between battering along in Zone 4 at 25kmh and ticking along in Zone 2 at 40kmh. I'm tall for a cyclist.
In a sport that favours the those of shorter stature the problem with being tall is that you can't hide in other riders draft so well;
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| Ripon |
When we reached the climb up Glen Doe a mass of midgets split round me and disappeared into the distance as I struggled, grinding away in the granny ring.
I did however catch many of them on the descent back to Inverness, they all tagged on for the lift back to the finish. Only two of them thanked me for the tows at the end.
The other side of this coin does occasionally happen and on one Mukyz Club 100 mile road ride I was placed in the "fast" group with 6' 5" Mark in it, he led us most of the way round the route at a ridiculous rate and on arriving at the Vane Farm junction he was too knackered to stay on the front and I swapped places with him for the last leg back to Glenrothes, this is the only time I've ever seen the fabled 30bpm HR drop between being on the front and drafting.
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| Riding in the dying light of day |
 |
| Night Riding |
At the road side a sign proclaims that we've left Yorkshire and entered Lincolnshire, we start to cross many bridges. The roads are long, flat and straight, more over-tuned hot hatches blast past, their engine lives and suitability reduced by race level tuning, the whiff of over rich exhaust gasses perfume the air as a Fiesta flies past with it's exhaust crackling with a fuel mix best described as excessive. Whoever set these cars up must have failed Tuning 101, unburnt fuel doesn't equate to more oomph.
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| Scunthorpe McDonalds I can't face another burger |
Scheduled Time: 0415
We've been 22 minutes slower than scheduled, despite this we're still well ahead of schedule.
I can't face another burger, I've had beef and I've had chicken, I forget about the Fillet O' Fish option, doesn't everyone?
Aiden is trying to convince the manager to let him buy a pot of porridge, unlike at previous stops where the request has been granted it's not happening this time. I can only face a punnet of fries and Apple pie, however I've got my hydration back to a satisfactory state at last.
Paul presses us on into the darkness, it's another short flat run now, only 40km to Goole but I'm approaching my natural sleep time and the yawns are concerning.
We set out at 0310, if I'm up late this is the time I'm usually asleep by, I can feel I'm going to struggle until daylight.
Robbie however isn't suffering from the dozies at all this time and I can see he's still going strong.
 |
Bridge in Wensleydale near Middleham
|
A brief pee stop just out of town and I'm convinced I can see their lights coming up the road behind, forgetting it's a long flat straight and they could be a mile or more away I wonder if they'll catch us. There isn't much to do along here other than hang on to the group, any sights of interest hidden by the darkness of night.
The 'umber bridge lights up the sky in the distance as we ride through the marshes between the Trent and Ouse, we reach the Don on the way into Goole, the teams we passed haven't caught us.
I could say the river here is a bit like the Danube in Vienna, it's been split into a river and a canal, but that's all it has in common with Wien.
We cross the two lifting bridges and enter town. The GPS route tells us to go right at a junction, Paul, navigating off a route sheet is convinced it should be left. We go right and leave Goole reaching a junction that we shouldn't be at yet. A quick discussion and we work out the fastest route to the services, we've wasted distance and nearly missed the control, the route we take is the one we would have taken to get to the junction from the services, we'll soon be back here.
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| Garsdalehead Viaduct on the Settle and Carlisle line |
Robbie and Aiden want to use facilities which aren't present in the petrol station and end up there anyway, they return reporting about 6 teams worth of riders splashed out, sleeping or eating.
It's 0440 and we're now 37km from York. The teams sleeping here will almost certainly sleep to 6am and then ride the 37km to York in the last 2 hours in order to meet the 25km requirement. I can hardly face eating anything,
I stagger around the aisles of the Petrol Station Spar looking for something that I'm willing to eat and leave with a water bottle top up, a bottle of cherry coke that mostly went in the water bottle and a couple of bars of chocolate. This was a mistake.
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| The sky starts to lighten |
We've got 4 hours to go, and in the last 2 we must do 25km, there's no way we're slowing to a crawl for 2 hours. Steve and Paul have scoped out routes in advance and know exactly where we'll get a photo for the 22hr control that'll also show the start of our extension leg.
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| Dawn at last A cold mist hangs on the fields and in the dips in the road Chilling us to the bone as we drop Warming us as we rise |
The sun rises while a light mist envelopes us, hanging low over the fields and road.
We cross the York bypass and enter Fulford just before 0620, it's only 3km to York City Centre but this is our 22hr control, originally planned for Goole at 0630, we're 34km ahead of schedule.
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| Riding into the daylight |
I'm at my most tired, despite the strengthening daylight, I try to hang onto Aiden, Robbie's behind me, I'm struggling to keep in line with the cassette on the trike, my tired eyes make me feel like I'm bouncing between his wheels, fearing it's going to go wrong I drop back, swing out and ask Robbie to go in front, thankfully I can hold his wheel better in this state.
A town starts suddenly with an industrial estate, Paul shouts to turn left at the lights and pick a shop, Spar or Tesco. I've not even made it off the bike at the Spar before Robbie exists and crosses the road to Tesco, the words "15 minutes for hot baked foods" was mentioned in the process.
I wander through Tesco, tired not quite figuring out what I want, there's no baked goods here either, I coudl go a sausage roll. I spy a pack of two Cream Slices, Robbie reminds me I need to be careful with Dairy, I tell him that right now I don't care, they'll get me to the finish even if I'm doubled in pain on the train
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| Crossing The Swing Bridge in Cawood |
It's mostly down hill, the sun is up, the Cream Slices have given me an epic sugar high and I've got a bottle of Cherry Coke as well as energy drink to top up the sugar rush, both with added Caffeine.
Suddenly I'm awake again. We're riding faster than on the way out, back through Cawood and over the bridge, past York Marina, and we're back at Fulford, we've got 23 minutes to do the last 3km, the last hours happened so fast I can hardly believe it was that long.
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| One of the VC167 teams |
We've arrived with 20 minutes to spare, time enough to get breakfast ordered for that critical final piece of brevidence.
The pub is heaving with cyclists in various states of knackeredness, although some are looking surprisingly fresh, others clearly show signs of a day and night on the bike.
I still can't face a full meal, so opt for pancakes instead of the cooked breakfast that everyone else tucks into, I'll get my fry up later.
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| 3/5th of Equipe Stravaiging with Robbie |
Thanks to Steve and Paul for letting me be on their team, designing the route, setting the schedule (which we smashed) and keeping me going when I was struggling mainly by sitting behind me to make sure I didn't drift back and by reminding me to stay on the wheel. Aiden and Robbie did a fantastic job smashing that pace out all day and night.
It's been so long since I rode in a group, and so long since I set out to ride in a group that I wasn't sure I could ride at group pace at all, my normal Audax pace and strategy being around 20kmh and just letting groups go by riding at my own pace.
