James

Enjoyable ride - although i ended up getting soaked after taking the long detour home to do segment of the week   

Welcome to my world!Good to be back out with the bunch! Backside is complaining bitterly about riding a road bike instead of a TT!!
Soothing glass of red (..... drinking it, obviously!)

Nice run even though I didn't have a clue where we were going

Beautiful day here in Tighnabruaich - no rain 20C!

Thanks George & Paul for time keeping and hold up.
Great time Billy, well done.
 
Only my second one but a 25TT is brutal on that course... till next time

Walking barefoot on LEGO, waterboarding in Guantanamo Bay, slicing off a fingernail when cutting lemons, rubbing your eye while cutting chillies, the moment you realise your child is too tall to run between your legs, riding the Lochlibo Road 25mile TT. Just some of the more painful things you can do in life. Big thanks you to our timekeepers, George and Paul, wise decision. Well done to the other riders for seeing it out.

lovely night with some cracking times, special kudos to Billy for almost breaking the hour. £12 collected, Gerard will pay next time. Cheers George for helping out.
 
Gerard 1:12:48 PB
Alan T 1:07:52 PB
Iain C 1:05:44
James 1:04:21 PB
Billy 1:00:18 PB

I'll hold up-don't trust myself to timekeep.

Good run out today, apart from the damp bits and the uphill bits. Thoroughly enjoyed the rest of it, and the lunch at the Courtyard was epic.

Nice day on the bike enjoyable climb up the tak bit wet in the valley, damp on the way over the crow good bunch and reasonable pace

Sorry guys had a bit of a mare this morning. Flat tyre at house changed wheel but in my haste forgot to put helmet back on & only realised on Georgetown road my feeling of nakedness. Returned home but house shut so went out for a Hans Solo 37 mile ride which was enough as got good soaking on last 10

Guys/ Gals
Don't be put off doing this , it's actually on reflection a fairly nice run through some spectacular scenery, whilst I found it hard , it was more a war of attrition that an eyeballs out event , if you like climbing , have the biggest cassette you can buy on the back , and the weather is kind it would be good fun and manageable by most if not all of the JWCC.
What I would do differently is try and get a couple of rides in before the event , to get use to the descents , and the long climbs, as at my age getting my back used to sitting in the climbing position for two hours would have been beneficial, but never mind the French pharmacies sell good strong over the counter pain killers.
And yes I needed some 6 to be precise
 
Would I do it again yes I think I would but not next year the Stelvio is calling

Evening all.
 
Well, here's the report from one of the 'also rans'
 
I had been keen for Roubaix this year until Geo talked me into the Marmotte.
 
"11 months to go" I thought....what could go wrong!
 
A combination of work and a 2yr old meant I didn't get as many miles in as I would've liked...I had ridden a couple of 75 milers in the previous couple of months but my last century was at Flanders last April.... but before I knew it, we were flying out to Geneva!
 
As George said, a bit of delay getting to the Alpe but a nice wee ride down the Alpe on Sat, along to Allemont and then a climb up to Villard Reculas and into Huez village. It did made me think about the day to come!
 
The descent to the start wasn't as bad as I feared and we were soon off and blasting through the valley. I was with my friend from Dumfries and we were staying together as he has been on the bike less than me.
Up and over the looooonnnnnnggg drag of the Glandon into the cold and mist. Not much hanging about before the neutralised descent.
Neutralised because it's dangerous.....it also didn't help that visibility must've been down to 50ft! Interesting!!
 
I had lost sight of my mate and found myself on a wee train along the valley. Hanging on a bit as I didn't fancy being stuck on my own into the headwind.
We collected Greg, who was doing exactly that, just before the feed stop and we were joined by my mate before tackling the Telegraphe.
The Telegraphe itself isn't too bad a climb but then we were onto the Galibier. At this point my mate said he was chucking it and as Greg and I spoke to Ramsay and Elaine....who had caught us for about an hour!!...I lost of sight of him and we eventually thought he must've turned round.
 
The Galibier was ok to start with but the last 8 or 9km is a pretty hard slog. Think it was about 4 or 5mph all the way up!
 
