No work for us today - 200Km - 8th August 2018

This ride was originally to be a loop from Galashiels to Newcastleton, over the hill to Langholm then back by Eskdale; a cracking sounding route that I was looking forward to riding, however it was not to be; road works made the route impassable and a replacement out and back route to Berwick via Morebattle, Wooler, Etal was put in place instead.

As a back up 200Km for August (my other calendar ride being a 600) I guess it would just have to do... Honestly I know these roads from the other Galashiels rides and was looking forward to it.

I set off at silly AM to drive down to Gala as I was expecting to be slowed up if I hit the Edinburgh City Bypass a tad too late in the morning; I rolled into the parking area across from Torwoodlee Golf Course considerably earlier than I expected and discovered it was a tad chilly at 8c and only 0545, I didn't want to be down at McDonalds until 7am for the 8am start so tried to sleep, but that didn't work; so I just drove down and had breakfast before returning to the car to get ready, and then returning to McDonalds.

The start of the route was essentially the same as that of the 400km the previous month, but this time we were in midweek traffic at 8am rather than 6am saturday traffic so I chose to take the route by the Rhymers Stone through Newton StBoswells; Rolling through Gala onto the Melrose road I just went at a comfortable pace to warm up, but I was soon battering on ahead maybe it was down to being one of the few entrants who needed to book time off work for the ride or maybe it was just my normal excessively fast start.

I stopped to look at the Rhymers stone and a few people caught up and passed; which allowed me to get riding with people and be sociable and spent most of the rest of the day riding with Sarah and Richard from the Lake District; the route on this section was identical to the 400 and other than taking the road along the back of Nisbet and over the suspension bridge I knew where we were; stopping at Morebattle for a snickers with a label that fitted the short nights sleep I had just had.

I put this away properly this time as I'd gone smaller with the McDonalds breakfast, and we cracked on along the border road through the Yetholms aiming for Wooler where the Co-Op provided a reliable control, I banked on getting a decent feed at Etal so only topped up my water supply

I also decided that splitting courses across both visits to Etal would make sense, so I ordered my main course of some form of sandwich as that's pretty much all they sold.  Looking back this was probably a mistake and I should have eaten a bit more at each control.

Etal Lavender Tea Rooms

Taking the road into Berwick we rolled into town on market day and took turns to watch the bikes outside Boots as water and sweets were purchased inside, before climbing back up out of town and heading back to Etal.  A hunk of Rocky Road was in my memory from the earlier in the day and was scoffed, Richard decided to hang back a bit longer while Sarah finished a more sizeable lunch so I set off on my own for Wooler, choosing the busier road option just to see what it was like. It rained and wasn't as pleasant but I got into Wooler Co-Op and another light snack.  I cracked on again and stopped at a historical site on the Kirknewton road, where Richard and Sarah caught up with me again.

Coffee Cake at Morebattle

The sky was still threatening rain as we stopped at the TempleHall pub in Morebattle for a reciept control, but with all intentions of bouncing the control after a toilet stop and can of juice I headed for the door as the others with the same idea escaped the heavy downpour, it was at this point I spied the large cake on the counter it looked like Chocolate cake, so I ordered a slice only to discover it was actually Coffee Cake; I don't like Coffee, but that cake didn't touch the sides, this was maybe a warning of what was to come.

After Nisbet the road climbs over to St Boswells for the ride back into Galashiels and I was not feeling too quick but still going well enough; I was aware that the time was getting close to the 10hr mark and I'd never managed a 10hr Calendar 200 before; I found enough energy to give it a bit of a dig and found myself approaching Gala at a fair pace, unfortunately I made a navigational error end found myself doing a loop of the town centre, this took me over the 10hrs mark on the Wahoo by 2 minutes and 2 more according to the receipt.


A rather enjoyable ride on roads I've got to know through the other Audaxes but a few errors made in timing and fueling; something to remember in the future.

