Colin McPhee

As Director of cycling for Thursday night chain gang I hereby find that Paul Robbie Billy and myself are entitled to the bonus points. There was one post by Ian advising of " possible" roadworks and that we may have to take detour. At no time was it agreed on forum or before we set off that we " shall" take detour. Big Alex was clearly pecking as in admission was Daryl. Big Al was overcome with illness and was not thinking straight. Paul Ian & Colin were just following the wheels of McTavish & Michael and would have followed them in to river I on the other hand despite losing your wheels at roundabout manfully chased the true routers. Having lost your wheels to suck made this stretch particularly hard so can not agree your untrue route was tougher
Clearly I am above self interest and the fact that I am getting 3 extra points has no bearing whatsoever. Indeed I did consider that the 4 true routers should be the only counters for Clune and Georgetown but in true Jwcc spirit I have not gone that far. Having heard all submissions final decision to be made by Ian McTavish ( Director of Racing)and on checking my rule book this decision is final and not subject to appeal.
Apr was good but did notice that chasers were all in a line behind Alan though to be fair Daryl And Billy did most of work in our group. Also noticed that some members were in chase group when they should have been in first group but on this occasion only no disqualification

No, I wore my full winter ones instead and still wrung my socks out when I got home! I doubt I'll be packing them for Spain...

SADly no, at Nottingham next weekend with rowing.
 
If Colin is going can I suggest a comprehensive toolkit

Hardest 60 miles I've done this year but a change from the usual and good vertical anaerobic intervals on the climbs. Trying to summon the energy to clean the cow s*** off bike now ! chapeau to the routemeisters enjoy the beer Alan but don't overdo it !

It's a great change up to proceedings, makes us all work. I love it but could we kick it up from the red smidy? This is a training run after all and if we want to get better we must push harder..

Starting to get complicated, if ive missed anyone out then sorry.
 
 
To level things up a little how about next week APR rules? Chaingang together as normal, no points for the Clune (or the intermediate sprint). From the top those with more than 10 points have to give the others a minute head start. If the first group stays away then 5 bonus points to everyone that stays away plus the 6,4,2 for the finish. If a catch is made then just the 6,4 and 2 for the sprint.  Of course if no-one thinks this is a good idea then can just do it as normal!

Hey LA - I was there that day too and chased Lance ( and you ? ) down after he and Jim Daly put the pressure on up the Bowfield ( ok , there may have been a slight easing over the top ! ). Yeah , I'm glad to see the peloton is clean now ( Valverde , Contador, high cadence Froome ?). BTW some of these results on the chain gang look suspicious to me - Billy and Charlie have points ?

Paul
 
Look out for the fat blokes in cheap Lycra that will be us

Hi guys,
 
I just recently moved to Quarriers Village after spending a couple of years in the US working. I'm a keen cyclist and I'm looking to find a club to ride with again. I had actually ridden with the Wheelers (can't remember which bunch but remember doing the Largs run a couple of times) on a couple of occasions in the past but that was just before I left for the US so didn't really get to know people. I messaged Alex B earlier today about joining you guys for a ride and he suggested posting a message. Going to pop along for the chaingang on Thursday 6.10pm so look forward to meeting everyone - hopefully the elastic won't break too earlier on!
 
Cheers
Paul 

Cheers Paul now carrying one in spares !

I always carry a 10 mm Allen key since a crank came off near Kilwinning and I had a 9 mile one legged ride back to Lochwinnoch a couple of years ago!!

Now now Colin. Don't be getting cranky 😉

Crank bros multi tool has 10 mm Allan key. I remember the same thing happened to Chung in Girona a few years ago ( he was on a rented bike obviously as his own is always perfectly maintained !). Must have been the only time I've seen him stumped at a mechanical.

Cycled through some beautiful parts of the world today! Great company, great roads, great climbs (including a Hells doubler with Iain) and then a storming 2 up to Sheila's Diner. Wind was a mare though. Finally got a tail wind after the ferry! Hurry up summer!!!

That area of Scotland should be banned!! It's like the Bermuda Triangle!! Weird things go wrong, no phone signal and no shops!!! #karmakolin

Well AnDy has a double entry after the Arran boat debacle !

iain did pants!  25.33, rode as well as i could, but not well enough, brilliant start first 2 miles was 30mph, i should realize that what the big man can give he can taketh away,therefore second half was harder. At least thats 4 tt,s under the belt.
 
iain

Great day highlight for me was the descent on the other side of the Lochranza climb hitting 52 mph in the way down ! Big Alan fairly hauled us round and my paltry efforts on the front on the rear of the island were fairly eclipsed by the power he was putting out. Legs were complaining after the climb up to the Ross and back to Brodick so decided an ice coffee was in order. Made the ferry I better time than the last outing so pleased with that and 7th overall on strava behind a certain George Donnelly

Great day highlight for me was the descent on the other side of the Lochranza climb hitting 52 mph in the way down ! Big Alan fairly hauled us round and my paltry efforts on the front on the rear of the island were fairly eclipsed by the power he was putting out. Legs were complaining after the climb up to the Ross and back to Brodick so decided an ice coffee was in order. Made the ferry I better time than the last outing so pleased with that and 7th overall on strava behind a certain George Donnelly

I thought black was sliming!
 
Cracking day out on the fair isle!
 
Straight off the ferry, turn left and start climbing! After the shock to the system start, we got onto the coast road and boarded the Mcbride express. Alan had huge spells on the front which Alex decided to sprint away from when it was his turn!
 
About half way round a Joansin Jet was standing roadside cheering us on!
 
6 miles from the end Paul enjoyed a birthday blow....... out! Alan waited and Alex, Colin and Jan cracked on! I popped after another 2 mile, I looked up and couldn't catch up a family of four up the road on mountain bikes, I was sitting at 21mph!! later found out why!
 
Alan pulled Paul back very quickly and then started shouting at the Ferry steward "can we get on the ferry!!!!" The guy said "yes" which Alan replied "its ok we don't want to just now"
 
A quick café stop that didn't serve hot food apart from all the hot food that was passing our table! All Alex wanted was toast!
 
We then headed up the Ross climb , for fun After that Colin and I stopped again for "hot" food and the rest put some training in for Spain and headed up the String.
 
Back on the Ferry, nearly without Paul and Charlie, who lost their tickets!
 
We enjoyed some grub and a birthday cake for Paul!
 

Nice one Andy good to see you're back on the way to full fitness

Change of plans this weekend now means I can make iit on SaturDAy I can take one more from Bishie if you are still able ti go Iain

Well done Iain who totally smashed it. I have to say I totally smashed the Houston 40 I'd have been chuffed. I definitely need glasses. Spent the next couple of miles getting back to bunch remnants.
 
Andy

I missed the bunch at Bishy by 10 seconds. Quite impossible to catch. Took short cut with extra hills via Langbank to join at Kilmacolm, would probably not have made it but for Alan's puncture.

Good race today Iain was right about the juniors . Unfortunately my group lost a number of riders early who dropped off leaving a smaller group to do the work so we couldn't catch the first group. The pace slowed a bit more on the 2nd lap I made some attempts on the front to try and raise it a bit. The group further imploded on the second time up the dams and was not working anymore so the catch was made with about 5 k to go: the final uphill sprint was as Jan had predicted but I managed to hold on and finished mid bunch. Good day for first race of the season and perfect trIaining for DA