James

Don't think I can do that weekend. Pity as that would be good

Winter Solo Single 
Where do I begin.
Last night I was visualising my moment of glory on the Hall of fame.
Arrived on Arran this morning with nothing but positive vibes, winter bike metal frame full muddies rear light but chose to ditch the front to go for the title. Set off on a steady pace and feeling good, weather was meant to be sunny but still foggy.
Half way round, 5 minutes behind the summer pace, first negative thought creeps in but crack on.
36 miles, 2 hours dead, means 20 miles in 45ish minutes, games a bogey but again I'll crack on. 
Got to the top of Lochranza climb with 30 minutes until the ferry leaves, bottle empty and a wee packet of wiggle haribo, I can make it, I've lost my minerals!
Rode as hard as I could, really really  struggling by this point, missed the boat by 5 minutes.
I'm writing this still on Arran, next boat is 2hrs 40 minutes later, ouch!
On the plus side I don't think I'll have a harder training ride this winter, rode in  Z4 for 1hr 2min and Z5 for 1 hr 52min!
Anyone who completes the Winter Solo is a strong man!
Cheers

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Yes... No block head wind when you're  sitting behind Charlie

Met the lads in Bishy only to suffer some rear brake and front mech issues due to being frozen after being cleaned yesterday , back to base, some boiling water followed by de-Icer got me back on the road albeit 15-20 behind the rest. Thought I could hammer it to Inverkip roundabout via IBM and get there before them, but after hanging around for 15 mins I guessed I was now well behind them and just trundled round the Cloch for a bacon n egg roll in the Bluebird Cafe in Gourock, still thoroughly enjoyable though, was frozen stuff when I got home ....

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38X42 no bother... might be dark before I get home 

Five go to Largs
Ouch that hurt, not in all-out effort but self generated wind chill factor on top of well below 0C air temps! Duly re-vitalised in BB then back via Haylie with glorious sunshine and scenic views throughout, chapeau to Charlie, Glen, James and Paul.  

Get you at bus stop 9.45

That was a good ride today to burn off all the Christmas calories 

Sorry I could not join but had an appointment at other winter bogs

Well that was a cracking ride. Myself James Eric & stevie headed off from bus stop picked up Ian Mcginty @ Bishy. He stayed with us till invekip 0. Nice break at BB then returned up haylie. A bit icy in bits but in main fine. Ta to Janes & Eric for towing me home from lochwinnoch

The phrase 'bitterly cold' was made for mornings like this,  it took us the best part of an hour before emerging from the freezing fog (-5C) into a welcome low sun and glorious views across and down the Clyde. A sensible pace was agreed so we could keep an eye out for and call any patches of ice, the small bunch rotated evenly and enjoyed the dry coast road before a relaxing break was taken in Largs at BB then Haylie and home. Thanks to Charlie, James, Stevie and Ian for going out and staying out, turned out to be a good call!   

My intended plan this morning was just to tag along  with the Bunch till I get to Port Glasgow, then up the Clune solo. But some how I got “persuaded” to go all the way :-/
A nice  cafe stop as always at the B.B. then struggled my way hiding in the Bunch till Gateside where I bid the guys farewell for the day. Not content with going the direct route home via Lugton, Barrhead , instead I had the bright idea of heading to Stewarton then down the A77
What was I thinking! The last 30km was absolutely terrible, glad I made it home now!
Still, I enjoyed it nonetheless :-)
Thanks for the toll guys, especially to Billy & James for their fruitless attempts on me! Cheers
Till the next time, I’m going to bed now
Cheers
Chung

The bunch going through West Kilbride, thanks to my mum getting a picture.
Yes Billy I am at the back once again

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Dry tomorrow so summer bike fine
 
Let’s all get our winter bikes in order tho.