This ride really opened my eyes to what I'm capable of; I used to be able to push 25 to 30kmh moving averages on shorter routes but had thought I'd lost it with spending so much time pootling along.
Clearly it's still there I just need to dig it out.
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| Finished in time for Breakfast |
Not bad, Eh!
Total Distance Ridden: 477.6Km
Time Taken: 23:40
Average Speed: 20.18Kmh
Moving Time: 19:30
Moving Average: 24.5Kmh
Estimated Energy Used: 13432Kcal
Sunday, 14 April 2019
Alston and Back - 13 April 2019
Something wasn't right, my bike was flying along the A7 nicely at this quiet hour, I was out on my own having been the only one to respond sharply to Lucy's statement advising us we could go, my feet were turning the pedals nicely but my stomach was starting to complain about something.
Was it the huge bowl of Shreddies I'd scoffed at half 4, or the huge Smash burger I'd had for tea the night before? It's irrelevant really.
A couple of riders caught up with me and I had a small dig to try and hang on and I discovered Robbie was just behind, we whizzed towards the first ramp of the day at Selkirk where I knew I'd start going backwards. I dropped the gears and started to climb at my normal slow pace, riders flew past as they always do, I'm used to this.
The sharp climbing finally comes to an end not too far out of Selkirk just after the SBR riders pass me on the climb, I pass them on the descent thanks to the function of gravity that is also partly related to my lack of speed on the climbs but they reel me in on the flat not long after and I don't hang on as the road climbs through Ettrickbridge.
I've chosen to ride the steel bike with guards today with my only usable rear wheel fitted a fact I'm slightly unnerved by, the Hunt still to come back from replacement and the Mavic, well they asked for a picture of the serial number mid-week and I've heard nothing since.
My stomachs complaining again if it's bad well there's trees out here in the Ettrick Valley, the road undulates along either side and across the middle but it's not tough to climb. The chill in the air is giving me something to distract from the discomfort with, my left hand exposed most to the cold wind from the south is very cold, I've picked the wrong gloves for the chill opting for mits over my DeFeet Duras, fine when the temperature is just above zero, it must be under. Douglas catches up and chats for a bit, exclaiming that it must be -4 because that's when his Moustache freezes, and it's frozen.
The odd rider flies past without talking, having got up to their cruising speed faster enough than mine. I'm just waiting for the Ettrick marshes before the summit and thinking of the conditions last time I rode up here on the "Long Dark Teatime", my hand hurts but the road is dry and the view is crisp. Riding through Ettrick where the 500m ford had risen between the first rider passing though and I at the rear I turned over the river on the bridge and followed the Tima into the forest. The signs denoting the march appear above be at last, sadly this is no long fast descent, potholes in some places looking like chasms to hell opening need to be dodged, broken cattle grids to pick a line over, it could be so much faster a descent but it isn't. The road levels out and on occasion climbs, I know where I am and I know it's not far now, the Tibetan Centre appears to my left, it's a couple of Ks to the old school now.
I roll the bike onto a stand and make a beeline for the WC, I exit very much relieved and quite shocked at my fingers being white but the palm red, I usually don't get here able to eat but I decide I can. After breakfast 2 I set off again, I'm convinced the wind's picked up while I was in there but at least there's some heat in the sun now, exactly how long was I in there for?
It's not far to the next control at Langholm, with a few more testing hills to conquer but I'm soon rolling through Bentpath and then into town. No need to eat anything from the shop here so I grab a receipt from the ATM and crack on for Gretna. I'm not a fan of this next section some long drawn out climbs that slow you down and a reasonable amount of cross border traffic. I see a sign for Glenzierburn and remember that this is a great example of the English and Scots spellings of the same name, it distracts me from the traffic at least. It's also where one of the few sections of the Scotland/England border is denoted not by a river but by a dyke build for the purpose.
I start reciting the first few verses of the Battle of Otterburn in my ear worm, we're on the wrong side of the island but it doesn't matter it's something to keep me going on this relatively boring bit of the A7 as a wait for the junction to Gretna to appear, I remember the wrong junction but it's not signed as Gretna so I know its not the one, as Longtown appears just up a slight rise the junction arrives.
We've got this little dogleg to get the distance up and it's the first time I get a chance since Eskdalemuir to judge how I'm going, I pass the SBR group and Douglas, no sign of Robbie so I know there's a fast group on the front that have already set off for Alston. The plan was to eat a pastry or something here, but I forget and grab sweets and juice, I'm not really feeling like I want food anyway.
Control bounced and I'm back at the junction, there's many riders still on their way into Gretna, the next waypoint is Brampton and it's signed all the way.
As I approached Brampton I remember my navigational error last year on the 600 so I load up the map not that it helps much as the fault was on the return. It's a long straight drag into the South Easterly wind but I'm hardly noticing, maybe it's the clicking from my Bottom Bracket distracting me from it?
On the climb out of Brampton I was looking forward to Hallbankgate where the road sign proudly proclaims "Local Shop", I had decided to investigate and have lunch here. I roll down the drive way and wander through the shop grabbing some sweets and a drink, when I got to the counter I realized how tired I was, and forgot about lunch. The small sitting area was a perfect rest, my right foot had started hurting for no reason on the climb out of Brampton so getting weight off it was necessary. Just the long climb to Alston now, at Midgeholm we leave Cumbria and enter Northumberland, picking up the South Tyne, the road runs alongside an old railway line with the bridges still in tact, and in the section from Slaggyford to Alston there is a narrow gauge railway on the trackbed. A slight distraction from the line, as I climb I spot a large group seconds too late to get a picture, Robbie's on the front, this can only be the lead riders there's been no one else.
As I climb the odd rider appears on their return journey, it's a long climb and a fast descent so the closeness of the other riders is deceptive to position but there's a lot of riders. Carolyn and Leighn catch up with me, and then stop to fix a puncture, I pass a rider I had seen on the way into Gretna on the climb, not long out of Slaggyford the steep corner appears, the ramp appearing to reach for the sky in front as you approach on a tangent, I take the curve and see it's not as bad as it looks as I struggle up, but that's it it's downhill gently now to the bridge below Alston and a gentle dig up to the petrol station where Dave's group who were at Gretna when I got there were still eating.
I grabbed a ridiculous stash of food from the shop and planted myself on the bags of wood in the bunker to eat and let my right foot calm down, a chicken sandwich, hot sausage roll, can of coke and two chocolate eclaires, surely enough to get me back to Eskdale. The other riders roll in for their control.
I persuade myself that it's time to go, I give the bike a kick out of the garage and in no time am saying good afternoon to a couple of gentlemen passing the time of day on the seats at the war memorial, seconds later I'm telling them I went the wrong way, that's twice I've done that. After the gentle climb to the summit I'm picking my way between potholes at high speed, laughing within myself at people who proclaim that 1x is great and no one rides in the 50x11... The potholes are stopping me pushing up to spin out speed.
