Many thanks to Graeme for organising this fantastic ride.
For many years I have wanted to visit Kintyre, so I was delighted to be able to go there on an Audax ride. The evening start meant that it would also be a good opportunity to find out how I would cope with two nights of sleep deprivation.
After riding at a reasonable pace to Comrie, I went through a slow patch for a few hours, such that I began to wonder for the first time ever on an Audax ride whether I was going to finish in time. As well as being good physical training, the ride provided a good opportunity to brush up on my mental arithmetic, by recalculating every few km the amount of time in hand!
Just before Kennacraig, I spotted the first of our riders coming the other way. It was slightly disillusioning to think that in the time that I had taken to ride 233km, he had done an additional 100km!
The road down the eastern side of the Kintyre peninsular was tough, but absolutely glorious, with fantastic views. I had brought a camera with me, but with less than two hours in hand, I didn’t feel I could spare the time to stop for photographs. But I intend to go back some time to do a slower ride and fully appreciate the scenery, and the picturesque towns of Inveraray, Tarbert and Campbeltown.
I arrived in Oban at pub emptying time, and was relieved to get through without any hassle. However, some time later I was passing through a small village just as a group of rowdies spilled out of a pub onto the road. One of them ran across the road screaming at me, and then another tried to push me off. Luckily no harm was done and I think it was more a case of high spirits than malice.
I reached the hall at Dalmally just before 2.30am, and was pleased to see several bikes in the foyer. I toyed with idea of sleeping there for half an hour or so, but decided to press on. However, first there was the small matter of the info control question. So in one of those bizarre moments that only occur on Audax rides, there I was at 2.30am, holding my bike light against the building to try to see the colour of the walls!
Heading out of Dalmally, progress at first was slow as I was struggling to stay awake and had to keep stopping, but I was pleased when the riders who had been sleeping in Dalmally caught up with me. The cheerful conversation helped me to become alert again, and good progress was made to Comrie.
I then took it easy for the last section and arrived back at Inverkeithing with an hour to spare, very tired, but very happy.
