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30 milers/ gallant forty twa 25th. November


Kenny MacDonald
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An Ayrshire back road mystery tour suits me, including the extra mile or two.

Wouldn't mind posting a route myself, but as Stevie Blom says a series of left and right turns in the middle of nowhere leaves me completely flumoxed as to where I've been, where I am, and where I am going to!! Maybe after ten years of Sunday runs I might get the hang of it, and then move on to learning about the sludge and cr&p covered farm tracks, all good fun. It was so good last week I abandoned the car at the clubrooms and cycled from Johnstone home to Glasgow via the Squinty Bridge.

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Alan

with David being away in wanlockhead I thought you might take up the challenge :smash and organise the 9:30 bunch this week as they seem in need of leader :rockets judging by the lack of posts . Looking at the list of suspects going to wanlockhead some will be hopefully still going out from clubrooms at 9:30am

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10 hardy riders set out from the clubrooms at 9:00am Oh ya dancer !

The 2 MacDs, Colin,Greg, John,Kenny Mac,Bill,Davie R, Alan McL and a welcome return for Kat recovering from her knee injury.

Along Beith road and Bill was off on a solo break as we headed into Howwood :roll: he must have hd 2 bowls of porridge that morning :-P

By passing our usual turn off Colin asked " were not heading to the hill climb are we?" he sighed a relief as we passed it by ;-) little did he know :smash

Turning left onto Newton of Beltrees road and majority of bunch were in unchartered territory already :oops:

The Mur de Beltrees loomed up in front of the bunch and mayhem ensued :cry:

the 2 MacDs found themselves at the front of the bunch and James danced away from everyone. John suddenly realised he was overgeared and with a shout of "oh sh*t" stopped dead in middle of road :cry: Bodies weaved all over the road as the steepest part stretched muscles to breaking point. Meantime the MacD express were reinacting the Lemond/Hinault Alpe Duez finish and crested the sign at Beltrees as a double winner. Kat and Colin were up next with the others close behind.

A new experience formost and one that wont be forgoten in a hurry ;-) , the pipes well and truly opened we set off for Beith .

Rejoining the main road approaching Beith we headed up thru towards Dalry, a very sharp :roll: left turn took us towards Gateside ( only after Colin demonstrated a nice track stand as he underestimated sharpness of turn :lol: )

Keeping to our mantra of unclassified roads we weaved across to Barrmill and a run down towards Kilwinning drag.A shout of left turn was met by a bemused " thats a farm road??" by Alan McL another section of Pave crossed off the list we crossed Kilwinning road and dropped down over river and onto the Mur de Mountgreenan. A small climb reknowned for its pave it allowed James the chance to do battle at the front once more :rockets

Colin and Kat kept tabs on the MacD express as James narrowly pipped the auld yin at the summit.Still heading away from Johnstone and totally lost some were beginning to fear the worst :cry:

A final mile southward and we turned back towards home Oh ya dancer !

Wind assisted we sped along lanes twisting left and right, untill we crossed Stewarton road and the long drag up to transmitter at Dunlop.By now the bunch was starting to stretch on the climbs so "piano" was called and the group spread out 3 abreast to eliminate any attacks as we rode upwards to the transmitter and a welcomed call of nature break ;-)

Refreshed Hello, beer !! we dropped into Dunlop and scared a few church goers on our way past , also encountering an Ayr tri club raiding party :uzi going in opposite direction.

Thru Dunlop and we headed past Howies and up towards Neilston, the bunch fragmented as the days climbing started to take its toll :shock:

Over the summit and onto the washing board big rings were employed and Kat on home territory launched a solo break Oh ya dancer ! bringing Colin,Alan and James to the front in pursuit. The shout of turn left at top of hill saw them turn and drop downwards, unfortunately it was the wrong truning and after a feirce descent we were met by a deadend :roll: nothing for it but to turn back up the steep climb :cry:

For Bill who was last man on the road he suffered the double insult of being forced to climb another Mur and suffering homeowner RAGE. The owners had come out to shout abuse at him :angryfire for having the cheek to cycle down their road , being the gentlemen he is he replied :angryfire and climbed back up to meet us at roadhead.John carried on homeward as the rest turned left and onto the fiercest Mur of the day, this one would take us over to Uplawmoor and the Kooriers hillclimb.