Parking for Bikes

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

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

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

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

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

Tortoise and Hare with the SBR Locals

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

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

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

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

Tankerville Arms Eglingham

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

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

Leaving Greenhead after a good feed

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

Gretna Services

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

Johnstonebridge Services

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

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

Climbing the tail

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

Robbie showing his delight at reaching McDonalds

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

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

Never before have I been so happy to see a McDonalds

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

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

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

DIY - Highland Perthshire 200 and a 50Km on the MTB - 11 July 2018

Having left the BR(M) late in June I wasn't leaving July up to the 400 I had entered later in the month so I took a day off work and cranked out an easy 200km loop from the house to Auchterarder, Aberfeldy, Pitlochry and then home from Kirkmichael.

DIY 200 - Highland Perthshire - 11 July 2018

I wanted to get a banker 200 in for the 5th month in a row, so with a flexi day booked I worked out a decent route that wasn't a return to the Laich (need some variety); no murder investigation to worry about this time, I cracked on through to Auchterarder by the Dunning road which forms a major component of many of my longer rides and then up by Kinky Bridge and New Fowlis to join the Sma' Glen road up to Amulree.

Did I say cracked on? Closer to home I was unaware of road works to fix a section of collapsed road on the Tay Coast road and only discovered it at the bottom of the Normans Law road; not fancying the climb over to Luthrie and then the bash along the A92 and A912 to Newburgh during commuting hours I chanced it on the basis that I knew the bit of road that was likely closed and that there would be a route through either the fields or through the woods; as it turned out it was through the nettles in the woods and I got round the blockage and carried on, stinging but otherwise on target.

The day was claggy but not rainy with the rain somehow just that one step ahead of me; at Aberfeldy I went to the Co-Op, not that I needed a reciept but I needed food before retracing my path to Wade's bridge and the North shore of the Tay until it joins the Ballinluig road for the blast to Logierait, somehow I was still hungry so I stopped at Escape Route for cake and to read the old magazines on their toilet walls.

Over the Moulin again and into Kirkmichael shop where I had arrived in time for the 3pm official reopening of the shop's disabled toilet; I didn't hang about after topping up on water and sugar.

Alyth, Meigle and Newtyle and the almost indistinct climb up to Muirhead, unfortuantely I'd been too quick for my liking and now I'm at the top of Dundee during commuting time; half an hour later and I'd have had the run of the town, dropping down the Lochee Road and through the Hilltown tunnel before picking up the bridge lift for the easy run home; sod that in Dundee traffic, it's not that it's too busy it's just of diabolical standard.

So instead I picked my way round the green circular having dropped to Myrekirk on the Gourdie Brae through the tech park and a blast along the recently reopened waterfront taking pictures of the penguins as I went.

A 200 in the bag for July

East Lothian Rough Stuff - 50km - 15th July

An off road Populaire on paths and tracks in East Lothian; I took my MTB but could have got away with the Focus on 28mm slicks or 30mm "gravel" tyres; but I was out on this one for nothing other than "why not!" It was an enjoyable wee jaunt out on the MTB for once!

The Snow Roads - 300Km - 30 June 2018

So I'm cutting it a bit fine with a BR for June, he last day of the month isn't ideal; In my head I knew if I did this the 4th BR(M) then I'd be able to carry it on with the rest of the year I had planned to get well on the way for an RRTY by the time winter arrived, which should be enough to get me through it (baring utterly atrocious conditions)

I stayed at my brothers in Kirrie the night before to save the half hour journey in the morning, a minor boon, though I did find myself on a lengthy walk to see the Kirrie penguins and paying for everyone's tea!

The forecast was for a decent 17C in Kirrie, a roasting 25c in Banchory and Braemar and a Scorching 30c at Dufftown; so I kitted up appropriately, by which I mean I left my warmers at home and put on my usual summer kit of short sleeved top, shorts, a merino mix baselayer and a Casquet for under my helmet.

It was similar conditions for the Tour of the Highlands the previous month and I'd picked up from the organizer of that who spends winter in Australia (i.e. Summer) and a South African colleague, a few tips on how to cope in the heat; get wet.

Starting off with a fast downhill blast from Kirrie to Clattering Brig I snapped a few pictures of the people around me the bottom one is of Dale and Dean (the nutter who rode to Port Navigation and Back on a fixie)

At Clattering Brig a surprising number of riders stopped while others disappeared off into the distance, and I spent part of the climb speaking to another ride who had happened upon us!

