Cross bike ride – Glen Tilt

Hi all,

For those of you with Cross Bikes….
I’m planning going to Glen Tilt this coming Saturday and meeting for 9:30 at Blait Athol. I have 4-5 enthusiastic riders going along at this time.

Weather looks favourable!

You will need to sort out your own transport, but would be good to get a few others from the club along.

Cheers
Ross

Schiehallion Epic Cross Ride Report

Away from the GMBC norm I proposed the Schiehallion Epic Cross ride.

The route took riders out of Kenmore toward Schiehallion Road that lies between Loch Tay and Loch Tummel in Picturesque Perthshire Countryside. This was a ride that was to introduce Bob Mersey, Lyndsey Carson and Flickr friendly Mark Forrest to the best of the areas tracks, remote B-Roads, woods, streams, ascents and descents over 120 km of riding.

And the experience? Illuminated by glorious sunshine, it was a little piece of heaven, despite some tough, long uphills on remote B-roads, small climbs through forests, and fast descents along gravelly open tracks.
When you were pegging it along the flats, admiring the stunning views, hands on the flats with your weight on the pedals and eyes bouncing around from point to point, you felt like you discovered a land quite unique.

Cross Bikes were best adapted to the conditions given the forest singletrack that leads through and out of Rannoch Forest, onto the ancient track that crosses high ground between Innerwick in Glen Lyon and Carie next to Loch Rannoch. All this is set in the shadows of Carn Gorm, a neglected piece of adventure cycling that I’ve explored in years past, but on the mountainbike.

There were no serious accidents, barring Lyndsey’s bent derailleur in Rannoch Forest and my puncture on the long descent into Glen Lyon. The descent seen Mark crowned Cross Bike Downhiller despite stopping to take photographs!

Note to self – Get Flat bar mounted brakes for the Cross bike!

Into Glen Lyon, and Lyndsey and Mark decided that after 70K of cycling they would cut short the proposed 100ish K route and head back to Kenmore via Bridge of Balgie and the road that passes by Ben Lawers—no lesser the route or stunning views…..Lyndsey was running on limited gears and Marks sore back was getting sorer despite the medication…but first a cafe stop before parting ways at the BofB.

Sonic Bob and I headed out along the glorious B-Road towards Loch Lyon Power station that runs parallel to the River Tay. The setting is reminiscent of the Lake District where the slopes begin to tower above you and walls of stone line the hill.

From the power station we took the pot hole strewn 650m climb that took us appox 20 mins to ascend and a similar time in which to descend into Loch Lochay…with the wind at our tails we were no sooner into Killin with no lesser the scenery.

From Killin, Bob thought he was on a 16 mile time trial and after several attempts to keep me on tow along Loch Tay, Cancellara opened up a sizeable gap with one or two small ascents to go.

As we amassed back at the Courthouse at Kenmore, Bob recounts his time trial experience to Mark and Lyndsey whilst remarking on the comeback from his worthy adversary.

Suitably tired, we all headed into back to Killin and the Killin Hotel for some worthy top notch grub —- 4 Steak and Ale Pies with the trimmings please.

As we recapped, it was definitely the best Cross ride done to date….and one for the records.

Garmin Link here

Mark has posted photos as usual….

http://www.flickr.com/photos/markforrest/sets/72157626400988951/

BST begins with Ben Venue Ride Report

Link to Flickr photos.

The British Summer Time period began today, the last Sunday of March. Nine happy soles set off from Aberfoyle for a loop off Ben Venue in glorious Summer sunshine albeit with a slight nip in the air.

With Lyndsey fresh legged from her Lazarote Roadie Ride, she set the pace for the 3 mile road ride along to the opening of Loch Ard where Altskeith starts as quickly as it ends….still that wee section of road at the waterfront offers a wonderful view……no, not the legs!

From Altskeith there’s a 6 foot brown gate on your right that begins the long 800m fireroad climb..that goes on…and on….and on, but the views are stunning.

The first section of fireroad is relatively gentle that twists and turns up through the woods…not a ball buster by any means…yet! Further on up the fireroad Gavin stopped ahead rather promptly to do some Arobics or was it stretching, it was hard to tell, but no one slowed down to ask. As we amassed at the first junction, Gary stood playing with his iphone app, listening with fondness to his GPS coordinators soft spoken tones telling us how far we had come…I’m sure he just just enjoyed her company more than ours.

With some 600m of climbing still to go , we all set off with Gav leading the way out of the forest…no sooner had he started spinning up the hill, he then stopped again, this time facing the wrong direction instructing the group that there was frog spawn and to take a wide berth…jeez, an Arobic instructor come Naturalist..is there no end to this man’s talents.

As you reach approximately 400m you can either go right and keep high with the easy short climb to 600m or take the 2k/100m drop alongside the forestry, before the agonising direct 2k climb up towards the hut —like all good Democracys I put up the alternatives……aye right!!! 🙂

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Without doubt it’s as hard a climb as you could possibly want and as stunning a view that you could wish for in a clear day, unfortunately your nose is so close to the bars, it’s unlikely you would get the opportunity to see it unless you stopped. With everyone dragging themselves up the hill, I continued until the hill stopped me or I fell off with exhaustion…the hill stopped me, I fell backwards as the slope was so steep. With everyone watching on, I dusted myself off and tried again. Eventually the wheels got traction and I set off on slow pursuit of the hut that lies just off the shadow of Ben Venue.

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With everyone at the top we sat at the hut and gazed around…The splendid vista includes Lochs Katrine, Achray and Venachar, Ben Ledi, Stuc a’ Chroin and Ben Vorlich…Beyond we could see Ben Lawers, the Crianlarich ‘Munros’ and Ben Lomond to name a few….Absolutely magic, and the views well deserved. After a quick few group photo shots and our lunch I decided we would take the singletrack that cuts onto the path toward the peak of Ben Venue instead of taking in the peak itself and towards Loch Achray…I though I’d discussed it, but it seems Lyndsey and Chris didn’t catch that bit and headed off to the right a little more than they should have! New guys Alan, Gary then Gav’s bro, Marky Mark etc. headed off to the left until we hit the singletrack.

As we approached the Ben Venue Singletrack, Gary done well to get sight of it…unlike most of us who steered our way carefully onto the path, Gary thought he’d make more of an impact and go over the handle bars and rolled onto it….should have dropped the saddle! No broken bones we waited on Chris and Lyndz to join us after there wee diversion.

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The track was a little broken up and quite technical in areas, however like most downhills you make the most of every opportunity…smiles a plenty.

As we approached the bottom I asked Gav if he had spotted the Frog Spawn…..”no mate, was going to fast for that”…oh well nae tadpoles!

As we go to the bottom, we took in a loop of the forestry track around Lock Ard instead of the road back to Aberfoyle.

After just under 5 hrs of riding we took in a cafe stop back at Aberfoyle for some tea and cakes.

Before heading home, I got a phone call…

Caller: “hello Ross, it’s Elizabeth……
Ross: “hello”
Elizabeth: “I’m at Ben Venue and I’m stuck with my bike…Graham Anderton gave me your number”
Ross: “Oh ok, what’s up”
Elizabeth: ” I’m.. oh hold on…. I’ve spotted som…….”

Elizabeth hangs up!!!!

After telling everyone about the odd call, we assumed Elizabeth was stranded on the hill…… Like everyone else, I headed back to the car, got changed and packed up and went home.

…….nooooo, kidding……we phoned back, we found she had been out on her road bike and got a flat tyre and sent out a distress signal….we then headed home………..Some Roadies! 😀

….Elizabeth is safe and well.

Link to Flickr photos.