To surprise and delight, my mate was at the feed station at the top! It was blowing a gale so we headed off down the descent which wasn't too nice in the wind.
The Galibier soon turned into the Col du Lautaret and it's fast, majestic sweeping bends that went on for km after km.
Good for the morale and the sun had came out by now!
We realised we weren't as far ahead of schedule as we had imagined so it was a race on to make the time cut off of 6.15pm at the foot of the Alpe.
We dug in and made it with 10 mins to spare. We had dug in because we had decided we weren't going to ride the Alpe after all.
 
Then we decided that that would be daft......so off we went!
 
It was in the 20's by now so off came as many clothes as was decent and we agreed it was every man for himself so I continued on my 4mph slog upwards and got closer and closer....seeing a lot of folk looking in a worse state than yourself is a strange morale boost!!
 
I eventually got to hairpin 1 and had some new found energy so had a good run in to the finish line.
 
Total time from start to finish was 12hrs and 20 mins so a long day in the saddle.
I was delighted to have finished because I had my doubts. It was a tough mental battle at times.
 
I was less than delighted to be told that they didn't have any medals left!!!
I'll see how the organisers reply to my e-mail!
 
What Ramsay didn't tell you was that he still managed to climb the Alpe in 1hr 10 after everything that came before!! Chapeau
 
As the others have said about the Fred, not sure if I'd do it again but glad to have ticked it off!
 
Thanks for reading....and goodnight

Elaine & I also did this with a group from her work.

Briefly met Grieg, George, Billy, Richie and other for a beer on the Saturday night.

Had a cracking day after a shaky start (literally!). I rode down to the start from Alpe D'Huez and twice had almost uncontrollable speed wobbles at 35mph+. Very frightening, but sorted at the bottom to start almost last and behind the following vehicles!

After starting at the back, we rode steadily and passed people all day, which was nice. The sun came out on the decent from the Galibier and made the Alpe D'Huez climb almost hot. Finished in time for a beer and pasta.

Longest ever ride for Elaine and most climbing in a day for both of us.
 
Happy days!      

Times
Allan t. 25.08
Scott 23.36. Pub ()
Gerrard 23.46

I'm in shock, on the boat after a single single. Got a bit emosh in last few miles as not being a TT person at all I honestly did not think I could do it. Wind was straight westerly which was cross wind up west coast and a bit unhelpful but hey ho. Happiest man in world right now. 😂ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ The way my legs feel I think I'll take up chess till track league starts 😳

Saving my legs for a few lumps at the weekend

Yes indeed, three riders on a wet evening with a definite tailwind going out. Not a fast night.
Real hero of the night is Scott, timekeeping, holding and waiting on us all coming back.
 
£6 transferred to the club account.

A miserable night and well done to all.
 
Joseph M - 21.02 (Jet)
Alan T- 18.33
Gerard D - 17.32

Tough day was had, only 5.5 hours sleep didn't help, v warm day, hammies (still playing up) were smashed by the end, finished 31st from 180. Excellent route thoroughly recommended.

Another total mediocre day on the bike , got confused with where the start was went to 25 start , noticed nobody there then rode down to the real star . Wish I never brutal head wind , nearly came off the bike in an extremely rough section, minute man caught me before the kippen roundabout
One of those days that you just never really work hard enough into the wind , flew back finished 23:10 dissapointed as usual , but mighty impressive ride by Richard 3rd
Mike was there after riding the night before which was probably even windier that today some effort
 
Now no more TT until the 4 lumps are done , then big training block for TT need to get quicker

Cracking day .... hit a lump of metal on the bridge and ripped a huge hole in my tyre, managed to limp home or as far as the Bishy Inn for a couple of pints, only to puncture again as I approached the house... New tyre required â€â™€â€â™€

Cracking day all round, good run and new grandson to top it off. Legs busted doing a TT on the way back, hard slog into that wind on my own but worth it to get to see the wee man tonight. Will go to bed a happy and tired Papa.....

Great run today, good company and good humoured reassurance that I was not going to be left in my predicament, many thanks to everyone.

Great day out today just under 75 miles for me. Greg just love your progression quote. Ian holms & me had our intermediate hats on today. Our combined age is 121. We were hoping that u guys would disappear up Dukes Pass so we could have a chilled coffee & cake & a meander back but the smell of the coffee was too much for u all