In Banchory it was getting hot already and I tagged on from there with David Fawcett for a bit before he "lost me" as he put it when we met up again at the finish (I stopped for a pee)!

I was in unchartered terriority now, but due to the forecast heat I'd scoped out shops along the way and despite being an info control I rolled into Rhynie where there had been what looked like a shop; I was rather short of water at this point and unaware of a potable spring on the Cabrach, so joined in the scoffing of ice cream and purchasing of 2L bottles of water; the shop keeper was constantly shuttling 2l bottles out of her store to keep the shelf stocked!

Over the Cabrach which I had never ridden before and into Dufftown where it took me a few seconds to realize why there was a lot of riders on the opposite side of the road from the Co-Op! Another 2L bottle of water purchased along with something more substantive than ice cream to eat; at this point i disposed of the spare water over my head giving the casque under my helmet a good soaking and me a sharp relief!

It's only a relatively short distance from Dufftown to Tomintoul but it felt like forever in the heat (and as I discovered on the Rothes Reccie, on a temperate day where rain showers aren't far away either) I rolled into Tomintoul, 500m off route to get more ice cream and water; at this point I realized I was doing rather better time wise than expected, setting off with another couple of riders who had also popped into Tomintoul I made the mistake of saying that we were doing the "easy side" of the Lecht; while this is strictly true it's still a 20% ramp and thanks to a bad overtake by another road user on the approach my head snapped and I walked it when an air cooled VW Van started struggling behind me.

I didn't expect to be anywhere near Goodbrand and Ross at Corgaff before closing time; and I didn't expect the café at the Lecht Ski Centre to be open due to some competition going on that day, so I could have got away with out my Tomintoul stop but I'm glad I took it; stopping at Goodbrand and Ross for cake at 1630 just because I'd made it there when it was open gave me a rest before the infamous BH hills; these are the hills either side of the Gairnsheil bridge, I'd ridden them in the other direction before so knew to expect them!

Being spat out onto the A83 at Crathes is a bit rude of the Gairnshiel road, and it leaves you with a gentle climb up to Braemar that generally goes unnoticed.

Rolling into Braemar where Dave Crampton and co were serving up beans on toast I had a look around me at the other riders, everyone looked frazzled; I scoffed the beans on toast and took my time about cracking on; I knew things were about to get much cooler as the sea air has a cooling effect on the other side and the light was dropping; as I prepared to set off one of the stronger riders I'm used to seeing bash on in front and never be seen again staggered into the control looking rather unwell what I didn't know at this point was that he'd been resting before the Lecht and at Gairnshiel when I went past both (he passed me when I was in Goodbrand and Ross); unfortunately i found out at the finish that the heat exhaustion had got him and that was the end of the ride for him and a few others.

I really struggled up to the Cairnwell pass on the old road; I could swear I saw others climbing better on the new road on the other side, I didn't see there was a lot of riders resting at the summit as I just rolled over and got hit by the temperature drop I was expecting; brrrrrr...

The roll into Kirrie via Glen Isla is always odd; you either feel like you're flying along including up the bumps or you feel absolutely terrible; on this ride it was the latter.

My Strava stats actually show this last section as one of the faster non-plungey sections of the ride, but it didn't feel like it at the time. I rolled into the finish 16hrs and 25m after setting off; not bad for a hilly 300 in that heat with the extra stops.

2018 so far (to June)

The 2018 Audax UK season actually started in October 2017; this caught me out as I was procrastinating over getting my Port Navigation and Rannoch finishes added to my record, but the sporting year sorted that out for me!

So my AUK record starts for real with:

Etal-U-Can - 200Km - 14 Oct 2017

This was a fairly gentle loop of both sides of the border and a start to my Border Reiving for the season. This was also the first Audax I did "on my own" as Dave was busy doing something else, possibly becoming aware of the monster he'd unleased I think he used the excuse of washing his hair to dodge! 

