Highland Fling 1000 from Darlington, - now Friday 29/04/2022

[iroiromono]

Just been sent a screenshot of the finish list, not sure how Robbie gets it from aukweb still.

Hard Bastards the lot of them and that was their categorization before last Friday.

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https://www.aukweb.net/results/archive/

[FifeingEejit]

Scots/Northumbric how vs Standard English how

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[IanDG]

Scots/Northumbric how vs Standard English how

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[john jackson]

Thank you to Dean and the all the helpers for an excellent event.

[Deano]

Cards are away in the post and I'm just tidying up the admin, but overall that went pretty well, thanks mainly to a great bunch of happy helpers.

I had 50 starters on the day, of whom 39 finished. The DNFs broadly fell into two categories - those who got to Castle Douglas or Ayr before their bikes or bodies failed, and those who were defeated by the relentless rain around the Cowal and Loch Fyne. A bunch of riders were draped across hotels and trains between Caiirndow and Helensburgh.

There are a lot of photos out there, I've gathered as many as I could from the helpers (and a couple of choice ones from riders) over 'ere:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jXWXYN8d5Km6gJkf8

[FifeingEejit]

Oh nearly forgot (ok I did, twice) the Coconut "Tablet" was fantastic, although I would say it was essentially Coconut Macaroon without the flakey bit on the outside.

[Deano]

Tablet-adjacent, anyway. Glad someone had it, all the vegans dropped out or failed to find the control!

[Peter]

A terrific effort!  Well done, everyone!

[FifeingEejit]

Tablet-adjacent, anyway. Glad someone had it, all the vegans dropped out or failed to find the control!

Plenty appeared to have been eaten by the time I got there.
Vegans appear to be quite handy for me, even if I do occasionally need to extract meat from dairy to annoy them.

[mattc]

Well that was a long day out. Pretty, though (mostly)

From there, it's a gorgeous run back down the coast, under the Tyne* and through the lanes back to Darlo.

Yeah. Lanes.
They would have been nice. Still, I'd hate to have nothing to moan about.

Careful, Matt, I'm checking cards and just got to yours

I can say - in total honesty - that I've never been more grateful for an Arrivé to appear!

[Deano]

They're in the post, say whatever you like now!

[Jack]

This was one of the best rides for me.

I loved the variety of country, scenery, points of interest and routing. I hadn't cycled in Scotland since around mid noughties (apart from LEL 2017) and I knew I missed it.

Thank you Dean and all volunteers immensely. Invaluable TLC controls (see the wide-eyed photo of me with blanket above!).

It had its dark moments of course (the cold and rainy section) but they passed. The hills were tough but (mostly!) not gratuitous and took you to new vistas.

And the great company really made me feel like my pandemic woes were healing. I was surprised how many forumites I met!

Of course it was hard work, but I had this great sense that all (limited compared to some) my audax experience of the last few years came together. I finished with more time in hand than I've had on almost any other audax.

 

[Diesel]

Well I've had time to reflect and recover a little on this fine ride. Here's my account and photos  https://ridewithgps.com/ride_reports/6115-highland-fling-1000km-audax

[trundle]

Great write up Diesel - that was a fascinating read.

And chapeau for completing that epic ride!

Indeed - chapeau for all!

[Deano]

Results are up https://audax.uk/results/?evId=22-84&searchId=Event&seasonId=2022

[john jackson]

Lost property. I lost 9 pounds on the ride.
My trousers now need a belt