I take a mental note of who I'm passing now, Edwin is not far out of Alston, Cory is just out of Slaggyford and a woman in Cycology gear that I don't recognise who is definitely a Randonneur (who else would have only a Carradice Barley for luggage?) is entering Slaggyford, it's Half 3 in the afternoon, they've got time but it's going to be a late return for them.
Suddenly I'm flying towards the Brampton bypass, I get across cleanly and then back up to speed into town where a tourist bus gets in my way. Last time I missed the turn and was nearly back on the bypass but I find it fine this time, I'm back in the 50x11 and on the flat run to Longtown, definitely not 1x territory. I'm feeling good again and my foot isn't hurting either.
Longtown, onto the A7, junction on the left for Glingerbank, past the border house, Scotland, Glenzierburn, as I said great example of the difference between Scots and English for the same name, the "Z" is actually a Ȝ, when the printing press came to Scotland they didn't come with the letter Yough and with Z being quite rare in Scots,the typesetters didn't bother to get the symbol cast, the legacy of which is a hodgepodge of mispronunciations of places such as Edzell, Menzies, Lenzie, Cadzow and Dalziel, some have become the norm others still get you a WTF stare.
Two big lumps to Langholm and I'm there, cash machine again, I faff with my wallet and Leighn and another rider roll in. After getting his receipt he asks me about hub generators forgetting to take his card, an inconvenience. Roll on out of Langholm and it's mostly up, the odd undulation giving a bonus descent, back through pretty village of Bentpath, one big lump to tea. Carolyn and Leighn pass, I tell Leighn about his card as they do, he checks. Bugger he did.
They're faster than me, I know this so don't try and hang on but just before Eskdalemuir I see them fixing another puncture, another 500m...
I roll into the hub again, Dave's group are in and eating as are plenty of others, Leighn and Carolyn roll in not long after me.
We're all eating tea, Pasta Bolognese and cake for me, others have the Cheese Quiche. I take another toilet stop, the lights go out twice while I'm in there which makes things interesting, next time I'll have my head torch!
I return to an empty café and the staff have assumed I'd left my lid and bottles so have put them to the side briefly confusing me, how long was I in there! It looks like it was 20 minutes. Another rider rolls in as I leave it's till daylight and the climb is a bit lumpy but nothing too steep, I make it to the top in daylight, it's mostly downhill now but with a few small climbs to spoil things. As light fell I became aware that my front light was pointing too low but I never got round to digging the Torx keys out until I couldn't ride the road at a decent speed. I stopped to dig the head torch and keys out, as I got the light where I wanted I looked back up the valley, there were no lights behind me.
I passed the Tushielaw and Crosskeys pubs, the transmitters on the hills round Selkirk crept closer in the darkness, I decided for once to use Lucy's suggestion to ride over to the Yarrow for the return to avoid the steep hill on the road into Selkirk, it felt weird turning back to the West but the run into Selkirk was all the nicer, over the bridge turning past the old sign of Galashiels, at the edge of the Industrial estate I judged the traffic on the A7 and decided to use the cycle path route, the kerb at the end of the old bridge nearly caught me out again, once through the bollards I just want to turn left like on a normal junction rather than carry on to the kerb line and then turn, I fixed it in time to not have a large shudder as I turned. I'd hoped for another half 10 finish if not earlier but that possibility was gone.
I saw a red light shining up the hill ahead of me and it was getting closer, I caught and passed another rider who has been there or thereabouts with me all day, but riding to a different pattern, he told me he was knackered and I could hear it in his voice. When we arrived at the finish I wasn't speaking much sense, tiredness hit quickly but I got some food in me. Robbie had been waiting a long time, I had suggested he take the key to the accommodation up in Lauder but he didn't want to do the climb!
Was it the huge bowl of Shreddies I'd scoffed at half 4, or the huge Smash burger I'd had for tea the night before? It's irrelevant really.
A couple of riders caught up with me and I had a small dig to try and hang on and I discovered Robbie was just behind, we whizzed towards the first ramp of the day at Selkirk where I knew I'd start going backwards. I dropped the gears and started to climb at my normal slow pace, riders flew past as they always do, I'm used to this.
 |
| Cold |
I've chosen to ride the steel bike with guards today with my only usable rear wheel fitted a fact I'm slightly unnerved by, the Hunt still to come back from replacement and the Mavic, well they asked for a picture of the serial number mid-week and I've heard nothing since.
 |
| Moustache freezing cold conditions |
My stomachs complaining again if it's bad well there's trees out here in the Ettrick Valley, the road undulates along either side and across the middle but it's not tough to climb. The chill in the air is giving me something to distract from the discomfort with, my left hand exposed most to the cold wind from the south is very cold, I've picked the wrong gloves for the chill opting for mits over my DeFeet Duras, fine when the temperature is just above zero, it must be under. Douglas catches up and chats for a bit, exclaiming that it must be -4 because that's when his Moustache freezes, and it's frozen.
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| Climbing to the summit |
I roll the bike onto a stand and make a beeline for the WC, I exit very much relieved and quite shocked at my fingers being white but the palm red, I usually don't get here able to eat but I decide I can. After breakfast 2 I set off again, I'm convinced the wind's picked up while I was in there but at least there's some heat in the sun now, exactly how long was I in there for?
It's not far to the next control at Langholm, with a few more testing hills to conquer but I'm soon rolling through Bentpath and then into town. No need to eat anything from the shop here so I grab a receipt from the ATM and crack on for Gretna. I'm not a fan of this next section some long drawn out climbs that slow you down and a reasonable amount of cross border traffic. I see a sign for Glenzierburn and remember that this is a great example of the English and Scots spellings of the same name, it distracts me from the traffic at least. It's also where one of the few sections of the Scotland/England border is denoted not by a river but by a dyke build for the purpose.
I start reciting the first few verses of the Battle of Otterburn in my ear worm, we're on the wrong side of the island but it doesn't matter it's something to keep me going on this relatively boring bit of the A7 as a wait for the junction to Gretna to appear, I remember the wrong junction but it's not signed as Gretna so I know its not the one, as Longtown appears just up a slight rise the junction arrives.
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| The Gretna Dog Leg |
Control bounced and I'm back at the junction, there's many riders still on their way into Gretna, the next waypoint is Brampton and it's signed all the way.
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| SBR Riders on the descent from Brampton |
On the climb out of Brampton I was looking forward to Hallbankgate where the road sign proudly proclaims "Local Shop", I had decided to investigate and have lunch here. I roll down the drive way and wander through the shop grabbing some sweets and a drink, when I got to the counter I realized how tired I was, and forgot about lunch. The small sitting area was a perfect rest, my right foot had started hurting for no reason on the climb out of Brampton so getting weight off it was necessary. Just the long climb to Alston now, at Midgeholm we leave Cumbria and enter Northumberland, picking up the South Tyne, the road runs alongside an old railway line with the bridges still in tact, and in the section from Slaggyford to Alston there is a narrow gauge railway on the trackbed. A slight distraction from the line, as I climb I spot a large group seconds too late to get a picture, Robbie's on the front, this can only be the lead riders there's been no one else.