This also meant I started to become more significantly aware of the others riding who weren't on exotic machines or absolutely bonkers... (did I mention the fixie rider on the Port Nav who'd ridden up from Darlington and was riding home afterwards)

I found myself riding at the same pace as others and spent a fair bit of the ride with Neil who was up from Evesham; who after seeing me bomb down a hill and fail to tell the difference between field entrance straight on and road at 90 Left decided I should continue to go ahead on descents, he said it was because I was clearly faster downhill but I suspect it was more because he didn't want me to take him out; note to self, better lights needed.

Home in Time for Tea Time - 100Km - 4 Nov 2017

With the 200Km option being called "The Long Dark Teatime of an Audax Soul" and my previous darkness mishap, I didn't fancy riding properly in the dark (says someone who's spent a lot of time MTBing in the Dark), or a repeat of the 4am start it would have needed to get down in time for the start.

A simple out and back ride from Gala to the Café at the old school in Eskdalemuir, I think I got back in daylight and plenty of time!

DIY - 150Km - 9 Dec 2017

Yes a DIY in December, I made the route up to meet the requirements of an AUK Populaire, rode it, submitted the GPX track and it was ok so goes on my record; it was cold, very cold, I had to change route from the shortest to allow for Glen Orchy and the back roads to Oban being frozen over, but thankfully Scotlands Trunk roads are both well gritted and rather quiet on a Saturday in deepest winter.

I was in Bridge of Orchy for my Hiking club's Christmas party and since I've done all I can be bothered with in winter in the area decided to DIY instead, it was dark and cold when I set off and getting dark when I returned; the ungritted roads were frozen as was the Ganavan to Ballachulish cycle track, I enjoyed it; good practice for what's to come in future.

Tour of East Lothian - 100Km - 18 Feb 2018

This sign lies; later in the year I got the chance to see the uphill sign at the top of the hill

The DIY was pretty much my last ride of 2017 for various reasons, and then January was mostly a write off; so I cracked out my "winter" bike and entered the TOEL, 100km should be easy aye? 

How wrong could I be, starting in the chill outside Musselburgh townhall we headed straight for the hills, more specifically Red Stane Rig, a 17% leg burner that had me wishing I'd put some training in; as things got steeper and my front wheel started getting lighter a rider in front of me lifted his front wheel long enough to go off balance and hit the deck without injury; my front wheel followed in sympathy and I unclipped and stepped off to walk for a bit.  Some pour soul from Musselburgh Road Cycling Club had the miss fortune to draw this as their control and spent a few hours freezing up on the muir.

A careful descent back to sea level dodging between icy sections and a nice flat return along the coast into Musselburgh brought the average speed back up though.

DIY 100Km - 10 March 2018

Because I really needed the motivation, it rained, it was horrible!

Two DIY DNS'

I had two rides planned around now, one a 150Km to Comrie and back the night before I believed the weather forecast and expected a nice sugar coating of snow, I spent the day snowed in.

The other was a 400Km audax, train it up to Thurso and ride home; unfortuantely I spent that weekend shivering in bed, a waste of 35 quid of train tickets; though I was starting to learn a bit more about how to create DIY routes and submit them; or in other words I had a nightmare.

Scottish Borders Randonee - 200Km - 24 March 2018

The Moffat sheep was not up for stamping my Brevet so I went shopping instead

This was the weekend before the planned 400Km, TBH I had a really horrible start to the ride, wondering what I was doing which possibly indicated I was starting to get unwell.

Russell had had to adjust the route due to snow blockages though so I didn't have to haul myself up the wall of Talla, instead I had to drag myself up the Stow Hillclimb oh and I had the 25t cassette on the Synapse not the 30t, not my best decision ever!

What I didn't know at the time is this would be the start of a run of  at least 1 >200Km ride per month for a prolonged period!

Following the ride I took the motorhome to Newcastleton to meet up with Alex for a blast round the Newcastleton 7 Stanes centre after using the Wahoo on the road bike, the Garmin was clearly in the huff and deleted all my riding for the day, it's been banished to the junk shelf ever since.

Moffat Toffee 200Km and Broughton and Back 100Km - 14th and 15th April 2018

Feeling better again thankfully this double header got the show back on the road, 

The 200 was a loop from Gala to Langholm with a few diversions before taking the Wamphrey "road" to Moffat followed by an enjoyable climb and descent over the Grey Mare's tail.
The Wamphrey road was a note to self to accept the B7076 route if there's no controls on it next time it was called for!

