Author Topic: Snow Roads 2018  (Read 7753 times)

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #25 on: 30 June, 2018, 12:51:09 am »
If it is, they've not parked it inside the hall.

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #26 on: 30 June, 2018, 06:31:06 pm »
It’s too hot and I’m not winning.  :hand:

Correction - I didn’t win.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #27 on: 30 June, 2018, 11:27:58 pm »
So today's ride around the Snow Roads was Hot Hot Hot.

I got into a group of 5 Angus Bike Chain riders from the start, and we did some good group work, with 6 of us playing through-and-off for much of the ride.

Phantasmagoriana was with us too, up as far as the summit of the Cairn; she was going pretty strong and made it up the Cairn for the first time. Well done.
But after the descent ( where we all spread out ), we seemed to loose her.  We did soft-pedal most of the way to Banchory, but we never did see her again.
The next group behind us into Banchory said thay'd not passed her, I hope you made it round!

Thanks to Alex for organising and support crew for helping at Kirrie and Braemar, and of course for the excellent bridies at the finish. I'm fair puggled, as they say.

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #28 on: 01 July, 2018, 10:09:31 am »
That was brutal. So hot. The roads were melting and my rear tyre started to delaminate to the point that it needed a tyre boot. We had a tailwind when we needed it least and a headwind when we could have done without it - especially climbing the Lecht and the Cairnwell. Dufftown to Tomintoul was a low point, a long, hot, uphill slog. We finished about 11pm so we also had a couple of hours of bitterly cold riding as well. However, that's the bad bits. The route was beautiful. I've lived in Scotland for over fifty years and I saw bits that were new to me. Auchindoun Castle and Corgarff Castle for example - one a burnt out Jacobite strongold the other a pristine Redcoat barracks. I met some great people the night before. A HUGE thank you to Dave Crampton and the others who organised and ran the control at Braemar - I really needed that support. And thanks to Alex and his helpers at the arrivee. Just don't ever call a Forfar Bridie a steak bake!

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #29 on: 01 July, 2018, 10:19:01 am »
Just seen a ridiculously purple tandem going through the town centre. Is it anyone on the ride?!

The Hamiltons (from England, but often seen riding in the Frozen North) are pictured on their purple tandem in this set of piccies:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPoas-kdpYIrX-DK1gKV9y4ntWoDPzAQGuFxFJ41dwKrGqOe0XCtHzPbdvX2DNB8Q?key=U0NnbldoZDNLUEVuOE9wUkt4NWUwZVlhN0cxaEZ3
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #30 on: 01 July, 2018, 01:21:51 pm »
We had a tailwind?

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #31 on: 01 July, 2018, 04:21:30 pm »
We had a tailwind?

I don't remember one...

Dufftown to Tomintoul was hellish, have never drunk so much in 30km on the road before.

as was going up the Golf course road out of Braemar, must have taken a while for the beans on toast to kick in.

Was defeated by one of the steep ramps on the Lecht, had a block of traffic that irritated me including a crap pass by some arse in a Disco and my head went after a couple of wheel lifts.
I'm still convinced that side is easier than the Cockbridge switchbacks though.

Some photos should turn up here: https://1drv.ms/a/s!AlB7bV6RdTovhq9YkNzVMXJJ4F5PQg

Edit: Possibly fixed the link.

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #32 on: 01 July, 2018, 04:26:23 pm »
We had a tailwind?

For a couple of minutes on a downhill near Bennachie. Maybe you were distracted like we were by its resemblance to a certain body part. And don't say "there was a downhill?"

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #33 on: 02 July, 2018, 10:41:03 am »
There was similar weather the year I did the Snow Roads. I ended up more sunburned on one side of my face than the other.

(North to South over The Lecht and Glenshee is definitely easier than South to North. My husband has done S -> N (on the 3 Pistes). He thinks we should do the 3 Pistes together sometime. I'm not looking forward to it!)

U.N.Dulates

  • aka John Hamilton
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #34 on: 02 July, 2018, 12:06:14 pm »
Just seen a ridiculously purple tandem going through the town centre. Is it anyone on the ride?!

The Hamiltons (from England, but often seen riding in the Frozen North) are pictured on their purple tandem in this set of piccies:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPoas-kdpYIrX-DK1gKV9y4ntWoDPzAQGuFxFJ41dwKrGqOe0XCtHzPbdvX2DNB8Q?key=U0NnbldoZDNLUEVuOE9wUkt4NWUwZVlhN0cxaEZ3

That was us, making the long trek up from Englandshire. The Snow Roads has been on my to-do list for ages so when it popped up on the calendar and didn't clash with anything else this was going to be the year to tick it off. And Mrs Dulates still hasn't learnt to check the route before saying "yes" when I suggest events to her.

