GrahamF

I've got a wheel at the menders at the moment, so I'll come and timekeep.....

I'm happy to marshal, did Langbank roundabout last year.
 
Jane happy to help with pre race admin.

I can't do a club run this week as I am going to the rugby sevens in the afternoon, but hope to be out for a quick hour or two early.
 
PS. Jane managed to get velodrome tickets for Fri am through a British Cycling draw, so we'll be there before you Boyd!

Hi James, we are in Leeds looking forward to seeing the start here in the morning before catching the train to Harrogate for the finish. We were in Harrogate yesterday and the town was buzzing with Le Tour. I expect it to be heaving tomorrow but should be fun and would be good to meet up with other Wheelers there if we can, perhaps for a meal after the race.
 
Graham & Jane.

I managed a late entry into this event thanks to Graham Hanley (the organiser), I have fond memory of this event since this was my very first audax I did back in 2005 when it was organise by "Triking Dave" of the JWCC. So, I was happy to relive the memory again plus the route was very attractive indeed!
 
An early start yesterday with a few Joansins - Graham F, Campbell Hutcheson & Ironman Campbell along with 2 dozens or so Audaxer ventured North of the river. It wasn't a good start for Ironman as his freehub packed in just meters after the start, luckily a lift home for a back wheel change meant he could carry-on the ride only with the slightest delay. I suppose if it was going to happen, then it's better to be near home!
 
Along the way, we picked up Big Al Yullie at the bridge but no sign of Simon Simpson :-)
The 4 of us - Campbell H, Graham F, Al & myself rode in our wee group making good progress. We had to since we had THREE cafe stops, one in Callander, then Inversnaids & finally Aberfoyle. The stop at Inversnaid Bunk house was a new one for us, the soup & sandwich deal which the organizer made with the owner which cost us a fiver was hard to beat! :-)
 
So it was a magnificent day of cycling with lots of sandwiches, rolls, soup, tea, coffee, cakes & splendid company along the way!
Oh, and with 205km & 7000ft of climbing by the time we got back to BoW with more tea & coffee, even a plate of vegetable curry was on offer too!
 
Thanks for the wheels chaps & Al constant blether!
 
Hope to do this again next year, a great route indeed!
 
Cheers
 
Chung

Thanks Paul! Yes, managed to pull out an 8th place finish in the national 25.
 
I wasn't really feeling great after a busy week and a couple of injury tweaks but decided to ride anyway. I've got a good warmup routine going so got set up and ready to go.
 
There are a few dragging hills on the course, and these are what I was worried about, but I managed to keep up a good 25-27mph on most of them, and also negotiated the 15 or so roundabouts at a good speed too so kept the average speed up nicely. I really enjoyed the downhill and tailwind bits and was flying along at between 31-36mph.
 
I came in at the end with a 53:52, a good two and a half minutes up on my PB, and I sat in the GSK social club in the lead untill the last seven, and in the end, fastest riders. I was quite close to Ben in 7th, and a minute off 4th so quite pleased with the result at the end!

Aristotle McDonald once said 'the best achievements are those which are very hard and which may require a few attempts to get there'
 
Anyway me, Colin, Alan and Greg set off in pursuit of the double, a 101 miler which comprised 2 laps over the Ross. Bit of a severe opener up the drag from Brodick then the Ross within 10 miles. Over the top the entertainment started with first Greg locking a back wheel, then Colin running off into the grass then me locking a back wheel !
 
Greg then had an mechanical which delayed us a couple of minutes. Then we got real stuck in. Colin decided to break off over the String for the next ferry whilst the 3 of us blasted up the West coast at 29-30 mph with a nice tailwind. The final 10 miles of lap 1 were into a strong headwind so with much relief we completed lap one and stopped at our picnic stash for a couple of mins refuelling and bottle filling. Upon restarting Greg had an injury situation which was a blow as he was a powerhouse during lap 1.
 
Alan and I got horsed into it for a second lap. The Ross is sore the first time, the second time it was, well I'd rather not remember it. We got to the decision point at Machrie after 75 miles and with 26 miles left and 90 mins to do it. We decided to go for the 10 mile route back over the String due to being unsure if we could manage 17mph average for the next 90 mins given the state of our legs, the Lochranza climb and the roaring headwind finish.
 
Conclusion is definetly doable double. Second lap would need at least 4 or more evenly matched riders all on a good day.
 
Many thanks to the chaps for indulging my dream. I will do the double one day even if I have to pay some sherpa style domestiques ! Had the fun of descending the String and hitting 52.2 mph which is a tad short of the wind favourable 56mph I hit one time.
 
Cheers, until the next recruitment campaign
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Life's too short for the cafe at Strachur (IMO)!
 