The 100Km route was a more relaxed affair, a lower minimum speed meant I could lounge at the turn café for a bit, although a faster rider appeared to have dropped a doorstep sized wedge of a sandwich at one of the junctions but never owned up to losing it!  A perfect recovery ride.

Merse and Moors - 300Km - 28th April 2018

My night time avoidance had to end, there was no way this ride could be done without darkness by me at least; a 6am start from Musselburgh railway station saw one entrant DNS in the car park as their rim exploded good timing as the ride started with a fast flat section followed my a big climb and descent to Innerleithen.

At the Co-Op in Innerleithen I had a quick refuel, it wasn't far into the ride but the basic breakfast I had forced in at the Travel Lodge wasn't quite enough; I rue failing to take a photograph of Dick McT and Philip Jurczyk sitting like Oor Wullie's on Co-Op shopping baskets though.

From Inners we lumped on through the borders before starting the major drag up to Carters Bar and the border before descending to Elson for lunch at the Impromptu Cyclists Café, a rather curious spot!

Further south for a bit and then a couple of navigational mistakes as I miss-read a sign nearly had me heading for Newcastle before getting it back under control and heading north again for Coldstream; unfortunately my navigational error meant that the riders I'd previously dropped were well ahead of me so I was out on my own from now to the end; I promised myself a treat at Duns the last control before the finish but ended up at the Co-Op where other riders were setting off for the finish rather than the chip shop, unfortunately I found I was struggling to eat the pasta pot and sweets I'd purchased so spent longer over them than needed; a lesson for a future ride; you can shove a sandwich or wrap in your pocket and eat it later.

There were two routes suggested to get over to the East Lothian coast from Duns, either direct up and over the Redstane Rig or round the side and then up; I opted for the directly up route, and spent a good while climbing before stopping to change my front light batteries; somewhere up on the moor I passed a bonfire with campers round it; I resisted the temptation to stop and chat and get some heat and found myself looking at a sign that said there was a 17% climb ahead, of course I was at the top of the Red Stan Rig again, in the dark with the lights of East Lothian, Fife and right up to the Mearns visible; I didn't have enough light for a descent descent speed so hung onto the brakes for the plung to the coast; after riding through pub kicking out time at Tranent and into Musselburgh I only had 1hr 45m left of the 20hr limit, possibly the closest I've been to full value.

A tough 300 but early in a season with a poor winter.

Forfar to Pitlochry and back - 150Km - 12th May 2018

Relatively speaking a nice easy ride on paper; the forecast said there was to be a head wind both directions; great!

I certainly didn't notice it as I clung onto the back of the "Pensioners Bus" as it flew out of Forfar and on to wards Coupar Angus and Dunkeld mostly on roads I knew; unfortuantely at a sharp kick just before Glaims, the bus revealed itself to be a better Grimpeur than I and disappeared into the distance!

One of the rules that is unique to AUK is that your routing is up to you, most other Randoneuring bodies apply Mandatory routes by default; this meant that rather than take the bumpy route by Moulinearn, I could refresh my memory of the Logierait route to Pitlochry which I would be riding in the Etapé Caledonia the following weekend.

I decided I had time for a leisurely lunch at Escape Route and by chance bumped into Roy and Ben Cunningham from the Mukyz who had been out riding their MTBs; once lunch was done another rider on the Audax had just had some work done on his bike at Escape Route and we set off up the Moulin Muir together, hanging back to speak to a heavily laden tourer.

The descent to Kirkmichael is one of my favourites so I bombed down that and hang about to let Andy catch up for the run into Forfar; he didn't quite believe that he'd had a head wind all day when I told him!

DIY - 200Km - 14th May 2018

As if doing a 150Km on the Saturday wasn't enough I'd put in to do a 200 DIY on the Monday, all part of my building up the long distances over a single Weekendish plan in preparation for the Tour of the Highlands Sportive which I was riding again two weekends later.

I took a straight out and back easy route to Aberfoyle where I scoffed cake; this is a route I'm getting to know quite well although I had to divert via Aberuthven as Taggart was on the case at Auchterarder following the Annalise Johnstone murder investigation on the Dunning to Auchterarder road; what slightly unnerves me now is I considered stopping at the Maggie Wall monument but decided to take a photo and carry on; it's since been revealed that despite it not being taped off that day, this was the murder scene.

