Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Audax => Topic started by: Feanor on 23 June, 2018, 10:08:03 pm
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Ok, time for a thread.
Who's in / out / DNS / DNF / Riding fixed, repugnant, ordinaries / doing multiple loops etc etc?
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In. Being ordinary, not riding one.
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I'm in. Will be my first ever 300. It's a nice flat one, right? :-X
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If the weather forecast holds good I'm planning to ride the c 150km to the start in and back from the finish to make it a 600.
I think my optimum departure time would be 1800 Friday which I think would give me until 1300 Sunday to finish.
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I've finally been given the weekend off, so I'm in.
I just need to figure out how to get there now... What's the ride from Edinburgh like?
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What's the ride from Edinburgh like?
Long ;D
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What's the ride from Edinburgh like?
Long ;D
I've quashed the ECE idea, but a pleasant ride up on the Friday seems like it might be a laugh.
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What's the ride from Edinburgh like?
Long ;D
I've quashed the ECE idea, but a pleasant ride up on the Friday seems like it might be a laugh.
fboab suggests at least getting the train to Perth.
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Can't you just get a lift with Richie?
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Can't you just get a lift with Richie?
I've sent him a message, just looking at options.
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Embra-Perth is a fairly flat ride through Glenfarg alongside the motorway. Dunno about Perth to Kirrie, but it looks doable on quiet lanes.
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I'm planning to ride up on the Friday (probably leave about lunchtime) and back on the Sunday, on a leisurely, beer-inclusive timetable rather than an ECE one.
Last time I got the train up to Dundee and ride across from there, then back to Edinburgh, both of which worked pretty well. It's probably about 75 miles from Edinburgh, keeping it pleasant but not stretching for 150 km.
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I'm planning to ride up on the Friday (probably leave about lunchtime) and back on the Sunday, on a leisurely, beer-inclusive timetable rather than an ECE one.
That's my can't cadge a lift plan.
I don't even know where Kirriemuir is tbh.
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I'll be riding up on Friday all the way from Dundee. ;)
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I'm planning to ride up on the Friday (probably leave about lunchtime) and back on the Sunday, on a leisurely, beer-inclusive timetable rather than an ECE one.
That's my can't cadge a lift plan.
I don't even know where Kirriemuir is tbh.
Well if you can't cadge a lift and do fancy company ...
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Embra-Perth is a fairly flat ride through Glenfarg alongside the motorway. Dunno about Perth to Kirrie, but it looks doable on quiet lanes.
For Embra-Perth-Kirrie, look at the Audax Ecosse YleeG Standard route...
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2593950216
I endorse this route.
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Im planning to leave Edinburgh 1800 Friday following work and a fish tea.
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I'll be riding up on Friday all the way from Dundee. ;)
I've blagged a lift. You'll have to drop me another time.
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Wife and I heading down to Dundee tomorrow to stop with my daughter. I'll be dropped at the hall Friday evening then
picked up riding back to Dundee on Sunday morning. Then off to D&G to do some house hunting.
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I rejigged the route sheet so I can print it on A4 and fold it into A6, if anyone wants to save themselves a couple of minutes* - https://www.dropbox.com/s/dgyfvd1dej79x2k/SR_RoutesheetReformat.pdf?dl=0
*If you die whilst using it, don't blame me.
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*If you die whilst using it, don't blame me.
Hehe...
There's a thread idea there somewhere - "Worst thing that's happened to you using someone else's route".
I haven't died, but I have ended up in a quarry - with others on this here board, who also frequent the Snow Roads ride, as I recall.
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I'm in. Total distance I've cycled so far this year is 150km, so I'm feeling fully prepared :-[
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Dreading it.
Staying at my brothers in Kirrie tonight but still means getting up at 5am.
2nd 300 this year (1st was a 320 and got back with an hour to spare...) and 4th ever...
Not looking forward to the 17%+ on CoM but at least it's the easier side of the Lecht...