Last couple of times I've been round that way I have eaten at the Creggans Inn round the corner (towards Cairndow). The bar food is excellent and reasonably priced, service first class and very welcoming of cyclists. It also has outside tables in the event of sunshine!
 
Iain

Bill Thomson in Tarbert today around 12,30 just off the ferry from Portavadie on his solo 5 ferries run. Looking fitter than men half his age!

I propose to go to Strachur via Gourock, Western Ferries, Loch Tarsan and Glendaruel. Similar to the run that some of us did on 27th April, but instead of starting with the main bunch we may meet them at the cafe at Strachur.
 
Its 30 miles to the cafe by this route, and total of 48 miles for the round trip back to the ferry via Loch Eck.
 
I'm looking at the 10:00 ferry. The main bunch reckon on 1.5 hrs from Miller St. to McInroy's Point for the ferry, so at Intermediate speeds I reckon 2 Hrs. so 8:00 start at Miller St. and via the cycle track to Kilmacolm, down Clune Brae at Port Glasgow and stopping for ferry tickets at Pauls Food and Wine shop in Gourock.
 
I will start from Kilmacolm (The Pullman Pub), anyone starting from Miller St. at 8 should be there around 8:45, so I will be there then.
 
Anyone wanting to do the ride from Dunoon without wearing themselves out getting to the ferry could take a train and cycle the last couple of miles to the ferry, or leave their car somewhere near the ferry. Beware of parking restrictions, but there are car parks in the centre of Gourock and opposite the garden centre at Lunderston Bay, these are both about 2 miles from the ferry terminal - but in opposite directions.

If it's any comfort, Boyd, I told Paul exactly the same thing but he didn't listen either! :-)
 
Cheers
 
Chung

Fast race today-lots of very quick ladies! Headwinds and heavy rain, but thankfully not cold. Got lapped Finished 3rd last, but left it all out on the course so wasn't anything else in the tank. Onwards and upwards hopefully! Was a great 1st race, and hats off to ggcc for a great event. Thanks for all the support guys :-) Hope everyone that went had a great run round Arran.

Hello everyone,
 
Thanks for one of the best days I have had on the bike. A friend from work (Michael) joined us for the ride today and from his experience and the friendly atmosphere, not to mention Chungs sales pitch I think we could have a new member.
 
With Drumlanrig fast approaching I have been trying to get the miles in but with other distractions lengthy runs were few and far between. Maximum of 58 before today.
 
Set out this morning with the intention of meeting the rest at the bottom of the Clune but we were making good time and got to the Ferry in time for the 930 one. Didn't have to wait long to be met by an impressively large bunch.
 
Once on Dunoon I, and 5 others opted for the middle route, there was a climb before splitting from the main bunch that I think just about killed me. As I reached the top and everyone patiently waiting Daryll was taking a pic or video of me approaching. If you can PM me this (just to see the look on my face either happy to have made it to the top or happy to be alive.
 
The long slow drag towards Strachur was pretty brutal but rewarded by a high speed decent which we all thoroughly enjoyed.
 
A wee cafe stop and then back down the side of Loch Eck. Thanks to Paul and Andrew for their long spells at the front and helping with the run back in to Dunoon.
 
Once back in Gourock it was a quick run along the A8 until we left the other 4 at the foot of the Clune. Michael and I headed back to Renfrew via Bishopton. Ended up with 93.7 miles on the Garmin. Made me feel a lot better about Drumlanrig next week.
 
Greg, great idea about the run and hope as a club we can do this type of thing more often, also a thanks to everyone for making my friend feel so welcome, he's been raving about it since.
 
Jody

Coward
It's actually ok from that side much harder the other way , and it's the closest we get to alpine ish climbs ( but shorter)

There appears to be a good deal of demand for kit still after the initial order. That being the case I will arrange to have the store opened up again. If I suggest a 2 week window (consensus was that the inital week was too short) say from this weekend 26/4 or week commencing 28/4 would that suit everyone?
 
Working on a 5 week turnaround from the date the store closes then delivery would be early to mid June. I'm flexible on this point and will act on the majority view. constructive comments please and I will advise when the web page is accessible.
 
Thanks
 
Mark

Finally recovered enough to write a bit!
 
Another fantastic day of weather in East Lothian for a great event on some hilly country roads. Mike Ferguson and I were along for another TT outing on a hilly course, and it was a cracker!
 
Two laps of an 11.5m course made it interesting as there were more people than usual to chase down! The course begins with a slightly uphill start, then plunges into East Saltoun with a couple of (well marshalled) junctions to negotiate and then downhill for a couple of miles, easily mid 30's and I passed my first victim at 43mph after 4 minutes. There was steady uphill and some 33mph flats with the tailwind for the next few miles, then came a challenging downhill with a couple of sharp "red flagged" corners. Not for the faint hearted!
 