I stopped at a shop in Dunblane before carrying on along to Doune and the Laich of Menteith; despite Laich meaning "not high" rather than the miss translation to Lake that is often used for the body of water, the road lumps along; after the cake I set off back and riding through a set of temporary traffic lights I spotted the occupants of the vehicles stopped at the other end getting out and looking at their rather crumpled cars; I didn't see the crash so battering on back to Dunblane and then into Auchterarder where I decided I needed to top up on food, I spotted a heavy loaded tourer's bike and hung around to chat for a bit; they were on their 2nd last day of their tour, my bike set up for a long day ride looking rather light in comparisson.

This ride got me a 200km ride in for June, so that was March, April and May, 3 months of 200+ km rides, not bad going considering the start to my season.

Breadalbane - 160km - 16th June 2018

I had considered ECEing this but didn't, it would have got me a 200 for June early enough to cope if there was a problem on my only calendar event planned for the month, and I was starting to realize that if I got 4 months in that I was only 2 months from being halfway through an RRTY; anyway I digress!

Although I sub-titled this ride as "The Wetter the Better" in homage to a kids TV show that involved kids dunking their teachers or parents into swimming pools, it could also be described as "The day I messed everything up but go away with it!"

I had a nightmare, I set off from home late and ended up scrabbling round Comrie Croft trying to find a Yellow PopUp tent... which was a miss-hearing of "Yellow Pop-Top Van" I then went to the toilet; and missed the start (but I had my Brevet so that's fine);

Setting off 30 minutes later than the start time along the A85 heading through Comrie and onto the South Loch Earn Road in the pissing rain wasn't ideal, climbing Glen Ogle in the rain was also a bit meh, then along to Ben Lawers where it really started raining; the descent into Glen Lyon should be amazing but I was on the Synapse with rim brakes, in the wet and the road is strewn with various sizes of loose aggregate (that's for the gravel pedants out there).

At the Glen Lyon Post Office and tea room I forgot it was a post office and asked for a reciept instead of their stamp, thankfully it had enough info for validation.

I then cracked on in the rain for Aberfeldy where rather than go to the Co-Op and their reliable reciepts I went to the premier where I got a reciept saying I was in Test Shop, London. Thankfully their ATM did free balance reciepts.

The route then had an info control on the Glen Quaich road, a tough climb out of Kenmore and then a tough descent in the wet to the Sma' Glen. I walked up and I think I even walked down at one point.

Thankfully by the crossing of the A85 at New Fowlis I was in a tolerable mood and the sun was out, so I didn't take the bail out route and went down to the Muthill info control where I discovered some of my right shoe cleat bolts were either loose or somewhere on the road; balancing myself against a pillar I was able to release the spring in my pedals and put the cleats back on with 2 bolts on each side.  Further on the road I came across another rider who was having a nightmare with a puncture which unfortunately resulted in her scratching; every time the tube got to a decent inflation pressure it would just as quickly fail leaving her with no tubes and a knackered pump; at this point i discovered my CO2 canister had been used; I don't remember using it either, and then that my pump was equally useless; 7km from the finish and an hour to go; I'd probably have walked it.

Now over halfway through the season, the rides really ramped up and I'm going to give most of them a post of their own rather than a wrap up post.

A first Audax - Port Navigation 2017

In my 2017 round up I wrote:

My First Audax

Next up was an Audax; I'd read about people doing Audax on Forum's in the past, often DIYs and panicking because they'd missed a control, or lost a receipt and looking for ideas of what to search for. A seemingly bizzare world back then. But I'd been increasing my distances on the road bike over the last few years and with a 300Km and a couple of 200Km rides aready done I was "talked" into doing the "Port Navigation" Audax by Dave.  It was very easy for him to sell it to me; basically it's a ride between Ferries and Cake shops. Sold!

