@cyclops I loved your 50km audax. Great fun.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Events, rides etc.
Audax and Sportives 2021
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Posted 3 years ago #
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I think some audaxers already bivvy etc on longer audaxes. I remember DrAfternoon doing it on a 600km, and I think most would have on the epic coastal 1200km (including DaveC?).
Of course bus shelters are there to make things extra luxurious.Posted 3 years ago # -
50km Audax sounds like something I could do.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Iwrats you should, it's life affirming. It affirms that life is much easier with a trailer and far away from the far north!
Posted 3 years ago # -
Sleeping rough on overnight events does have the advantage that you're not tempted to linger "in bed" as I was invariably cold and damp. There's little danger of missing the time cut-off if you only stop to sleep for 2 hours.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Talla-Ho and Pentland Populaire both now live :)
Posted 3 years ago # -
On Saturday @edinburgh87 and I went out west to check out the 'Moscow Express' route (I call it Central Belter). The roads west of Lanark were all new to me.
The climbs around Clyde valley are something. I was really glad I had adjusted my gear shifting the night earlier (it was playing up again) and somehow I was able to access the biggest cog again.Then we headed down to Strathaven, Drumclog, Moscow, round to Eaglesham along Moor Road, back to Strathaven, Lanark and home.
A good but chilly day out.
Posted 3 years ago # -
You can obviously get to Strathaven via Muirkirk or even Sorn (pretty in the way Muirkirk ain’t) should you be thinking of extending this loop
My old boss’s dad had a story from maybe late 1940s early 1950s when he was out climbing up from the Clyde Valley and he could hear a strange clanking sound getting nearer and nearer. He was eventually passed by the then Scottish Cycling Champion out on a training ride cycling a tandem but with no stoker.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@gembo - how is that road between Muirkirk and the A71? It has piqued my interest most times I’ve passed it but am yet to try it. Might be one worth exploring
Posted 3 years ago # -
@edinburgh87, it is steep, windy, quiet. I cannot say what the surface is currently like. Dungavel, a jail I once visited is up that way, the Governor’s office had curved Rober Adam’s doors. Detention centre for asylum seekers now, if I am remembering correctly, I shall check
Going beyond the second totem pole in Muirkirk and taking the right over to Sorn is I think my favourite road, when an east wind blows. Brand new surface, good sight lines, sun always shining, little traffic. Once in Sorn you can take another windy, quiet road to Strathaven if steep windy roads are your thing? Or you can take the other steep windy road over to Mauchline which is wider and little travelled. Presumably you can then take the main road back from Mauchline to Strathaven though I have never done that. I am pro Sorn though the cafe which was bike friendly and the tv repair shop are both closed,
The worst thing anyone can do when cycling through Muirkirk is to stay on the A70 as you get nearer to Cumnock it becomes a very busy unpleasant road.
I was right about Dungavel. But some of the other routes take a while to get back to Strathaven /A71. Strathaven is a nice place but these other routes darkest Ayrshire places like Hurlford (my ancestors came over from a Ireland to build the railways and lived at The Blocks, which were railway workers cottages, my dad used to go with his grandfather to watch Kilmarnock and after the game they would walk out the railway line to visit relatives). see also Galston annother east Ayrshire sh1thole.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Oi! Gembo! Rule 2!
My grandmother came from Fenwick, which is just down the road from Kilmarnock. Her two brothers are named on the war memorial there.Posted 3 years ago # -
@fimm, if you visit the graveyard in Fenwick numerous gravestones with Gembo Family name on them.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Oi! Gembo! Rule 2!
Posted 3 years ago # -
through Muirkirk is to stay on the A70 as you get nearer to Cumnock it becomes a very busy unpleasant road.
Thanks Gembo, interesting stuff in your response and will be doing some plotting on RWGPS later. Echo your sentiments re Cumnock, I once rode to New Cumnock and back for a very boring 200 and didn’t much enjoy that part of the A70, especially uphill out of Cumnock on the return leg. EA is very much unexplored for me, have heard a few people critical of Galston and Cumnock as it happens
Posted 3 years ago # -
EA has many pretty villages not just Sorn but the towns are all a bit hairy.
The Mauchline Gorge is where much of Scotland’s red sandstone houses come from. Catrine used to be pretty and Darvel was a lace town. The other side of the Gembo clan are Newmains/Highland.
Loudon Hill had a battle, a castle and theme park, A Gowf Club (that spelling) and I think an optical illusion where you think when in a car you are going up but can do so without your foot on the gas. See also the Electric Brae in South Ayrshire.
Lot of Burns links in Tarbolton and Mauchline and Ochiltree has the House with the green shutters.