As I climb the odd rider appears on their return journey, it's a long climb and a fast descent so the closeness of the other riders is deceptive to position but there's a lot of riders. Carolyn and Leighn catch up with me, and then stop to fix a puncture, I pass a rider I had seen on the way into Gretna on the climb, not long out of Slaggyford the steep corner appears, the ramp appearing to reach for the sky in front as you approach on a tangent, I take the curve and see it's not as bad as it looks as I struggle up, but that's it it's downhill gently now to the bridge below Alston and a gentle dig up to the petrol station where Dave's group who were at Gretna when I got there were still eating.
I grabbed a ridiculous stash of food from the shop and planted myself on the bags of wood in the bunker to eat and let my right foot calm down, a chicken sandwich, hot sausage roll, can of coke and two chocolate eclaires, surely enough to get me back to Eskdale. The other riders roll in for their control.
 |
| No one rides 50x11... |
I take a mental note of who I'm passing now, Edwin is not far out of Alston, Cory is just out of Slaggyford and a woman in Cycology gear that I don't recognise who is definitely a Randonneur (who else would have only a Carradice Barley for luggage?) is entering Slaggyford, it's Half 3 in the afternoon, they've got time but it's going to be a late return for them.
Suddenly I'm flying towards the Brampton bypass, I get across cleanly and then back up to speed into town where a tourist bus gets in my way. Last time I missed the turn and was nearly back on the bypass but I find it fine this time, I'm back in the 50x11 and on the flat run to Longtown, definitely not 1x territory. I'm feeling good again and my foot isn't hurting either.
Longtown, onto the A7, junction on the left for Glingerbank, past the border house, Scotland, Glenzierburn, as I said great example of the difference between Scots and English for the same name, the "Z" is actually a Ȝ, when the printing press came to Scotland they didn't come with the letter Yough and with Z being quite rare in Scots,the typesetters didn't bother to get the symbol cast, the legacy of which is a hodgepodge of mispronunciations of places such as Edzell, Menzies, Lenzie, Cadzow and Dalziel, some have become the norm others still get you a WTF stare.
 |
| Back at Eskdalemuir |
They're faster than me, I know this so don't try and hang on but just before Eskdalemuir I see them fixing another puncture, another 500m...
I roll into the hub again, Dave's group are in and eating as are plenty of others, Leighn and Carolyn roll in not long after me.
We're all eating tea, Pasta Bolognese and cake for me, others have the Cheese Quiche. I take another toilet stop, the lights go out twice while I'm in there which makes things interesting, next time I'll have my head torch!
 |
| Still daylight past the summit |
I passed the Tushielaw and Crosskeys pubs, the transmitters on the hills round Selkirk crept closer in the darkness, I decided for once to use Lucy's suggestion to ride over to the Yarrow for the return to avoid the steep hill on the road into Selkirk, it felt weird turning back to the West but the run into Selkirk was all the nicer, over the bridge turning past the old sign of Galashiels, at the edge of the Industrial estate I judged the traffic on the A7 and decided to use the cycle path route, the kerb at the end of the old bridge nearly caught me out again, once through the bollards I just want to turn left like on a normal junction rather than carry on to the kerb line and then turn, I fixed it in time to not have a large shudder as I turned. I'd hoped for another half 10 finish if not earlier but that possibility was gone.
I saw a red light shining up the hill ahead of me and it was getting closer, I caught and passed another rider who has been there or thereabouts with me all day, but riding to a different pattern, he told me he was knackered and I could hear it in his voice. When we arrived at the finish I wasn't speaking much sense, tiredness hit quickly but I got some food in me. Robbie had been waiting a long time, I had suggested he take the key to the accommodation up in Lauder but he didn't want to do the climb!
Sunday, 7 April 2019
The Turra Coo - 300 - 6 April 2019
Apparently bad luck comes in threes and I'd had three instances of it before I got to the start.
Sadly the route didn't pass the Coo so I made do with a quick shot of a field full of Coos and set about on the climb to Huntly which was relatively uneventful, however rolling into town I was thrown a bit by the one way system and the road closures for the market, but rolled past the 4th or 5th Highland Football League ground of the day, what's odd about the HFL is that most clubs although north of the Highland Boundary Fault line (and a few north of the great glen fault) are based in the North East the least Highlandy bit of the Highlands!
I eventually found a route into the town centre, the cash machine was out of order so risked RS McColls for a receipt as I couldn't find a Co-Op, then while rolling out of town I discovered there was a big Tesco that most had controlled at. Looking at Google maps it appears there is also a big ASDA but no Co-Op.
- While Giving the bike a quick test before loading the car up I was aware of a few clunks and pings and then just as I was heading to the car the chain rolled off onto the road, one side of the quick link hadn't engaged properly with the pin of the other and had separated under load and in the process twisted. I spend a few minutes trying to remove the mangled quick link before retrieving the pliers from the garage to do the job, just as well it happened outside the house as
I probably wouldn't have been able to separate the duff link from the chain at the roadside.
At least it would have happened near the start. - Robbie reminded me given the start time that it would make sense for him to get a lift from the hotel to the start, so in the morning before setting off I took the bike out, took the front wheel off and as I was putting it back in noticed an "interesting" pattern around one of the spokes... Cleaning it up I realized I had a knackered rim. With my main wheel away to the builder with the same problem I swapped in my only other suitable wheel off the Genesis.
Another potential rider ender averted. - I drove up the A90 and took Cairn-O-Mounth followed by a route winding through Torphins and Alford, but just as I got to Insch my Handbrake warning light started flickering on and off... Um... I stopped at Insch and had a look, fluid was a bit low, um... Drove on a bit at low speed to a parking area on the A96 and checked again. No fluid... RAC time.
I spent a few minutes in the lay-by before the tow truck from Huntly arrived with some DOT 4, but after a quick inspection he spotted what I hadn't, fluid all over the inner wheel rim, so I arrived in Elgin on the back of the two truck needing either a replacement calliper or flexi-hose just after closing time ideal.
So that's all three yeah? Hope so!
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| Ah'v nae idea far this wis |
We arrived down at the start just after 5am and got tucked into the breakfast that Mark the organizer had put on for riders. Despite the long life Croissant I had already scoffed before setting off, I had a couple of bowls of All Bran for the road. 6am arrived and no one seemed particularly ready to set off, Robbie took the initiative and I grabbed his virtual bungee chord to see how long I could hang on for; as usual it was the first rise that got me and those behind my in the bungee chain let go and flew past to catch Robbies.