Well done Gerard. Great effort

Errr...
Entered as the last rider, just to give it a shot. At the start line with Carol and Dave and without a clue as to what could happen in a race. Kept at the front group for the whole way round but after the first wee climb I was at the head and because I eat lots of cake I pulled away easily on the first downhill section. I kind of just repeated that round the course with everyone else catching me going up the next hill. One brave soul made a solo breakaway effort and held it until something stopped him heading towards Mount Stewart. Back in the lead bunch on the home run I decided to have a sprint with about 500m to go, looked back once at 200m to see no-one nearby and surprised myself by winning. Massive amount of fun.

Paul, Ian A and me in the first group. Through the wonders of age handicapping we also had Jim Cusick as well as the women Lynsey Curran and Jesse who are all regular Renfrew bunch and winter Saturday morning riders. Ian McT, Marc and Robbie were in the later groups.
We quickly had a very well organised bunch of eight or nine which held together until a touch of wheels half way on the return and a rider went down. We lost momentum and within a few minutes were swallowed up by a big bunch including Marc and Ian who must have worked super hard to put over 4 minutes into us.
I just held on over mt Stuart and just sat in for the habble to finish. Kudos to Paul as first v50 but all jwcc did well in big bunch sprint. Robbie punctured.
APR is good format, Very hard racing with no let up, my geek meter says average 232 watts which explains why I am writing this while lying horizontal on sofa.

I had a fun day, well done to everyone else. Took the family out for a dinner with my winnings, so they did not last long. Now I am drinking ice cold prosecco to celebrate.

Always a fun weekend of racing on Rothesay. Wheelers well represented in every event from the hill climb, cx, 2up TT, individual TT and the 2 road races.
 
APR was run under TLI age category rules this year with 1.5 minutes between groups.  Robbie, Marc and myself in the 4th group. Most of the group were willing to work however there were a couple who were strong riders but who seemingly didnt know how to ride through and off so it meant things werent smooth and we had to work harder than should have been the case. Scratch caught us after 12 miles then jumped on that, pace picked up but it was now much more organised so really started to motor along  we caught the 3rd group of youth/juniors just before the turn just as they had caught the 2nd group. Then it was the chase of the first group. Gap was 2.5 minutes by then so the first group had extended their lead on the 2nd group. Was starting to get more difficult and some attacks were happening. However nothing came from any of them. We caught the first group just before the final climb, things started to split here and was hanging on by a thread by the top with the front group of about 14 riders (Paul, Marc and Ian all in it). It mostly all came back together on the descent and the flat when things eased a bit with everyone starting to think of the finish and jockying for position.  Jim was going to lead out Lynsey for the finish so thought it fair Jess had that option too which worked pretty well with her winning the womens race (and 9th overall). I was 10th, Paul 11th (and winning his category) and Marc 12th so good spread of Wheelers towards the top. Ian was pretty close behind too and 2nd in his category and Alan towards the top 20 too i think. Robbie unfortunate to puncture.
 
The groups and time gaps were spot on this year. Ideally you want the groups to come together before the final climb and thats what happened.
 
Special mention to Gerrard winning the novice race and also his category in the TT. Also to Marc and Ian going for the yellow jersey, no idea how the standings for that finished but Marc must have been pretty high up by the end...just unfortunate to share the same age category as Martin Lonie and Chris Smart!
 
Next year i think it would be a good event as a club to target to try and win the overall prize. We wouldnt have been that far off this year as Fullarton won it and i dont think any of them finished in the top 12 of the road race.

The Bison & Paul the Power were awesome this morning. Reminiscent of Hinault/Moser in the Barrachi Trophy.
 
We even slowed to let Marc catch us and "cheer him on" 😉

Just getting in ahead of Kenny Steele to say thank you to all the Joansin who helped at this morning's Sam Dooley Memorial TT. Fabulous show of strength by the club.
 
And of course a big thank you to Kenny for organising another super smooth event. Great stuff.
 
M

Well done to Marc and to Gerard who smashed a certain Archibald on the course today.. when telling the story leave out what Archibald it was you beat...makes it sound a hole lot better 🤣🤣🤣