Evans Ride It! Lanark

July ended with the final sportive that I plan to attend prior to RAB, the Evans event around Lanark.  This was to be my biggest ride to date, at 80 miles, surpassing the Ochil Hills sportive which was a mere 75 miles.  Given the timing, the full Scottish Deloitte RAB contingent were present (Norman, Laura, Donna and myself), along with a couple of the other RAB riders we have met at various events, including Dave Bradbury, who joined our group for the ride.

We met early at the old Lanark racecourse to get registered and set up before heading off.  Unfortunately, in a situation which is becoming disappointingly common, the weather wasn’t looking all that great for the day but as I say, we are now very used to this and had come prepared.  The initial stage of the route took us out from Lanark down towards Thankerton and Biggar through gently rolling countryside that didn’t pose too many problems in terms of hills.  Donna might disagree with me slightly on this – we’d been discussing a bike fit that she was going to get done in Edinburgh and she said that she needed to tell me about it, but that it would have to wait until we were on the flat and she could breathe…!

In the last few miles before the first stop Dave and myself built a bit of a gap to the others – there was a bit of an uphill drag to deal with to get to the stop which, whilst not steep, went on for a while and tested the legs a bit.  The stop provided a chance to loosen off the legs and refuel on the normal selection of cakes (I tried them all), peanuts and crisps (I had these too), jelly beans, bananas, energy bars, gels etc.  The guy at the stop told us that the next section started with a long uphill drag of 8-10 miles, which was obviously just what we wanted to hear.  Whilst at the stop another rider appeared asking if he could buy inner tubes – he’d already had two punctures, and had run out of spares.  He picked up some new tubes and went on his way but unfortunately this wasn’t to be the last time we saw him.

We started off on the second section of the ride and almost as soon as we set off, we were climbing and the weather also closed in.  We had a nasty headwind to deal with, it was now quite cold, and a heavy shower was passing through.  The wind always feels like it adds around 5% to any gradient, making what would be an otherwise straightforward climb very tiring – there is nothing that can be done in this situation other than to get your head down and keep going.  Luckily the rain didn’t stay on for long, but another couple of showers came through whilst we were still climbing, which shows how long we were going for.  Not too long out of the stop we came across the guy who had bought the inner tubes – with another puncture.  Dave helped him out by lending him a tyre lever but otherwise there wasn’t much we could do, so we carried on.  Eventually we got over the top and were able to benefit from a nice long downhill section before we turned back uphill again just before we got as far South as Moffat.  This was a steeper climb and I broke away from the rest of the group a bit so I stopped early in the descent to let us regroup.  Our puncture prone friend reappeared at this point and returned Dave’s tyre lever.  I am told that by the end he’d had something like 5 punctures before finally finding a small sharp object that had been trapped in the tyre and causing him all his problems.

The descent took us down to join the A74(M), which we will encounter during day 6 of RAB.  Unfortunately everything anyone says about it is true – the surface is absolutely shocking and you get absolutely rattled to pieces.  We are on this stretch of road for a lot longer during RAB, and I am definitely not looking forward to it.  There are a few decent hills to contend with as well, and the surface combined with the hills split the group up, with Dave up front followed by myself and Norman and then the two girls.  Me and Norman had decided that the best approach was just to build up as much speed as we could and get to the end of that section of road, so we were pushing on at a pretty decent pace before we finally turned off the A74(M) onto the A702.

This is a section of road I know quite well.  If you enjoy driving it is well worth getting across there – it is a quiet, fun road with some nice scenery which is really enjoyable to drive.  Anyway, I digress slightly – we weren’t on the A702 for long but what we did have of it was straight into the wind, so it wasn’t easy going.  We then turned off at Elvanfoot along the B7040 and then the B797 and this was also into the wind.  There were some decent hills along this stretch, which were really tough given the unrelenting wind but Dave and I were making decent progress.  I’d found that on the hills just getting out of the saddle seemed to counteract the effect of the wind slightly because it gave a bit more leverage to power through and it also gave one set of muscles a bit of a chance to rest while using some others, so I was getting out of the saddle quite a lot.

The final hill in this section was a tough one – steep and long.  I stuck to my strategy and got out of the saddle – I’m now able to keep this going for quite a long time, which is fairly useful, and let me power on up the hill.  Once I got over the other side to the descent, I felt really good – this was sheltered from the wind a bit, it was downhill, and it was on the smoothest bit of tarmac I think I have ever come across.  As a result, I was in my element, absolutely speeding along and really enjoying myself.  This exuberance was, however, to come with a fairly high cost.  We turned off towards Crawfordjohn up a pretty steep hill on a sort of gravelly surface which was again followed by a nice descent – I freewheeled for a while before deciding to push on and tried to change into a higher gear, but nothing happened.  I thought this might be because I was going too fast so I slowed a bit and tried again.  Still nothing.  I tried changing to a lower gear and this worked, but I was now in a worse situation.  I knew the next stop was only a couple of miles away so I nursed the bike to the stop, freewheeling on the downhill sections and trying my best to make progress on the flat.