The Wahoo lost the route on the way into Elgin as I'd loaded a route on that took the more circuitous NCN route and I didn't have the backlight enabled so I was having to follow my nose, I picked up the NCN past the Abbey but then missed the turn along the river and ended up on the A96 through town and then took the first road north that looked like it would take me onto the route to get back to the coast.
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| Cullen, no control so no Haddie Soup |
I rejoined between a couple of groups near the back and carried on towards Banff, passing through Buckie and Cullen taking in the coastal scenery, there was a multitude of route options and while I stuck with the published route I could see groups riding down on the coast road and up on the hill road either side of the old railway route I was on, but we eventually all merged onto the coast road for the roll into Banff where I went to the TSB ATM to discover it tells you the street address but nothing else before moving onto the Cashzone machine outside a shop that had the required information.
The route turned inland and it was the start of a long broken up climb that ultimately culminated at Slochd but first we had to stop at Turriff where the titular cow became collateral in an argument over the introduction of National Insurance between state and farmers.
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| Substitute Turra Coos |
I'd never been to Turriff before, and we only scratched the surface with a pop into Tesco however I remember the Christmas TV adverts on Grampian TV for shopping in Turriff which, just like the radio adverts for the Brechin castle centre pronounced the town names as badly as Gordon Ramsay does, the local advertising was in the form of static cards either end of the networked adverts for old style MilkyWay bars; sadly I haven't found a you tube video that shows the advert in all its static epicness so you'll just have to imagine it, a white card with a red robin in one corner, a picture of some shops and words along the line of "Come to Turriff for your Christmas shopping" with a voice over saying the same thing, it would probably be followed by one for Aberdeen's premier scrap metal merchant "Panda Rosa" also spoken in a suspiciously non-Doric voice. Living in North Fife we got such exotic advertising as Dundee didn't get it's own advertising stream until nearer the STV take over. Back then I could watch the other ITV channel only by going to my Gran's in Cupar where the telly picked up Scottish TV which was of course a Weegie channel.
However ah dinna ken why mah Gran wanted tae watch Scottish TV as be'in fae Fettery she spiks Mearns Doric anyhoo.
I decided to eat first lunch here and raided Tesco for something tastyish, as I left the shop a rider wearing a CTC Grampian top appeared pushing a shopping trolley, automatically assuming he was riding the Coo I suggested he wasn't going to need that size of trolley.
As I ate my sandwich a big group of riders arrived and one of them knew the shopper so I quickly realized my mistake. He was of course actually out on his weekly shop and had a fully panniered up bike sitting waiting to take the shopping home.
However ah dinna ken why mah Gran wanted tae watch Scottish TV as be'in fae Fettery she spiks Mearns Doric anyhoo.
I decided to eat first lunch here and raided Tesco for something tastyish, as I left the shop a rider wearing a CTC Grampian top appeared pushing a shopping trolley, automatically assuming he was riding the Coo I suggested he wasn't going to need that size of trolley.
As I ate my sandwich a big group of riders arrived and one of them knew the shopper so I quickly realized my mistake. He was of course actually out on his weekly shop and had a fully panniered up bike sitting waiting to take the shopping home.
Sadly the route didn't pass the Coo so I made do with a quick shot of a field full of Coos and set about on the climb to Huntly which was relatively uneventful, however rolling into town I was thrown a bit by the one way system and the road closures for the market, but rolled past the 4th or 5th Highland Football League ground of the day, what's odd about the HFL is that most clubs although north of the Highland Boundary Fault line (and a few north of the great glen fault) are based in the North East the least Highlandy bit of the Highlands!
I eventually found a route into the town centre, the cash machine was out of order so risked RS McColls for a receipt as I couldn't find a Co-Op, then while rolling out of town I discovered there was a big Tesco that most had controlled at. Looking at Google maps it appears there is also a big ASDA but no Co-Op.
It was only now that I discovered from Simon that Dufftown is not a control on this ride; I had convinced myself that it was (because it always is!) so my Plan to eat there went out the window unless I really needed to eat something.
I was going well on the climb and rewarded with a decent descent into Dufftown while seeing signs for the Cabrach that thankfully I didn't need to cross today, a fair few other riders did stop at the Café here to eat and I wasn't far off catching Robbie who was riding in a small group and making good progress.
The climb through town was the usual struggle but thanks to the easterly I was again going well in Glen Rinnes and unlike during February's bash at the Snow Roads my average speed was climbing all the way until I stopped at the Old Fire Station in Tomintoul where Mark was waiting to plant the proof of passage on my Brevet before I tucked into a late lunch of decent proportions.
I was going well on the climb and rewarded with a decent descent into Dufftown while seeing signs for the Cabrach that thankfully I didn't need to cross today, a fair few other riders did stop at the Café here to eat and I wasn't far off catching Robbie who was riding in a small group and making good progress.
The climb through town was the usual struggle but thanks to the easterly I was again going well in Glen Rinnes and unlike during February's bash at the Snow Roads my average speed was climbing all the way until I stopped at the Old Fire Station in Tomintoul where Mark was waiting to plant the proof of passage on my Brevet before I tucked into a late lunch of decent proportions.
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| Above the snow line between Dufftown and Tomintoul |
The menu was sadly limited and the Beans on Toast I'd been dreaming of was substituted with a Bacon and Egg Roll, Pancake with Syrup and a Bakewell tart which I reckoned would see me over Slochd and down into Nairn. It was now time for the climb I was dreading, Bridge of Brown, it's not long, and it's not excessively steep but it punctuates an otherwise long descent to Nethy Bridge and would be a test for the tired legs. The descent to the bridge is tricky as it winds its way down with some gravel littered corners that demand some care, before ramping you up sharply after crossing the bridge, first time I rode this I failed to realize what was going on and was forced to mash up the first ramp it in a ridiculous gear before it eased off enough for me to change gear, today I was set in the little ring and well up the cassette before the bridge ready for the ramp and rode up it comfortably.
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| The start of the Bridge of Brown Dip, you can see the road climbing ahead |
Optimistically I declared to myself that there was no more climbing until the start of the Slochd climb at Aviemore, really I know this to be wrong, there's plenty of bumps on the roads down to and through the Nethy Forest and Nethy bridge to Coylumbridge is actually marginally uphill, but as it's a long "easy" section it gave a good chance to rest, possibly a bit too much as my slow time down to Aviemore shows. I stopped at the new M&S Petrol Station in Aviemore rather run the gauntlet in Tesco which I was fairly sure would by now have every till on and a queue of gadgies waiting to put their trolley full of six packs though for the nights bevvying wherever that may be.