An early start saw us join other cyclists at Ballachulish village hall at some ungodly hour for a mass start to catch the Corran Ferry; before heading out across Movern and Sunart for the Loch Aline Ferry. At this point I discovered the concept of Advisory Route; the Audax organizer produces a route sheet and perhaps a GPS file to follow, however unless otherwise stated, the route distance is based on the shortest available route; if you want to take a longer route, or a hillier route, or even a muckier route, that's up to you; you just need to reach the route check controls; so at Inversanda, about half the riders took the shorter hilly route over Glentarbert and Doire nan Gad, and the other half took the longer but flatter coastal route.
I followed a nutter on a fixie, who had cycled up from somewhere in Englandshire... and rode home again afterwards (My first introduction to the concept of an Extended Calendar Event), yes that was up the hilly route.

Descending to the ferry and a check point there was time to purchase a roll and tea before boarding the ferry for Mull.

Once on Mull we once again set off en-mass from Fishnish through Salen and onto the infamous Giburn Rocks road, where the Atlantic crashes against the cliffs the road is cut into at a depth of over 10m! (Enough to make the MSA stop the Mull Rally from using this section of road). Of course we were heading for a food stop, the shop an Pen-Y-Gael had put on Rolls and soup for us and Audaxers congregated on the benches outside to eat before setting off over the Ben More road for Craignure.

At this point I was looking forward to a Calmac burger on the Isle of Mull... As we rocked into the pub in Craignure packed full of Lycra, Goretex and Caradice we ignored the chance to sup here and waited for our ferry... At this point I spotted the Courisk sailing past Duart Castle. Bollocks.

I'm no fan of the Courisk, it's an oversized Loch Class, with only a wee shop selling if you're lucky (and we wern't) muffins, sweets and sandwiches; we wern't lucky because everyone else who had made the same timetable reading mistake or hadn't had time for food in Craignure beat me to the coffee cabin.

After a wait for Heb Isles to get underway for Colonsay while Clansman sat in the other berth we invaded the first chipper we came across in Oban, there's a good selection but the first did the job.

We cracked on for Ballachulish knowing everyone else more sensible was ahead of us and few behind, the cycle route along here isn't too bad and we made good time up the coast, only now as we approached 162Km  did Dave tell me he had never ridden a 100 mile ride! A wee celebration and we cracked on. while negotiating a wee chicane in the track Dave put a wheel off the side and only quick reactions stopped him from collecting me on the way down to the ground.

At this point we cut the pace, and it was getting dark, 200Km was approaching in the darkness and we were underlights on the last stretch from the bridge to the hall when the 200Km celebration was made before rolling up to the Arivee and a stamped Brevet card, cake and tea.

Not bad for a first Audax!

Randomwhat?

In my 2017 round up I told you about starting to enter Audax UK events; these come in two flavours, Randoneés and Populaires; Audax UK strictly speaking don't actually authorise Audax events, they're group rides aiming to complete a distance at a set average speed rather than epic solo rides but for some reason the name has stuck in the English speaking world.

The critical differences between a Populaire and a Randonee are the distance and speed allowed.

A AUK Populaire can be validated at 50, 100, 150km or any Randoneé distance with a speed range lower than a Randoneé; the general aim of these is to help introduce people to long distance riding.

A AUK Randoneé however is a ride of 200km or more and validated by AUK and in some cases also by Audax Club Parisien (ACP) "BRM" or Les Randoneurs Mondaiux (LRM) "RM" depending on the distance. The Average speed range change depending on distance and organizer, with 14.3 or 15kmh used as the lower limit on 200 to 699km rides and the upper limit is determined by the Organizer and can be no more than 30kmh which is usually what it's set at, though 25Kmh is used.

So basically unless you
a) Time Trial and so are really fast
b) Are really slow
c) Need to sleep
or d) Take a very long break somewhere
It's easy enough to take the approach of just stomping on the pedals as appropriate; or at least that's my approach on 200s


AUK also provide a load of extra targets, such as the Points championships (1 point per 100km on BR(M) events), RandoneeRoundTheYear, the Randoneur and Brevet awards, and a handful of others. These supplement the ACP validation and awards which you need to both Pre-Qualify and Qualify for Paris-Brest-Paris; maybe more on that in another post.

So that's a sort of introduction to what I've found myself riding; it's fun honest!