It got interesting at the 18minute point as Stuart Balfour, a wee slip of a boy who regularly wins the 'A' races at track league, caught me just at the end of the biggest hill. He was on his second lap and flying, he went off number 5 and I went off 33. I knew he was going to well up the standings at the end, and I did the maths on how much he had taken out me and where we were at, and realised I was doing quite well. We started on a long undulating section heading back towards the finish line and I managed to power up, push myself well into the red and pass him again at speed. He caught me again on the last hill before lap 2 but I overtook him at 40 on the start/finish straight for the start of lap 2 for me.
 
I hit lap 2 spurred on and knew I was going to be well inside my target of 60 minutes as I started lap 2 on 29 minutes. Knowing exactly what was coming I managed to keep pushing and caught another 5 or 6 riders on the way round. Great fun!
 
So, I finished up getting the prize for 3rd (I was actually 4th in the end) as Gary Robson 14secs in front of me got the 1st Vet prize. Stuart Balfour ended up just about 1 minute in front of me and he won overall, impressive for a junior!
 
I was quite pleased with the day out, as I left with my petrol paid for in prize money and 3 minutes faster over the hour relative to everyone there that I'd competed against already this year. That said, I did have to actually lie down a couple of times mid conversation on the pavement while chatting to Jon from Glasgow Wheelers afterwards.
 
Bring on the flat stuff!

First time away with Wheelers, Had a brilliant time! what a club. Thanks for all the advice, encouragement and support(beer).
 
Cheers Paul
 
What a finish!
 
http://prod.chronorace.be/PRC/VideoMP4.aspx?eventId=243129508691979&master=PRC2014&n=2465&location=timesplit4_2&hash=nRJ5TyyLjNldFI_-LHHabQJm9VA

Good to read Campbell's post, I also cycled to the start for 08:00, and set off having in mind to keep with a bunch at least for the headwind section from the Erskine Bridge to Dumbarton. I held on to Campbell's group until about Balloch when the undulations on the A82 had me thinking about the approaching Glen Fruin and the hills beyond and I decided to save some energy for later. There was a vicious cross wind when coming down from Glen Fruin on the military road, but going up Long Long to Arochar it was behind me and could cruise along with minimal effort, By 11:50 I was in a cafe in Arochar in the company of about a dozen other cyclist enjoying a coffee and a caramel slice. From there it was over the Rest And Be Thankful and on into a headwind to Strachur. I'm not sure when the rain started, but by the time I went into the cafe in Strachur (13:40) I was soaked and the cafe floor was like an ice-rink as the rain dripped off the cyclists already there. The cafe was somewhat overrun with all the extra business and ran out of soup shortly after I arrived, but I just had coffee and cake before heading off on what turned out to be the toughest section of the course to Ardlamont. This must have been at the peak of the storm with strong headwind and driving rain as far as Otter Ferry, but after that the wind eased and there was even the occasional sun! I was at the Ardlamont checkpoint at 17:10 and looked forward to a tailwind back to Dunoon, but in the way of these things after the worst of the weather the wind seemed to both drop and veer to the north so it wasn't much help through Tighnabruaich or up to Loch Tarzan, though after that it was a fast and easy run down to catch the ferry. I got to Hunter's Quay just after the 19:30 ferry had left, so had a few minutes to wait for the 20:00 one, There ended up being 5 of us on the ferry, 3 of whom had only a minute or so to spare. From the ferry there was just a couple of miles to the finish point where refreshments were waiting for us.
 
Overall it was a good run made more challenging be the weather, but it didn't rain all the time and sometimes it was a favourable wind! My GPS tells a different story from Campbell's as I recorded 143 miles and 11,832 ft, the mileage may be accounted for by different start and end points I don't think that can explain 1,700 ft difference in assent.
 
Graham.