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| Slochd, not so snowy today |
The road north out of Aviemore was busy even after the north junction with the A9 and I was glad to get onto the Carrbridge road, through the village and then onto the old A9 to Slochd village. Ahead of me I could see the blinking rear light of a rider wearing hi-vis but I didn't recognise the kit from earlier. Eventually I saw him stop and wait for me and suggested we ride together up Slochd which I was happy to do having spent most of the day out on my own, it turned out he had set off from Forres at Midday to ride over Dava with the hope of finding a hostel in Grantown but had discovered there's not such cheap accommodation there so had worked out he could ride back to Nairn, I spoke to him as we climbed and discovered he was based at the Findhorn trust doing training for long hikes in Spain later this year amongst other things, we crossed Slochd and descended to Nairn together where he went to figure out how to get back to base and I went to find a Co-Op for proof of purchase.
It was now starting to get dark and the wind was building up making the flat road hard work out of the shelter of the trees for a solo rider, the road network also seems to work against you here. A maze of roads that wind between hamlets and bounce you close to the A96 and back towards the coast before you reach the Findhorn where the options are an off-road section to avoid the A96 or go for it on the bust road, though at this time of night it did look temptingly quiet.
From Nairn back to Duffus it was a flat 38km that I rode at only 19kmh sucking my hope of being home before 10pm and I rolled in just before 2230 for a bowl or two of cottage pie and trifle.
From Nairn back to Duffus it was a flat 38km that I rode at only 19kmh sucking my hope of being home before 10pm and I rolled in just before 2230 for a bowl or two of cottage pie and trifle.
Despite me nearly catching Robbies group at Dufftown and getting close again at Aviemore they were home a full 2 hours ahead of me having picked up significant time on the sections where working together really helps and my lower climbing speed; this is all something that concerns me ahead of riding the Easter Arrow in a couple of weekends time; however the light nights and better weather will hopefully let me get out after work for some active recovery and a harder ride but it could be too little to late?
Wednesday, 3 April 2019
Moffat Toffee and Up on the Route Extension - 30th and 31st March 2019
I'm convinced doing two 200 rides in a weekend is harder than riding a 400.
There's something about the stopping, resting, driving somewhere else and getting up early the next morning that just makes it feel harder; just to add to that extra hardness there was an hour less in bed thanks to the cows somehow knowing what time of day it is by the clock and wanting milked earlier so they can have more fun chewing the cud and saying moo in daylight later in the day or something like that.
I'd ridden this route in 2018 but had largely forgotten it with all the other rides I've ridden from Galashiels, I remembered the muir road above Annandale and the terrible surfaces including a junction where all I could make out was gravel and that there was a fair bit of climbing.
So I was ready to ca canny not just because of the road surfaces and climbing but also because it was the first of a 200km double header.
A hearty cooked breakfast sorted us out and we walked up to Focus Centre where I'd bagged a parking space the previous night. Start time came slightly quicker than I was expecting and I had only just locked the car when the start time came. I tried to ride with Robbie who was trying to keep up with Russell and Aiden was spinning along rapidly too. We reached the town cross and Aiden shot off along to take the A7 route to Selkirk rather than climb over the hill, I kept trying to hang on to Robbie and Russel but a late gear shift and my legs blocking up with the shock of such a hard start had me going backwards through the field before the gradient eased off. I got into a rhythm with some other riders and we swapped places as the road profile suited our riding, me going backwards on the climbs before bombing past people on the descents as usual. I was also riding in the vicinity of a tandem, who looked like would match pace with me there or there abouts.
The first info control I made a mess of, I knew exactly which junction Lucy uses at Roberton but for some reason gave the answer for the next junction a few meters up the road; I could tell you the answers to the other 2 questions she's used there but that's not in the spirit of this game. I passed the tandem again on the climb over to Tushielaw and then they got me on the descent, we repeated that on the climb to country march but just as they were about to catch me on the descent into Eskdalemuir I heard the stoker say something short and sharp to the captain and their presence disappeared and I never saw them again all ride.
The big breakfast meant I only really wanted to bounce the café at Eskdalemuir but the one thing they don't really provide is a quick bounce, I didn't need to eat so grabbed a cake and can of coke to sit and eat before continuing on to Langholm where I took a sandwich from the shop fridge and ate in a bus stop with a smashed window; all the glitz and glamour of Audax!
Some riders I knew bounced the control faster than me arriving after but leaving before but I knew I had plenty time so nae rush. The next section over the muir was going to be interesting with my memory of the surfaces however it quickly proved that the council surface fairies had sorted many of the bad sections and the gravelly corner proved to have been cleaned though not resurfaced so all was good. I stopped to take in the view at Corrie Common and decided to get a couple of pictures of riders on the move as they crested the summit.
At a junction not far out of Moffat I wasn't paying enough attention and I hit a bit of gravel at low speed, thankfully I caught the bike before the point of no return; in Moffat the sun was shining, and there was a gaggle of riders outside the Rumbletum Café where I decided to control; though riders were spread out around the town. I got speaking to a rider sitting in the sun as I ate my cake who turned out to be living local to me and a name I regularly see on Strava "Clockwork Hamster", we discussed our Strava names and then the road ahead; I declared the ride out to the Grey Mare's Tail to be "Annoying" before setting off.
The road bumps along the floor of Moffatdale as it rises to the waterfall where the pass over to the Yarrow Valley ramps up in a gentle but consistent rise to a house that can be seen on the approach. Clockwork Hamster caught me on the descent just after St Mary's loch and we decided to ride together to the finish however typically for me late in the ride I was bursting for a pee on the last climb before Galashiels so I stopped to ease the discomfort and he finished just ahead of me as the sunset on a grand day out.
11 hours isn't bad, same time as last year, less time stopped and marginally slower on the road though shows the difference by training structure; last year I had ridden lots of small rides by now; this year I've ridden very few short fast rides but long rides on all but 2 weekends of the year. I really need to start getting out at night and upping the pace to get some speed back into me.
Moffat Toffee last year was also my first Audax on the Orange Focus, since then I've ridden almost 11000km on it, the Synapse has 13000km on it and is 5 years old!
Ponteland is closer to Gala than Gala is to home, so the double header that was presented in the event calendar wasn't too tricky to consider or for that matter hit the enter button on, however not long after setting off from Gala on our way south the mist was down and the drive over Carter Bar turned into a careful crawl. This resulted in a later than hoped arrival at the hotel to go with the clock change, but I still got some sleep even if I did have to get up at what should be 5am to get to the start on time.
We arrived at the start, bleary eyed with the lack of sleep, limbs aching from the efforts the previous day. Bikes reassembled and pushed down to the hall to see who was around, Russell had made it down with a later than anticipated departure from Selkirk due to hanging on until control closing time at Gala along with Neil, Aiden was also on for the double header on the Trike.
Juice and some biscuits were all there was for breakfast but I'd had a Belvita breakfast biscuit already so I could hang on until we passed what passes for civilisation in a Sunday morning in England.
By the time I had grabbed my bike and made way to the start the vast majority of riders were lined up ready to go and thanks to not paying attention to the height of the kerb I was soon passed by any other stragglers. Robbie hung back for me and we caught and passed a few slower riders in the first few miles and also caught up with Russell and Neil who we spoke to for a bit before a slight rise put the distance between us. They were of course taking it easy. Aiden on the other hand had saved himself on the Borders ride to go a bit faster on this one and was off in the distance.