Posted 3 years ago # -
So Ochiltree is the fictional “Barbie” from the book? Did not know that...
Posted 3 years ago # -
At one point the house with the green shutters pub sat in middle of ochiltree (very close to either end of ochiltree). There is also Ochiltree at the top of Kings Cavil which is different.
I did not know that House with the Green Shutters was the first English language novel Jorge Luis Borges read and that afterwards he wanted to be Scotch.
Borges and Me by Jay Parini sounds like quite a good road trip. Starting at St Andrews.
Borges has a short story where a young man writes Don Quixote word for word without realising it has already been written. This was Borges letting Parini down gently for some rubbish young man ‘s love poetry.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@edinburgh87 @gembo
how is that road between Muirkirk and the A71?
it is steep, windy, quiet. I cannot say what the surface is currently like.
The road is great. Can't remember it being too steep heading south. Had some snow on the grass yesterday. Surface very smooth. Quiet as @gembo says.
Fantastic little bakery in Douglas. Do visit if you are that way. I had a chicken and chorizo pie and tea. They do sausage rolls, pies, focaccia, interesting rolls, brioche and many more. They were almost sold out. Coffee good I was told. Owners very friendly. Benches outside to sit.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Steeper heading north?
Douglas is a nice wee town.
Scrib tree bit snooty about bikes. They have racks if you have a lock but I am us7ally travelling light on way to Ayr.
Need to try that bakers. Have feeling it has been closed whenever I have been through.
@bill where did you go after Douglas? crawfordjohn?
Posted 3 years ago # -
Not technically an Audax but I wore my 'Audax Ecosse' jersey and visited the roads mentioned above.
I managed to get a day off today so I headed down to S. Lanarkshire and E.Ayrshire again. Mr Bill asked to bring him some of the Douglas bakery sausage rolls. So first stop at the Apple Pie, then along A70 to Douglas. From Douglas to Muirkirk, Dungavel (not very steep), Deadwaters, Coalburn, Sandilands and back onto A70 to head home.
The backroads are really nice out there.
I had a meal deal sushi from the Co-op in Carnwath on the way back. It was recommended on the Audax Fb page I think. Highly recommend it as a mid-ride snack.
It was the first ride this year where my pavement/verge picnics were pleasant and I was I wasn't freezing. Hope we will get more of this weather.
The sausage rolls made it back to Edinburgh.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@bill - bringing baked goods back always a must! Audax gourmet ride and looked such a nice day.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@bill, what was Mr Bill verdict on the Douglas sausage rolls?
Posted 3 years ago # -
@gembo he will have them for lunch tomorrow, so I will report back.
@LaidBack haha! Once it got quite warm I ran into storage space issues. Luckily the merino jersey's back pockets are quite stretchy so the things I didn't mind getting squashed were stored there.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I. Understand if you visit a vineyard in France the wine will be lovely and you might buy a box or two but back home it doesn’t taste so good as it doesn’t always travel so well.
I wonder if this will be the same for the Douglas Sausage Rolls?
As a wee boy on a Saturday we were often treated to sausage rolls and baked beans for lunch. It was then my job to take a hatchet to the discarded fruit boxes from the green grocers, to make the kindling for the fire for the week. The corners were tricky as thicker and often had thick wires for holding the boxes together.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@gembo the sausage rolls were "good". This is a higher rating than most sausage rolls found around here.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@bill worth the 180km round trip to get them?
Posted 3 years ago # -
I see @edinburgh87 and @amir on the list for Snow Hare on the 2nd of May.
Anyone else?Posted 3 years ago # -
I don't think I can see any of the other CCE'rs I've come across in real-life on the list, beyond @bill and @amir. Might see @amir in the flesh at the start, disappearing into the horizon in the fast group he's in (or like last year, when coming back in the opposite direction!).
Posted 3 years ago # -
Apparently my group intends to eat a lot! So that will open up opportunities. Though I am in two minds whether to stop long at Sanquhar - it's quite a hot spot for COVID.
I am really looking forward to my first 200 for half a year. You guys will surely have much more stamina given how much you've done in the last few weeks.
Clothing will be a challenge, particularly as I stored away my winter kit based on the time of year. I hope to wear SBR kit but I only have summer jerseys.There may be other CCErs on the Ride of the Valkyries (an excellent ride, especially in stormy weather).
Posted 3 years ago # -
@amir - there's a shop a bit further down the road that might be a quicker way of getting through Sanquhar and back on the road again? Last year I hit the cafe just as the fast bunch were enjoying a leisurely lunch and it took a while to get served.
Posted 3 years ago #
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