Well, it wasn't the worst Bethany century for me, but not the best either. I had an early indication things weren't going to go perfectly. I didn't realise that Lasswade Rd was shut at the Bypass (perhaps ironically for extending the cycle path using the railway bridge?) so I took the detour instead of chancing walking or freewheeling between the workmen. That's a fair old detour when you've just done 10 miles to get to the start of a 102 mile ride.
Reported in, and waited in line next to the guy who designed the original long route! Though we didn't spend much time together after the start, our paths would meet again. The first section through to Innerleithen went pretty well, the drag up from the bottom of the Moorfoot descent to Innerleithen not making me struggle as much as it usually (and inexplicably does).
By now, my Garmin had already decided to act up. It was stuck at 12.97 miles ridden even though all the other functions were working fine. I was over 30 miles in before I decided to try a reboot. But even though I set it to continue the course of the route, the timer didn't start this time and it was several miles later before I pushed the start button to see if it would work, and it did. Aaargh! What I didn't know until I got to the finish was the GPS on my phone had also stopped working for soe reason, and none of my apps had recorded past the 56 mile mark or thereabouts. More aaarrrgh!
Witchie Knowe was the usual struggle. I haven't compared times yet, but I feel I ascended slower but less uncomfortably than previously, so I was actually pleased with that. As it was still dry at this point, I was able to descend at my own pace and topped 40mph on several occasions, with 35mph being my approximate average. One poor soul wasn't so lucky. I passed him round the tightest bend, thinking he was just receiving assistance for a mechanical. It turned out he'd crashed. Maybe he wasn't familiar with the descent. I believe it was just cuts and bruises, thankfully.
Later on, there were a few spots of rain which came to nothing, but at maybe the 65 mile mark, the heavens opened at it poured down for the rest of the day, making some sections heavy going. I was bale to make up lost ground on people less confident in the rain but equally I struggled on the uphill sections - going downhill I'm a demon, uphill I'm a newborn pussycat at times. had a fun moment out a side road when my rear wheel started to slide out but I caught it. Would have looked good on video :-)
I was nearly finished, past the penultimate roundabout, and a couple of riders on their way home said, "Nearly there!". That was the final jinx! Down went the rear tyre! A fellow rider stopped to help, and lent me his pump when mine had decided to unscrew itself and fall apart. but the tube wouldn't hold enough air to make it to the finish. At that moment, one of the support cars came by and I accepted the lift rather than try to change the tube in the pouring rain.
There was another bike in the back of the car which my rescuer had forgotten to drop off before heading out again. When we got back, it turned out to belong to the guy from the start line! His gear hanger had broken and he said I should have just used his rear wheel to finish. Wish I'd thought of that!
To make matter worse, the final straw was, after the inner core continuously coming out of the valve as I unscrewed the pump back at the school, being locked inside the compound at the back because the caretaker thought everyone was away! Fortunately I caught the attention of someone about to get in their car and he went back in to get someone from reception to let me out.
Finally got on my way home only to realise I hadn't close my seatpack properly and had to double back a few hundred meters to find an item which had fallen out!
What a day. Still plan on doing it again next year!
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