Good to read Campbell's post, I also cycled to the start for 08:00, and set off having in mind to keep with a bunch at least for the headwind section from the Erskine Bridge to Dumbarton. I held on to Campbell's group until about Balloch when the undulations on the A82 had me thinking about the approaching Glen Fruin and the hills beyond and I decided to save some energy for later. There was a vicious cross wind when coming down from Glen Fruin on the military road, but going up Long Long to Arochar it was behind me and could cruise along with minimal effort, By 11:50 I was in a cafe in Arochar in the company of about a dozen other cyclist enjoying a coffee and a caramel slice. From there it was over the Rest And Be Thankful and on into a headwind to Strachur. I'm not sure when the rain started, but by the time I went into the cafe in Strachur (13:40) I was soaked and the cafe floor was like an ice-rink as the rain dripped off the cyclists already there. The cafe was somewhat overrun with all the extra business and ran out of soup shortly after I arrived, but I just had coffee and cake before heading off on what turned out to be the toughest section of the course to Ardlamont. This must have been at the peak of the storm with strong headwind and driving rain as far as Otter Ferry, but after that the wind eased and there was even the occasional sun! I was at the Ardlamont checkpoint at 17:10 and looked forward to a tailwind back to Dunoon, but in the way of these things after the worst of the weather the wind seemed to both drop and veer to the north so it wasn't much help through Tighnabruaich or up to Loch Tarzan, though after that it was a fast and easy run down to catch the ferry. I got to Hunter's Quay just after the 19:30 ferry had left, so had a few minutes to wait for the 20:00 one, There ended up being 5 of us on the ferry, 3 of whom had only a minute or so to spare. From the ferry there was just a couple of miles to the finish point where refreshments were waiting for us.
 
Overall it was a good run made more challenging be the weather, but it didn't rain all the time and sometimes it was a favourable wind! My GPS tells a different story from Campbell's as I recorded 143 miles and 11,832 ft, the mileage may be accounted for by different start and end points I don't think that can explain 1,700 ft difference in assent.
 
Graham.

Good to read Campbell's post, I also cycled to the start for 08:00, and set off having in mind to keep with a bunch at least for the headwind section from the Erskine Bridge to Dumbarton. I held on to Campbell's group until about Balloch when the undulations on the A82 had me thinking about the approaching Glen Fruin and the hills beyond and I decided to save some energy for later. There was a vicious cross wind when coming down from Glen Fruin on the military road, but going up Long Long to Arochar it was behind me and could cruise along with minimal effort, By 11:50 I was in a cafe in Arochar in the company of about a dozen other cyclist enjoying a coffee and a caramel slice. From there it was over the Rest And Be Thankful and on into a headwind to Strachur. I'm not sure when the rain started, but by the time I went into the cafe in Strachur (13:40) I was soaked and the cafe floor was like an ice-rink as the rain dripped off the cyclists already there. The cafe was somewhat overrun with all the extra business and ran out of soup shortly after I arrived, but I just had coffee and cake before heading off on what turned out to be the toughest section of the course to Ardlamont. This must have been at the peak of the storm with strong headwind and driving rain as far as Otter Ferry, but after that the wind eased and there was even the occasional sun! I was at the Ardlamont checkpoint at 17:10 and looked forward to a tailwind back to Dunoon, but in the way of these things after the worst of the weather the wind seemed to both drop and veer to the north so it wasn't much help through Tighnabruaich or up to Loch Tarzan, though after that it was a fast and easy run down to catch the ferry. I got to Hunter's Quay just after the 19:30 ferry had left, so had a few minutes to wait for the 20:00 one, There ended up being 5 of us on the ferry, 3 of whom had only a minute or so to spare. From the ferry there was just a couple of miles to the finish point where refreshments were waiting for us.
 
Overall it was a good run made more challenging be the weather, but it didn't rain all the time and sometimes it was a favourable wind! My GPS tells a different story from Campbell's as I recorded 143 miles and 11,832 ft, the mileage may be accounted for by different start and end points I don't think that can explain 1,700 ft difference in assent.
 
Graham.

As someone who drives the Kilmacolm / Quarriers route regularly, I find Iain's route 'interesting', as Al says most of the route has a good surface after recent resurfacing on the B786, but the leg from the B786 to Quarriers has a very poor surface, is narrow and twisty with a number of blind bends. Both of the bridges over the Gryffe are single track and require a game of 'chicken' with any vehicle coming the other way! Whilst I sometimes use these routes whilst travelling in a steel safety cell, I avoid them on my bike and would not partake in a TT on this route.
 
The Georgetown, is currently a poor surface, but is due to be resurfaced imminently so should improve.

Looks like roadworks stopped play. Any chance of a change of route for next week? Perhaps a shorter version of the hilly TT just to get past the roadworks issues?
 
Looking on the bright side, the road will be in much better condition when it's all done.

Google is your friend
 
http://www.whiteleewindfarm.co.uk/visitor_centre/opening_hours

Ken
Think your 9.30 start in winter is safe. Mark just has a spring in his step

For those not doing the Paris Roubaix how about a little excursion locally:
 
13th April - Rivers Lochs and Glens 200km starting in Gourock http://www.aukweb.ne.../detail/14-169/
 
And then there is:
 
21st June - Katrine Kapers Revival 200km starting in Bridge of Weir http://www.aukweb.ne.../detail/14-204/