The fabulous four (Gerry, Alison, Ryszard and myself) turned up in a rather damp and misty Ardgaten visitor center today at 10am. After all of us trying to win the verbal competition on who had done the least biking and who had eaten too mince pies over the festive period we decided to get cracking and let the trail determine who had been secret training and who in actual fact had eaten too many mince pies. (place your bets now please)
The Ardgaten Route isnt a technical route, its mostly fireroad with 7km of singletrack which is nothing really too techy if your on a mtb…. thing is I wasnt and nether was Alison or Ryszard. So this made things….. errr …. interesting? Gerry was on his full suss (and was still as fast if not faster up the hills than us)… all about the gear ratios thou…. apparently… this made for an interesting topic the whole way throughout the ride. It was noticed that I had a mtb cassette on the CX and was sporting a triple chainset which technically means I should have been flying up those hills but unlike some I wasn’t lying at the start of the ride when i said I’d lost all the Ironman status that I had built up the previous year, I was cycling more like couchpotato man (I managed to surgically remove the remote control from my paw in time for the ride).
The route is undulating to say the least – I think riding a CX bike makes it more fun, if not a little more bone rattling on the descents.
The route just before the half way point drops down into Lochgilhead after following 7km of “singletrack” (more like narrower and steeper firetrack with sections of rough ground, still fun thou) before this we were treated to fantastic scenic views of Loch Fyne and Loch Goil, ……at least we would have been if the damn mist had lifted – so we all imagined the views from the last time we were there. Gerry kept us going by talking about food, I love cycling with Gerry hes one of the only people that shares in my belief that exercise should be followed up by eating something horrendously calorific and tasty – more talk resumed after that of slow cookers and the “carvery restaurant which sells good top nosh for only £3.69 and desserts for a mere £1.39”.
Anyway back to the ride – so on the trip down to Lochgoilhead we came across many horizontal trees, Q the fabulous 4 and the teamwork we performed to get through em. Finally upon entering Lochgoilhead we went through a section of fireroad that sported some highland cattle, one was on the path, those that know me know I have an infinite fear of cattle be it the fluffy ones or not. Cows should be in a bun or on the other side of the fence … the other side of the fence to me that is. I handled it all with style and finesse….. I’ll let you guess how I actually handled that.
Out of Lochgoilhead is a NEVER ENDING FIRETRACK HILL which follows the main road beneath you and takes you up and over the rest and be thankful, thankful I reckon cos you’ve never been so F’kin thankful to be at the top in all your life!
Finally if your looking for a fabulous workout on those bingo wings then a rigid bike on the final descent is a great workout and comes highly recommended.
Every ride has an order of ability/fitness that naturally occurs as the ride progress – I can confirm that I won the competition of being totally truthful about my fitness, ie it doesn’t exist. Alison did amazing on really skinny tyres (and a compact) Ryszard is just plain stubborn and will grunt and groan his way up any hill, and Gerry did fantastic on his mtb and most of the time was seen way out in front of us with CX bikes including up the hills!
We were totally soaked through by the time we arrived back at the car park, the weather was pretty dire. I personally had been dreaming of dry pants a good portion of the way round the route. Rides like this are made all the better when you have people to share it with, somehow its easier to laugh off the less than perfect conditions and the pain of going uphill… FOREVER. Left to just me and Ryszard riding I think I would have just swore at him the whole way up the hill, so thanks Alison and Gerry for a great day out.
ps Gerry am still considering the slow cooker but I really am not interested in the Carvery.