That, as everyone else has said, was hot (but not as hot as down at home). The main effect of the tailwind on the way out was just to reduce the airspeed to zero, removing any cooling effect. Dufftown to Tomintoul was the highway to hell (to borrow from a famous Kirrie descendant). After the turn on to the Lecht road things got better turning into the headwind which knocked a couple of degrees off the temperature. BH1 nearly did for us after the Lecht. Temperatures more to our liking after that and rejuvenated by the control at Braemar the Cairnwell was almost an anticlimax (the descent on the other hand...) After that there's a awful lot of downhill back to Kirrie and we ended up rolling in at 11:30.

Thanks to Alex and all the helpers at Kirrie and Braemar for a cracking event.

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #35 on: 02 July, 2018, 12:32:50 pm »
Bah. Hot hot hot, and I simply didn't have the legs - I suspect I may have been among the first to DNF, after deciding that sitting in a field about 20km after Banchory was more attractive than keeping on riding.

A slightly uninspiring daunder out to Stonehaven, then a nicer route back through Auchenblae and Fettercairn meant I didn't have to contemplate going over Cairn o'Mount again, and gave the slight salve to pride of getting 200km under my wheels - but I'm still a bit annoyed with myself, especially after enjoying it enough in 2014 to have earmarked coming back. Ah well, there'll be another time (I hope) or at any rate the perm ...

Thanks of course to eck and to his fleet of helpers - I felt quite a fraud, being waited on with bridies, macaroni pies, beer, juice ...

Bairn Again

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #36 on: 02 July, 2018, 01:55:09 pm »
My plan to ECE this into a 600km came to grief at Braemar, by which point Id ridden 400km.
 
Id completed 34km in 3 hours to get there and was over 6 hrs for the 80km from Dufftown to Braemar so i reckon I was almost certainly going to be out of time at the finish. 

Had I "just" being doing the Snow Roads Id have plodded on, but I was broken. 
 

 

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #37 on: 02 July, 2018, 03:25:46 pm »
Just seen a ridiculously purple tandem going through the town centre. Is it anyone on the ride?!

The Hamiltons (from England, but often seen riding in the Frozen North) are pictured on their purple tandem in this set of piccies:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPoas-kdpYIrX-DK1gKV9y4ntWoDPzAQGuFxFJ41dwKrGqOe0XCtHzPbdvX2DNB8Q?key=U0NnbldoZDNLUEVuOE9wUkt4NWUwZVlhN0cxaEZ3

That was us, making the long trek up from Englandshire.

You have impeccable taste in tandem colour schemes.  :thumbsup: (Even though I managed to totally miss it on the day!)

As everyone else has already said, that was rather hot. I kept looking out for the snow, but I didn't find it.

I'd looked at the weather forecast beforehand and seen a pleasant 17°, so when it came to the "second water bottle or tool bottle with some extra CO2 and tubes" decision, I opted for the latter. Big mistake. :facepalm: Suffice to say, I was stopping at every shop to get water (and sweets). I only had a very small saddlepack and a mini top tube bag - in retrospect, I should have taken a slightly bigger saddle bag, to avoid ditching a water bottle. Lesson learned!

I'm glad others also found the Dufftown to Tomintoul stretch tough. I was slogging it out on my own, barely seeing anyone else, on that section, and although it seemed pretty flat, I just didn't seem to be making any progress. I wondered whether it was just me, but it seems not! I saw one rider up ahead in the distance turn straight on to the Lecht road, but decided I definitely wasn't doing that and diverted in to the metropolis of Tomintoul in search of ice cream and more water. Soon afterwards a whole bunch of other riders turned up with the same idea, so I stuck with a big group all the way back to the end.

After the turn on to the Lecht road things got better turning into the headwind

I can't think of too many occasions to use "Lecht", "headwind" and "better" all in one statement... :o

Huge thanks to Alex and all involved - it's a lovely route; the Braemar control was great (even if I was regretting having eaten quite so much on the climb up to Glenshee) and macaroni pies at the end even better.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #38 on: 02 July, 2018, 04:39:31 pm »
phantasmagoriana I'm concerned as to which weather forecast you consulted as the ones I checked out were all saying between 24 and 26 at Tomintoul, while Angus was to be chillier at around 18 at the peak.

Either you made the mistake of only consulting the forecast for Kirrie (which gets some of the cooling from the North Sea) and not the sheltered inland locations which get much hotter (and also much much colder in winter) (see also Braemar and Altnahara) or I want to avoid your weather forecast source for ever more...

