AllanM

Will be out. There's a pleasant additional 10 miles by going down to Faslane and over Glen Fruin. Just a thought.

Pastrami? Chung, Mark & Paul...that's the ferry booked, £370 total, £92.50 each. I'll PM bank details or pay cash or by cheque, whatever suits.

Mark, Chung, Paul I'm inclined to take Mul's advice on food, although a man who confuses 8 pints of Hoegaarden and a pastry with dinner may have issues! Booking a car, a 4 bunk cabin and dinner on the return trip comes to £370 inc £4 credit card fee. If you're ok with this give me your full names please and I'll complete booking. Ta

Ferry info...mainly aimed at my fellow travellers Chung, Mark & Paul...but relevant to all. The return cost of the ferry for a car >1.8m in height including bikes and 4 passengers sharing a 4 bunk 'inside' cabin (nae windaes I guess) is £300. The £250 quoted was for cars <1.8m. Meals cost extra and the costs quoted here are for 4 people. Dinner £66 Breakfast £38 BUT Both meals just £88, so £176 for all meals for 4 people for both journeys or £44 per person. I think Mul said he'd used the ferry before and may have a view whether we eat ferry food or bring a picnic. Ferry times are: dep18.30 arr 08.45 and dep 19.00 arr 08.30. Chung, are you happy sharing with us or will I see if the Captain will swap places? Have a look at https://www.poferries.com/ for info. on options.

Proposal works for me Billy. If Mul can't get a 5th bike in his car we can spread it around as Mark suggested. I'll wait for the others to confirm and then book my car onto the ferry.

Only teasing Chung!! You have a seat. I know you're looking forward to listening to my Val Doonican CD's. I've sent out a few emails looking for bike carriers for use by any/all of us.

I'll take my car which can take 4 people and 4 bikes on the roof. I have roof bars and 2 bike carriers. Chung did original offer me his bike carriers in return for a seat in the car but I see he's now prostituting his assets to all and sundry!!

Billy, I think Paul is still looking for someone to share with. Following Billy's lead, I too booked the hotel for 3 nights for Tom and myself. If everyone else is heading home overnight on Sunday to Monday I'll change our booking to 2 nights, Fri 11th and Sat 12th. Is this correct, or are some staying for 3 nights?

Good idea Chung. The left hand (travelling north) bridge cycle track is still closed. See you on north side of bridge around 9.50.

Regarding cars, should we summarise what we have available and see what combination works? I have large people carrier type car which gives us a few options, the likely ones being: 3 people and 3 bikes inside the car 2 people and 4 bikes inside the car 6 people and no bikes - it would be a challenge to get luggage for 6 in the car! If need be, I'm sure I could hire/borrow a roof rack and get 4 bikes on the roof and 4 people inside.

I've booked a room at Ibis Lille Centre Gares for Tom & myself for 3 nights from Fri 11th. Hull Zeebrugge overnight Thursday to Friday looks ideal. I too am happy to take a car. I think I could take 3 people and 3 bikes or 2 people and 4 bikes or 6 people and 0 bikes. I've booked onto the shuttle bus from Roubaix to the start on Saturday morning. Its an early start at 05.30 but it saves having cars in the wrong place.

Some info on travel options. Flights don't seem to work as the Paris airports are 150km south of the start at Busigny, Brussels Charleroi is 125km west of Lille, I can't see any flights from UK into Lille and costs are around £200 once you include bikes. You can Train it from Glasgow to London to Lille in 1 day but the cost looks like about £245 return per person. The best Ferry options look like Hull to Zeebrugge or Newcastle to Amsterdam. Dover is along way from Johnstone. HULL - ZEEBRUGGE Out 18.30 Thur 10th April arrive 08.45 Back 19.00 Mon 14th arrive 08.30 Cost £250 for a car and cabin with 4 bunks. Around 640 miles of driving, petrol cost around £100. Total £350 = £88 per person for 4. Total cost is not much less for 3 people, so £116 per person for 3 per car NEWCASTLE - AMSTERDAM Out 17.00 Thur 10th April arrive 09.30 Back 7.30 Mon 14th arrive 09.00 Cost £388 for a car and cabin with 4 bunks. Around 660 miles of driving, petrol cost c£100 Total £488 = £122 per person for 4 or £163 for 3 per car. I'm not familiar with either of these ferries. Anyone with first hand experience or a way to get better costs?

A pan flat course...natural padding an advantage...sounds ideal. I've entered.

A very enjoyable run along the canal today, sorry to have missed the Kelpies! Thanks or organising Iain and thanks for the Auchentoshan and Mary for the toffee! Next time, onto the Union Canal at the Wheel and all the way through to Edinburgh? Cheers Allan

Chung, I'll be out as will Andrew. We'll be coming from the club so don't go without us! Allan

Mark I'm unlikely to make Thursday 5th due to work. I would be looking for bib shorts, a short sleeve and a long sleeve jersey, I am guessing L or XL. Appeciate your work on this. Allan

Entry form and cheque posted today. C'mon they need the money now for the Philippines. Look on it as an investment in huge quantities of homemade cakes!

I did it this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. The first section of 68 miles riding in various groups was fine but after a break for (too many) cakes the second section of 35 miles riding alone felt all uphill and always into a headwind and I was pretty gubbed by the end. About 6,000 feet of climbing. Well organised event, great route with fantastic home baking and for an excellent charity. I'm going to do it again in 2014. From Dave's message I think they're looking for early entries to raise money for the Philippines so I'm going to enter now.

When you're going flat out there is a definite rumble but overall not too bad. I imagine as long as you didn't have it in a room adjoining your neighbour's wall you'd be fine.

Allan I bought this turbo a few weeks ago http://www.wiggle.co...yer-vr-trainer/ Its early days but so far so good. It connects to a laptop to give a really full display of distance, speed, cadence, gradient, power and heart rate in both numbers and graphs. It works with an analogue (as oppossed to ANT) heart monitor, around £15 from Decathlon. You can save your routes and workouts, hopefully to show improvements over time! It comes loaded with various routes and films to follow and a one year multi player license which may or not be useful. So far all I've done is ride against the clock varying the resistance to get used to the machine. Time will tell which features are useful and which are gimmicks. Cheers Allan

Thanks for your time last night. Apart from the Functional Threshold Power test I learned how to make an omelette. Genius idea! I've PM'd my email address to get the FTP results in due course.

Good run today, thanks for organising Mark.

Mark, I will be out on Sunday as will Andrew Dunn. Cheers Allan

I'll be there. Cheers Allan.

In a fit of ambition Andrew Dunn and myself completed the Etape Pennines yesterday. Why I entered an event with over 8,500 feet of climbing when I hate hills escapes me, but there you go! Tough day. Were you taking part Polmac?