Alan McL launched an attack at the foothills only to be met with the real hill round the corner :shock: A hedgecutting tractor stopped the bunch and yours truly negotiated a safe passage thru with driver and bunch set out up the climb of the day :cry: Yours truly set the early pace closely followed by Alan and James ,the hill gets steeper as it opens out into moorland and a headwind finish. Any thoughts of stopping are quickly eliminated by the group of MTB riders standing at the summit. In true showman style Kenny MacD attacks over summit to a round of applause Oh ya dancer ! followed by Alan and James. The MTB guys ensured no one got off and walked or stopped for a rest, we are thinking of employing them on a weekly basis at summits ;-)

A swift drop into Uplawmoor and we headed to village hall and a bit of networking with the Kooriers Oh ya dancer ! We didnt fancy waiting for hillclimb so set off for home over Caldwell climb, at Hall Alan McL punctured and we found time to admire Gary Mcfarlanes new fixed steed as he was waiting at crossroads as we approached.Puncture sorted we rode along to Peesweep and dropped at speed Oh ya dancer !Oh ya dancer ! into Spateston and headed home to clubrooms.

40 miles under our belt with some savage climbs stinging the legs, a great day out with excellent company in deepest backroad country Oh ya dancer !Oh ya dancer !

KOM the young pretender

Rider of the day :- Kat on her comeback , hardly broe sweat all day

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Sounds like a Kenny Mac Special :grin::grin:

 

Not sure whether I'm glad I missed it or not but it looks, and feels, like I'll not be out until well int the New Year after Saturday's escapade.

 

The Wanlockhead Support Team of Alan Y and myself set off in the car with all the bags after seeing the rest of the guys off from the clubrooms

 

A quick stop at Dooleys for some new gloves and then off to Wanlockhead. Left the car at the hostel and set off down to Abington for a loop round Symington, Wiston, Rigside before meeting the bunch at Crawfordjohn. That was the plan anyway.

 

A mile or so up the Edinburgh Road, as clear, flat and quiet a road as could be at that moment, we crossed a bridge expansion joint on the road and my front wheel went sideways and the rest went head over wheels for yours truly.

 

Long and the short of it is two broken bones in my wrist and a broken / fractured / very sore collarbone and months of the bike :cry::cry:

 

Seems I also missed a good night at Wanlockhead as well.

 

Looking forward to next year's already :grin:

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Sorry not to come out on Sunday, but vomiting two year old, (over my hands at one point) prevented venturing outside. Come to think of it, having read the description, I am not sure I wasn't better off indoors

 

Kenny, sorry to hear about the accident, sounds painful, hope you mend quickly. Mind you, you could still turbo... (maybe not a helpful suggestion)

Duncan

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Kenny S. Get well soon.

 

Kenny McD. Those of us from the upper reaches of the Gryffe clocked up 90k on Sunday. Thanks for a great wee adventure.

 

Going back up the cycle track Greg and I tried to chase down Jim Daly whom we recognised by his smooooooth cadence. Couldn't catch him by BoW.

 

Greg was still going strong at the end. Another white jersey there.

 

Quick plug for:

 

http://www.johnstone-wheelers.co.uk/mclean_ala.php

 

with thanks to all those in the club who've been great company this season, especially in the reliability rides.

 

Alan

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Kenny

Hope you get back to full fitness real soon, I have to admit that when we got the phone call from big Alan on Saturday afternoon for a nano second some of the bunch thought it was a wind up. :oops:

But then we said no they would be more likely to tell us that the car had caught fire and all our gear had been burned to ashes ;-)

 

See you back on the bike Oh ya dancer !

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As a recovered fracture victim from January, on reading this thread I think I will be keeping the heid doon and staying put in the garage cruising on the turbo.

 

Seems the safer option !

 

Hope Kenny and Ian mend well and are soon out and about with the 30 miler brigade

 

Turkeys are not just for X-mas

 

Slow Al

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