As soon as I got to the stop I asked the guy there for assistance but it quickly became evident that the problem was likely to be terminal.  He hadn’t seen the issue before and was able to quickly conclude that it wasn’t an issue with the gear cable or any of the other usual suspects.  His conclusion, which turned out to be correct, was that the shifter had broken.  I told the others to carry on, and I waited (quite a long time, because the guy got lost) for the courtesy van to come and pick me up.  With hindsight what I should have done was adjust the derailleur to put me into a gear that would have given me enough impetus on the flat but was also low enough to let me manage the hills, but I didn’t think of that until later!

As a result, this wasn’t my longest ever ride as I stopped at 60 miles.  The rest of the team made it through the full 80 miles without incident, and we regrouped at the finish where I arrived at pretty much the same time as they did.  Having missed the Evans events in Callander due to injury and having to stop short on this event due to a mechanical problem, I’ve decided these events are obviously not for me, so I’m probably not going to look at doing them next year!

Still training despite the weather!

July’s weather has been terrible for training, but we haven’t had any choice but to get out and get on with it.  After amassing 334 miles in the first couple of weeks, I continued to build miles through the second half of the month.  I again rode across to Cumbernauld in the middle of a monsoon combined with hurricane force winds.  I was soaked by the time I got to my parent’s house but this time I had come prepared with a spare set of clothes to change into, so at least I was a bit more comfortable on the way home.  On the Sunday I again met up with Donna for another outing – this time we were going to attempt the Dragon’s Teeth, the hills I had climbed as part of the Ochil Hills sportive (https://runningbugweb.wordpress.com/2017/06/27/brewin-dolphin-ochil-hills-sportive/) including, to date, the only hill I have stopped on.  We met at the RSPB centre at Loch Leven and set off through Kinross towards Yetts o Muckhart, dealing with the now familiar difficult headwinds.  At this point we took a bit of a wrong turn – I was using my new Garmin navigation device for the first time and was still trying to get the hang of what it told me – but realised after a mile or two and turned back to find the right road up to Dunning, where we stopped for a quick pit stop and to psyche ourselves up for the climb to come.

The Dragon’s Teeth was just as I remembered – long and steep, with a number of steeper sections throughout just to add to the challenge.  Luckily we were out of the wind at this point and I was pleased to find it nowhere near as challenging as I remembered.  With my leg now almost back to normal, and no slow-moving traffic to impede my momentum, I was able to get to the top without even thinking about stopping.  I even had a couple of gears left at my disposal this time!  I stopped at the top to take a few pictures and Donna joined me shortly afterwards.  She hadn’t stopped either.  The first tooth had been conquered!  The Teeth are so called, I imagine, because there are several mid-length, fairly sharp climbs.  From having done it before I remembered some, but not all of them – and there were a couple that I thought were short and sharp so pushed up quickly, only to discover as we turned a corner that they went on for some distance yet, meaning I had to settle down and try to recover whilst still climbing, which isn’t actually easier said than done, because you have no breath available with which to speak…

We eventually made it over to the other side and after stopping to admire the view, reaped the benefits of our exertions with a nice fast downhill section.  This was into the wind again at times, which made things tricky, but we made it in one piece to our coffee stop at Heaven Scent in Milnathort.  We then set off again towards Cleish and the next set of hills, which again featured in the Ochil Hills sportive.  Whilst not as steep, the Cleish hills still provide a challenge, especially in the wind, and they go on for quite a distance, but we again managed them before enjoying another downhill section into Kelty.  This time, with the wind at our back, we were able to really get going – I hit my fastest ever speed of 60kph without actually doing any pedaling.  Donna was the same, but she hit a bit of a pothole on the bridge over the motorway just as we came into Kelty, and was going so fast she thought she was going to be bounced off the bridge!

At this stage we left the route I was familiar with, taking on a loop through Lochgelly and Auchterderran which eventually brought us back round to the RSPB centre from the opposite direction in which we’d started.  Unfortunately this meant quite a long stretch coming back into the wind – not what you want towards the end of a 60 mile ride when you are already tired!  We also had to deal with a couple of really tough hills – the first was long and draggy, with a headwind, and a terrible road surface.  Some choice words were uttered at the sight of the second hill which we could see snaking into the distance and which was quite steep in places.  The last section of a couple of miles back to the cars was tough into the wind – I think it is safe to say we’d both had enough by the time we got back!  Another 152 miles in the bag this week!