Due to the misreading of the info sheet that meant we hadn't been prepared to eat breakfast before the start so we took an early first stop at Corbridge where a Co-Op provided a breakfast croissant and juice, of the few riders that were behind us before this there were none now, or so we thought. From here the road started to rise more aggressively and the average speed was ticking down but not too worryingly.
Just after the first info control two other riders caught us and chatted briefly, they had started 30 mins late. We were now confirmed as Lantern Rouge. The road continued upwards to the Derwent Reservoir where another info control was had to bring us round to a checkpoint in a car park where a table with provisions of Jelly Babies (of which I had a "few") and Flapjacks which I stashed a couple of in my jersey pockets. We got some gen about the road ahead from the organizer, which confirmed it was mostly up and that we'd need to watch the surfaces and corners on the descents.
A mention of one of the info controls "What colour are the caravans" saw me successfully guess the colour (caravans only really come in 2 colours...) and it was suggested we should give the shade too, challenge accepted!
I started seeing town names I recognised which must be from navigating on the Durham Dales in a Gold (Diarrhoea Brown) SAAB 96 many years ago. Edmundbyres heralded the start of the first big climb 4km with an average grade of 6% leading us to the top of a plunge into Stanhope so steep that sand trap escape lanes are provided at the side of the road, a large group of C2C riders were climbing the hill out of Stanhope in a variety of paces and manners.
The brief respite of the descent was soon replaced with a long drag up Weardale, which we traversed on a quite country lane with the remains of Quarrying evident at the side and over the road. We passed the caravans and we discussed the colour shades, I thought Snot, Robbie thought Pistachio, so we decided to write each others.
The road started to ramp up at Wearhead as we climbed over the hill to enter Allendale, I stopped at Cowsgill to get a picture looking back down Weardale before continuing the long climb, on which I could see Robbie's bright pink Rapha jersey a long way off, though he said my Orange Mukyz kit wasn't as obvious looking back. I caught up with him when he stopped at the summit on the county march of Durham and Northumberland. I rolled past and let Robbie catch up before letting the speed build up, and in no time we were in Allenhead where the café had opened out of season for us.
I worked out we had 30 mins in hand so we kept the stop brief, there was a few other riders in and we sat with some but we realized pretty quickly they were on the 160km ride with a more relaxed minimum speed of 12kmh.
We were soon off again with 10 minutes to spare over closing time but we needn't have worried about that as after a small flat section out of Allenhead it was an hour long plunge for 25km down to Haydon Bridge where a quick Co-Op stop allowed the 160km'ers to catch us.
The route returned to being fairly easy going for the next 50km back into Ponteland, Robbie got a bit ahead of me and beat me to the control by around 5 minutes; I ended up queuing for a stamp with riders who had finished and had to correct the controller as he thought I'd finished!
A 20 minute stop was enough for a refuel and we set off for the last 40km, an out and back via Morpeth to the Co-Op in Pegswood, the outbound leg was a gentle climb with the odd ramp thrown in and we saw that we wern't that far behind the other riders with Aiden the first to pass us followed by Russel and Neil, we then had a few VC167 riders before the inbound and outbound legs diverged though there was one rider who decided to repeat the outbound to avoid the climb out of Morpeth, and then a large group of VC167 riders were leaving Pegswood as we arrived, we controlled at the co-op where I nearly forgot to get a receipt and then cracked back on, taking the route through Morpeth where a reminder of how poor driving can be was had on the descent with an impatient taxi driver. Turning back onto the lanes though we were on our own for the return past Kikley.
On the last small stretch into Ponteland I thought I'd see what I had left in me after 2 days which wasn't much but I was able to add 10kmh to my speed on the marginally downhill roll into town.
We to the hall just on 8pm, a 12 hour 200km ride the day after an 11 hour. Both with similar cumulative climb but different profiles, the first stretching it out over the day with the second loading it at the front and letting us catch speed up at the end.
We sat and are beans on toast and spoke to the organizer for a while afterwards, Robbie was staying in town for an early train so he was asking about how to get to the city centre, with the recommendation of getting to the airport for the metro, as I was staying next to one of the stations we decided to put his bike in the car to save the apparently horrible ride to the airport.
A 12hr 200km Audax isn't bad, 1hr 30m in hand as it was under ACP rules (15kmh) so to be last back was a bit odd, but that was with an 11hr 200km the day before so it's not bad!
There's something about the stopping, resting, driving somewhere else and getting up early the next morning that just makes it feel harder; just to add to that extra hardness there was an hour less in bed thanks to the cows somehow knowing what time of day it is by the clock and wanting milked earlier so they can have more fun chewing the cud and saying moo in daylight later in the day or something like that.
Moffat Toffee
I'd ridden this route in 2018 but had largely forgotten it with all the other rides I've ridden from Galashiels, I remembered the muir road above Annandale and the terrible surfaces including a junction where all I could make out was gravel and that there was a fair bit of climbing.
So I was ready to ca canny not just because of the road surfaces and climbing but also because it was the first of a 200km double header.
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| I wasn't quite ready for the start! |
A hearty cooked breakfast sorted us out and we walked up to Focus Centre where I'd bagged a parking space the previous night. Start time came slightly quicker than I was expecting and I had only just locked the car when the start time came. I tried to ride with Robbie who was trying to keep up with Russell and Aiden was spinning along rapidly too. We reached the town cross and Aiden shot off along to take the A7 route to Selkirk rather than climb over the hill, I kept trying to hang on to Robbie and Russel but a late gear shift and my legs blocking up with the shock of such a hard start had me going backwards through the field before the gradient eased off. I got into a rhythm with some other riders and we swapped places as the road profile suited our riding, me going backwards on the climbs before bombing past people on the descents as usual. I was also riding in the vicinity of a tandem, who looked like would match pace with me there or there abouts.
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| Riding with the tandem |
The first info control I made a mess of, I knew exactly which junction Lucy uses at Roberton but for some reason gave the answer for the next junction a few meters up the road; I could tell you the answers to the other 2 questions she's used there but that's not in the spirit of this game. I passed the tandem again on the climb over to Tushielaw and then they got me on the descent, we repeated that on the climb to country march but just as they were about to catch me on the descent into Eskdalemuir I heard the stoker say something short and sharp to the captain and their presence disappeared and I never saw them again all ride.
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| Corrie Common |
The big breakfast meant I only really wanted to bounce the café at Eskdalemuir but the one thing they don't really provide is a quick bounce, I didn't need to eat so grabbed a cake and can of coke to sit and eat before continuing on to Langholm where I took a sandwich from the shop fridge and ate in a bus stop with a smashed window; all the glitz and glamour of Audax!