As it turned out I recorded 33 at Tomintoul and Dufftown and I've seen higher reported; not as bad as the 39 I recorded at Kilmallie village hall a few weeks ago though. (The bike was sitting in direct sunlight and not moving at that point in time).


Had a gentle (recovery?) 30km ride yesterday; baking on the tay coast upstream from the rail bridge so set off for the beach at Tentsmuir which was lost in the Haar! thankfully warm enough to stand and wait in the huge queue for a Crepe.

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #39 on: 02 July, 2018, 04:41:28 pm »
phantasmagoriana I'm concerned as to which weather forecast you consulted as the ones I checked out were all saying between 24 and 26 at Tomintoul, while Angus was to be chillier at around 18 at the peak.

Either you made the mistake of only consulting the forecast for Kirrie (which gets some of the cooling from the North Sea)

Yep, that. :facepalm:

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #40 on: 02 July, 2018, 04:50:37 pm »
Here's the temperature profile from my Garmin.
My max was 33 at the summit of the Lecht, which made for a hot sweaty climb!


Snow_Roads_Temperature_Profile by Ron Lowe, on Flickr

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #41 on: 02 July, 2018, 06:13:28 pm »
Some photos should turn up here: https://1drv.ms/a/s!AlB7bV6RdTovhq9YkNzVMXJJ4F5PQg

Edit: Possibly fixed the link.
That photo of me and Deano has to be the next Arrivée cover.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #42 on: 02 July, 2018, 08:10:48 pm »
Some photos should turn up here: https://1drv.ms/a/s!AlB7bV6RdTovhq9YkNzVMXJJ4F5PQg

Edit: Possibly fixed the link.
That photo of me and Deano has to be the next Arrivée cover.

hm, how do you submit a photo for consideration?

U.N.Dulates

  • aka John Hamilton
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #43 on: 02 July, 2018, 08:11:28 pm »
You have impeccable taste in tandem colour schemes.  :thumbsup: (Even though I managed to totally miss it on the day!)
It's the purple rims that do it. Need to get some of those Audax Ecosse jerseys now to complete the colour co-ordination.

As everyone else has already said, that was rather hot. I kept looking out for the snow, but I didn't find it.
There was a wee patch up in a sheltered corrie up on the left heading towards the Cairnwell

After the turn on to the Lecht road things got better turning into the headwind
I can't think of too many occasions to use "Lecht", "headwind" and "better" all in one statement... :o
Headwinds have less effect riding tandem, so it was only in the 'nuisance' category. But I did think at the time that stage would have been tough going on a half bike.

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #44 on: 02 July, 2018, 11:47:14 pm »

Chris S

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #45 on: 03 July, 2018, 12:12:23 am »

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #46 on: 03 July, 2018, 07:29:44 am »
As a new member so basing my opinion on only having received two copies of Arrivee I would say you have more chance of meeting Moses than seeing that photo on the cover.
Hear all, see all, say nowt

Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #47 on: 03 July, 2018, 11:40:28 am »
 ;D

I've never felt so white.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #48 on: 03 July, 2018, 12:03:09 pm »


 ;D

You have impeccable taste in tandem colour schemes.  :thumbsup: (Even though I managed to totally miss it on the day!)
It's the purple rims that do it. Need to get some of those Audax Ecosse jerseys now to complete the colour co-ordination.

As everyone else has already said, that was rather hot. I kept looking out for the snow, but I didn't find it.
There was a wee patch up in a sheltered corrie up on the left heading towards the Cairnwell

After the turn on to the Lecht road things got better turning into the headwind
I can't think of too many occasions to use "Lecht", "headwind" and "better" all in one statement... :o
Headwinds have less effect riding tandem, so it was only in the 'nuisance' category. But I did think at the time that stage would have been tough going on a half bike.

Reminds me, I noted at the start your using big rotors and that they looked the same size front and back which interested me as the MTB set up is usually big front and a size smaller on the back.
Does the extra weight in the tandem need the bigger rear disc, or was it just cos it looks good? (I may have in the past used 203mm discs on an XC bike because it looked good)

As a new member so basing my opinion on only having received two copies of Arrivee I would say you have more chance of meeting Moses than seeing that photo on the cover.

Apparently god loves a trier, but I'm not convinced Moses will be parting the Tay anytime soon!

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Snow Roads 2018
« Reply #49 on: 03 July, 2018, 12:31:41 pm »
Weight transfer means that solo bikes skid rear tyres with strong rear brakes. Not so with tandems, which also need to cope with much more heat/ energy input.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...