On 22 July I went out for a solo ride, doing a 35-ish mile loop around where I live that takes in, sometimes more than once, pretty much every steep or long hill I can think of.  My original plan had been to do this 3 times, giving me my first 100 mile ride in the process, with the ability to stop back home every lap for a rest and some food.  The first lap went well, but during the second lap the heavens opened and I was caught in some horrendous downpours.  Once again the Scottish weather was doing its best to make training both difficult and miserable, and I decided that I was better calling it a day rather than staying out when I was soaked and freezing.  I still managed to finish off 2 laps, giving me just over 98 miles covered in a comparatively light week.

The final week in July saw me getting out for an extra ride mid-week to try out a new stem that I’d got to raise the handlebars and bring them closer to try to reduce the neck and shoulder pain I’d been experiencing on longer rides.  We were all doing another sportive on Sunday 30^th July so on the Saturday I went out for a comparatively short 40-ish mile ride, again doing a route around home taking in lots of hills.  Excluding Sunday’s sportive (more on that here – https://runningbugweb.wordpress.com/2017/08/18/evans-ride-it-lanark/), this week added 92 miles to my total, making July by far the heaviest month in terms of miles covered, with a total of 676 miles up to the 29^th.  It is slightly frightening to think that even though it feels like I was permanently on the bike through July, RAB involves doing an extra 300 miles but condensing it all into just 9 days…

Racking up the miles

Since our training weekend at the end of June (https://runningbugweb.wordpress.com/2017/07/18/taking-training-up-a-notch/), the miles have been racking up.  The following weekend, Laura, David, Norman, Donna and myself met up once again at Dobbies for another group ride.  The plan had been to do a route that took in the Duke’s Pass and the Crow Road and for once the weather wasn’t too bad for us, although it was chilly and still a bit windy.  We are now getting very used to the roads around Stirling and Callander, heading up around Loch Venachar and climbing the Duke’s Pass across to Aberfoyle.  We had intended to stop at Go Ape for a bite to eat but it was packed, so we continued down to Aberfoyle and stopped there for some food instead.  Over lunch we decided it was going to take us too long to take on the planned route – it turns out that the car park at Dobbies closes at 6pm and we didn’t want to get back to discover our cars were trapped!  So we decided the best thing would be to go back over the Pass and retrace our steps – this would give us the climbing to replace the missing ascent of the Crow.

We agreed that we would re-group at the end of the descent just past the Loch Achray Hotel.  I pushed pretty hard on the climb and also tried to push on for the descent as well, so I got to the meeting point first and waited for the others.  And waited.  And waited.  After observing some interesting driving from the steady stream of tourists, and taking a quick picture of the surroundings for posterity, I concluded that something must have happened and set off to find the rest of the gang, thinking that it was likely they’d be pretty close by.

I was hoping that they wouldn’t be too far up the hill but I kept climbing without sight of them until finally, not too far from the top, I passed them coming down.  Norman had suffered a puncture which took a little while to fix.  I turned round and followed them to the bottom, briefly debating with myself whether it would be inappropriate for me to overtake a car that had got in between us and was displaying a quite incredible level of temerity and refused to go past the others even though the road was very obviously clear.  We regrouped, successfully this time, just outside the hotel, where unbeknown to the rest of us Laura took a quick group selfie.

The rest of the ride passed without incident and we got back to Dobbies in time to have a quick coffee before they closed.  They turned the lights out whilst we were still there, which we took as our cue to get out and liberate our cars!  Frustratingly, even though I’d completed an extra ascent of the Duke, my Strava profile showed less elevation than everyone else – what’s that all about?!

The following day I cycled to and from my Grandad’s for a quick visit to make sure he was OK while my parents were on holiday.  For some reason the ride over there is always pretty good but the ride back is tough going, and this time was no exception – the wind picked up while I was there and it started raining, so the ride back was a bit miserable.  Still, including my commutes, I managed just over 144 miles during the week.

The next weekend, me and Donna met up on the Saturday for another training ride, meeting this time in Callander – we again went up to the Duke’s Pass but this time carried on through Aberfoyle.  Given there were just the two of us, I didn’t speed off on the hills too much and hung back on the initial part of the descent to make sure we stuck together.  I got pretty used to Donna going hurtling by shouting “haha, I’m not slowing down!” with me then having to sprint to catch up…

Our route took us down through Gartmore and Drymen, which is a pretty challenging road – the surface isn’t great and there are some very challenging hills, as well as the inevitable headwind.  It actually felt really hard to make any progress and whilst some of the views were very nice, and we commented more than once that one of the joys of cycling is in finding picturesque little towns and villages you wouldn’t otherwise know existed, we were still very happy to get to the coffee stop in Killearn where we were able to refuel on some very tasty chocolate orange cake.