Some riders I knew bounced the control faster than me arriving after but leaving before but I knew I had plenty time so nae rush. The next section over the muir was going to be interesting with my memory of the surfaces however it quickly proved that the council surface fairies had sorted many of the bad sections and the gravelly corner proved to have been cleaned though not resurfaced so all was good. I stopped to take in the view at Corrie Common and decided to get a couple of pictures of riders on the move as they crested the summit.
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| Descent from Corrie |
At a junction not far out of Moffat I wasn't paying enough attention and I hit a bit of gravel at low speed, thankfully I caught the bike before the point of no return; in Moffat the sun was shining, and there was a gaggle of riders outside the Rumbletum Café where I decided to control; though riders were spread out around the town. I got speaking to a rider sitting in the sun as I ate my cake who turned out to be living local to me and a name I regularly see on Strava "Clockwork Hamster", we discussed our Strava names and then the road ahead; I declared the ride out to the Grey Mare's Tail to be "Annoying" before setting off.
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| Looking up Moffatdale |
The road bumps along the floor of Moffatdale as it rises to the waterfall where the pass over to the Yarrow Valley ramps up in a gentle but consistent rise to a house that can be seen on the approach. Clockwork Hamster caught me on the descent just after St Mary's loch and we decided to ride together to the finish however typically for me late in the ride I was bursting for a pee on the last climb before Galashiels so I stopped to ease the discomfort and he finished just ahead of me as the sunset on a grand day out.
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| Almost beat the Sunset |
Moffat Toffee last year was also my first Audax on the Orange Focus, since then I've ridden almost 11000km on it, the Synapse has 13000km on it and is 5 years old!
Up on the Roof Extension
Ponteland is closer to Gala than Gala is to home, so the double header that was presented in the event calendar wasn't too tricky to consider or for that matter hit the enter button on, however not long after setting off from Gala on our way south the mist was down and the drive over Carter Bar turned into a careful crawl. This resulted in a later than hoped arrival at the hotel to go with the clock change, but I still got some sleep even if I did have to get up at what should be 5am to get to the start on time.
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| Riders of the 200 and 160km rides set off together |
Juice and some biscuits were all there was for breakfast but I'd had a Belvita breakfast biscuit already so I could hang on until we passed what passes for civilisation in a Sunday morning in England.
By the time I had grabbed my bike and made way to the start the vast majority of riders were lined up ready to go and thanks to not paying attention to the height of the kerb I was soon passed by any other stragglers. Robbie hung back for me and we caught and passed a few slower riders in the first few miles and also caught up with Russell and Neil who we spoke to for a bit before a slight rise put the distance between us. They were of course taking it easy. Aiden on the other hand had saved himself on the Borders ride to go a bit faster on this one and was off in the distance.
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| It's bleak up on the Roof of England |
Just after the first info control two other riders caught us and chatted briefly, they had started 30 mins late. We were now confirmed as Lantern Rouge. The road continued upwards to the Derwent Reservoir where another info control was had to bring us round to a checkpoint in a car park where a table with provisions of Jelly Babies (of which I had a "few") and Flapjacks which I stashed a couple of in my jersey pockets. We got some gen about the road ahead from the organizer, which confirmed it was mostly up and that we'd need to watch the surfaces and corners on the descents.
A mention of one of the info controls "What colour are the caravans" saw me successfully guess the colour (caravans only really come in 2 colours...) and it was suggested we should give the shade too, challenge accepted!
 |
| Climb out of Edmundbyers |
I started seeing town names I recognised which must be from navigating on the Durham Dales in a Gold (Diarrhoea Brown) SAAB 96 many years ago. Edmundbyres heralded the start of the first big climb 4km with an average grade of 6% leading us to the top of a plunge into Stanhope so steep that sand trap escape lanes are provided at the side of the road, a large group of C2C riders were climbing the hill out of Stanhope in a variety of paces and manners.
The brief respite of the descent was soon replaced with a long drag up Weardale, which we traversed on a quite country lane with the remains of Quarrying evident at the side and over the road. We passed the caravans and we discussed the colour shades, I thought Snot, Robbie thought Pistachio, so we decided to write each others.
 |
| Remnants of slate quarrying in Weardale include this Conveyor |
The road started to ramp up at Wearhead as we climbed over the hill to enter Allendale, I stopped at Cowsgill to get a picture looking back down Weardale before continuing the long climb, on which I could see Robbie's bright pink Rapha jersey a long way off, though he said my Orange Mukyz kit wasn't as obvious looking back. I caught up with him when he stopped at the summit on the county march of Durham and Northumberland. I rolled past and let Robbie catch up before letting the speed build up, and in no time we were in Allenhead where the café had opened out of season for us.
I worked out we had 30 mins in hand so we kept the stop brief, there was a few other riders in and we sat with some but we realized pretty quickly they were on the 160km ride with a more relaxed minimum speed of 12kmh.
 |
| Cowsgill |
We were soon off again with 10 minutes to spare over closing time but we needn't have worried about that as after a small flat section out of Allenhead it was an hour long plunge for 25km down to Haydon Bridge where a quick Co-Op stop allowed the 160km'ers to catch us.
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| Haydon Bridge |
The route returned to being fairly easy going for the next 50km back into Ponteland, Robbie got a bit ahead of me and beat me to the control by around 5 minutes; I ended up queuing for a stamp with riders who had finished and had to correct the controller as he thought I'd finished!
A 20 minute stop was enough for a refuel and we set off for the last 40km, an out and back via Morpeth to the Co-Op in Pegswood, the outbound leg was a gentle climb with the odd ramp thrown in and we saw that we wern't that far behind the other riders with Aiden the first to pass us followed by Russel and Neil, we then had a few VC167 riders before the inbound and outbound legs diverged though there was one rider who decided to repeat the outbound to avoid the climb out of Morpeth, and then a large group of VC167 riders were leaving Pegswood as we arrived, we controlled at the co-op where I nearly forgot to get a receipt and then cracked back on, taking the route through Morpeth where a reminder of how poor driving can be was had on the descent with an impatient taxi driver. Turning back onto the lanes though we were on our own for the return past Kikley.
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| A quick stop at the Ponteland control before the extension leg. |
We to the hall just on 8pm, a 12 hour 200km ride the day after an 11 hour. Both with similar cumulative climb but different profiles, the first stretching it out over the day with the second loading it at the front and letting us catch speed up at the end.
We sat and are beans on toast and spoke to the organizer for a while afterwards, Robbie was staying in town for an early train so he was asking about how to get to the city centre, with the recommendation of getting to the airport for the metro, as I was staying next to one of the stations we decided to put his bike in the car to save the apparently horrible ride to the airport.
A 12hr 200km Audax isn't bad, 1hr 30m in hand as it was under ACP rules (15kmh) so to be last back was a bit odd, but that was with an 11hr 200km the day before so it's not bad!
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