A last minute decision on where to ride last Friday night led to me and Gerry meeting up with no helmet Al to do the 100 mile figure of 8 road loop from Drumlanrig.
Brilliantly organised and very cheap compared to con-events like etape caledonia.
Anyone who has been on a road bike in the last two weeks will have noticed a fierce Easterly rising throughout each day. A relentless sapping wind… Saturday did not let us down.
Al, me and Gerry teamed up with 3 Johnstone Wheelers guys two of whom were chasing a sub 6 hour gold standard award. There were a few other JWCC riders out. But no GMBC or so we thought (I had failed to squeeze into a top).
The format was a start when you like, in bunches of 20, do the first 68 mile loop, come back for fueling and do the final 32 or so.
All went well at first and from the twenty in our start bunch we soon had a working group of 8. All went well til we hit the nasty we rise from Penpont to Moniave. A hill designed to split the bunch. Of course no Helmet Al was first up. But as long as you reel in and pass more rioders than pass you you can assume it is going well!
We regrouped and sensibly rode the next climb easily with that great tailwind at our backs and rolled down the road towards St John’s town of Dalry.
Then all hell broke loose in two stages. Some say it’s just that they don’t train a bunch to stay together these days, some say if you have too many riders around fifty in the one wee bunch it’s just a mid life crisis waiting to happen (but I thought Gerry and the young lad who narrowly missed selection for the Commonwealth Games swim team would have averaged it out) and some say it’s the sportive mentality – I don’t know. But suddenly I bunch went by and the attack was on. Gerry got dropped, I got dropped then All got dropped. We adopted that sad space where you are all sitting 50 yards apart knocking your pan in knowing you will not get back on but too proud / stupid / hopeful to slow up .
With the fast boys gone Al, Gerry and I rolled into St John’s Town of Dalry and turn into the headwind from hell. Gerry unshipped his chain on a wee rise, Al dropped me and we were back in the riding solo category. Oh well, only 35 miles in that wind to go!
The trick here is to find and form a bunch of even two or three riders but the wind was so strong that any variation in speed soon shows and gaps develop. After the Corriedoo climb, I sat in with two other JWCC riders I came across and finally Gerry rejoined about 5 miles from Drumlanrig. The last wee bit was lovely – a slight climb in the back way to Drumlanrig – best of all shelter by the trees from that wind.
Back at the start / fuel stop pressure was on for the 6 hour marker. It had taken us about 3hours 40 so far.
The JWCC road train had overcooked it in its silly chasing nonsense (‘my legs are shredded’ was a quote from one of the desperadoes)so we re-grouped for the second part follows the lovely minor road north of Drumlanrig and then makes its way over the Mennock Pass to Wanlockhead and Leadhills. This seemed to last a while. The bunch split again leaving me, Al and Gerry on our own. As usual the turn through the Dalveen Pass and back home never quite gave us payback for the headwing and we ganged up with another guy for the last 15 miles in. Turned out he was an original GMBC member who left to live in England in 91 and now lives in County Durham. All the guys we knew he didn’t and vice versa.
During this 32 miles I had the internal conversation with myself many times about how I think my love of bikes is over / where the hell is that wind coming from / what other sports could I take up / is this a way to spend a Saturday / why don’t I take up watching football /I hate riding a bike / I hate riding a bike etc etc
Anyway were were soon back with the sub six hours long gone…
Well done Gerry for riding it on his cross bike with 37mm tyres. He clearly has the long distance bug as you can see from his Argyll Audax post!
Al said it was harder than the Tour of Flanders Sportive he rode in Belgium a few weeks ago (it includes nasty steep climbs and cobbles)
Anyway now its over it was a good ride. Next stop Fred Whitton… I see that wind is forecast to continue through the week…..
See you down in Drumlanrig for the start next year? We will arrange a 5 mph South Westerly for the occassion!
SS