Out of Killearn I took the same wrong turn that Ally took on our ride a couple of weeks previously but decided not to rectify the problem and stick with it – I figured that the road we were on would eventually reconnect with the one we were supposed to have taken, and this did turn out to be the case but not before we reached the A811.  On our ride the week before Norman and I had gone the wrong way and ended up on this road further along nearer Stirling and I thought it was great – it was flat, wide and smooth and we’d been able to crack along at a fantastic pace.  I therefore suggested to Donna that we change our plans a bit and stick to this road all the way to Stirling – it would add some distance but would be largely flat and easy going.  At that point Donna didn’t fancy an extra 10 miles so we reverted to the original route and turned off through Kippin, before getting back to some of the small B roads we are now very familiar with.  Donna had just been saying how much she hated these roads, so when we got there I again suggested the A811 and Donna agreed.

We were now on the same stretch that myself and Norman had been on the week before, and again we managed to crack along at a fair old pace.  Donna had been saying she didn’t like the flat sections because she didn’t feel she was able to build up speed and keep it, but she was sitting on my wheel and doing 20 or so mph for quite a while, only starting to drop off a bit as we got into Stirling.  Unfortunately keeping this pace going used up Donna’s reserves of energy and as we turned back into the wind to head back from Stirling to Callander, she was struggling.  We had a couple of diversions to try and find somewhere for a comfort break, including into the safari park, but we were reasonably late on a Saturday evening and nowhere was open.  We did eventually manage to stop at a petrol station for a quick pit stop before the final push.   That last stretch up through Doune and along to Callander was tough going and Donna was really struggling, but she kept going and we made it there in one piece.  Unfortunately the car park was up a pretty substantial hill – Donna announced there was no way she was riding up there, but she managed it after I explained that it would be quite a long walk!  She did say she was going to call the Strava activity something like “Iain tricked me” which wouldn’t have been entirely true as I did give her the option en-route and explained the consequences in terms of the extra distance to be covered!  A quick selfie in the car park rounded out the day.

The following day I again took a trip over to my Grandad but decided to do a longer route, heading across with the aim of doing the Crow Road over and back in order to get in some good climbing practice.  The weather was not conducive to an enjoyable day’s cycling but I went for it anyway, knowing I was going to get soaked and battered by the wind.  Notwithstanding this I made good progress across through Moodiesburn and then up through Kirkintilloch and on to Lennoxtown.  As I got to Lennoxtown I passed another cyclist who was braving the elements but he then re-passed me because I’d taken a drink from my water bottle in preparation for the ascent then dropped it, and had to go back to pick it up.  He was obviously heading up the Crow as well, and I re-passed him again shortly after the ascent started.

I’d done the Crow a couple of weeks earlier from the other side, but had wanted to do it from the Lennoxtown side because we do it on day 7 of RAB.  The climb itself isn’t massively difficult – it is steep at the start but then eases off into a long drag which feels never ending.  From that side you can see the hill going on into the distance, which is a bit disheartening, especially in wet and windy conditions.  Nonetheless, I made it up, narrowly avoiding running over a mouse that ran across the road in front of me.  As usual, the descent was good fun and I passed quite a few other cyclists coming up from the other side.  This made me feel a bit better, as it obviously wasn’t just me who was stupid enough to go out in those conditions.

At the bottom I turned right around and headed back over – going back up straight away was interesting and my legs certainly weren’t too happy about it.  In the short time since I had gone across the first time, the weather had really closed in and visibility wasn’t great – so much so that I started to worry that if a car came, they wouldn’t see me until it was too late.  Luckily though the road was empty and I made it to the car park in the clouds in one piece.  I stopped briefly to take a couple of pictures just to show how poor the weather was and then continued my descent.  The chap I had passed on the way up the first time had obviously, and quite sensibly, decided only to go as far as the car park on his way up because I didn’t see him at all on my way back over.

By now I was pretty tired but this is a hilly area and there isn’t really a way to get across to Cumbernauld without doing a good bit of climbing.  Having grown up in the area I should know it pretty well, but it has been quite a while since I’ve been on some of those roads and as a result the route that I chose in an attempt to avoid the worst of the hills did pretty much the opposite – there were a couple of long draggy hills in there that I’d completely forgotten about!  By the time I got to my Grandad’s I’d done 50 miles with only that brief stop to take pictures.  I was cold, wet, windswept, hungry and tired, so I was extremely glad of the stop with a cup of tea and some food.  I could have done with a change of clothes and I cooled down too much in my damp gear so the first couple of miles when I restarted were pretty tough going but after that I warmed up and got going again, with an incident-free 20 miles back home.  This was a big week in terms of miles covered – nearly 190 in total.  Following the previous week, this makes 334 miles for the first half of July.