(Failed to get up the CockBridge ramp at ToTH this year)
I'll remember about BH1 and BH2 when I get to them.
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I’m in Kirrie (staying in a B&B with a digital shower! :o). Also dreading it - I’ve not managed to even get up the CoM (attempted it twice) and I’m in denial about the Lecht. :facepalm:
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Just seen a ridiculously purple tandem going through the town centre. Is it anyone on the ride?!
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If it is, they've not parked it inside the hall.
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It’s too hot and I’m not winning. :hand:
Correction - I didn’t win.
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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.
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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!
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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
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We had a tailwind?
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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.
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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?"
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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!)
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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.
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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 ...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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!
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/919/41343553140_f49f21f81d_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/25ZovXJ)
Snow_Roads_Temperature_Profile (https://flic.kr/p/25ZovXJ) by Ron Lowe (https://www.flickr.com/photos/62966413@N04/), on Flickr
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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.
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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?
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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.
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(http://www.redewebdesign.co.uk/Images/Arrivee%20cover%20with%20Deano%20reduced.jpg)
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(http://www.redewebdesign.co.uk/Images/Arrivee%20cover%20with%20Deano%20reduced.jpg)
F*ck Yes! :thumbsup:
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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.
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;D
I've never felt so white.
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(http://www.redewebdesign.co.uk/Images/Arrivee%20cover%20with%20Deano%20reduced.jpg)
;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!
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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.
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Tandem braking is a different beast to half bikes, where weight transfer means that most of the braking is done by the front wheel as the back becomes unloaded and thus locks up much more easily. With the long wheelbase and rearward weight distribution the effect is much smaller on a tandem - it's impossible to do an endo, you'd lock the front wheel first. So the brake bias is much more towards 50:50, and with disks you just want the biggest you can get as physics dictates that you'll be going 50% faster with twice the weight to stop.
Not that we were doing much braking. Big roads with good sightlines and good surfaces meant pretty much all the descents could be taken flat out and 50mph+ was the order of the day. Made up for the long upwards slog.
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Makes sense and what I'd suspected.
Never got as fast as that on the day; crapped out and just hung on;
probably the best chance of good speed for me was the bit of CoM that was scraped of surface and the straight section of the Lecht descent; where I was being shifted around by the wind more than I like.
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There's often a nasty side wind on that descent of the Lecht. I find the Glenshee descent to be the best one for max. velocity.
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How was all the tar'n'chippings on the way down from Glenshee? We drove over it the previous weekend and there was still a lot of loose stuff at that point.
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Was expecting it all day, but never saw it.
Plenty of piles of gravel on the ideal line though.
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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.
Sorry, don't think I saw you to say hello. :(
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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.
We spoke briefly in Dufftown (I gave you directions to the WC) then you passed me on the road from Dufftown and couldn't understand why you 'caught up' with me at Lecht summit.
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Just arrived back home. Great event, had me questioning life, being and the universe (and WTF do I enjoy audax) between Dufftown and Braemar.
Then a useful couple of days in D&G house hunting (OT) spent most of the time in the Dumfries/Castle Douglas area then a quick trip out to Thornhill to spy out the area. Ideas for events forming already ;)
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.....
Then a useful couple of days in D&G house hunting (OT) spent most of the time in the Dumfries/Castle Douglas area then a quick trip out to Thornhill to spy out the area. Ideas for events forming already ;)
Good luck! ECEing a ride down there would be great as we could control at JSB services en route.
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Good to talk to you on Friday evening Windy. I'm glad the house hunting went well. D&G is a great area for cycling - just watch out for people trying to sell you a boat ride to Isle of Whithorn.
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You should charge
https://twitter.com/PeteCrane5/status/1024624837736706048 (https://twitter.com/PeteCrane5/status/1024624837736706048)
either that or promote it as the best signed Audax in the country :demon: