CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Had a fine day out yesterday on the Snow Hare. Took a relaxed approach and kept things fairly easy on the effort front. Found a similar minded companion on the back road to Innerleithen and we did the whole thing together which was was some good craic.
Wasn’t expecting the hills between Moffat and Longtown. For some reason I thought that section was going to be mostly downhill :) Definitely quite lumpy.
Good get my first 300 done and thoroughly enjoyed the day.
@nobrakes glad to hear you enjoyed it! I took the lumpy way from Moffat to Longtown last year. Given that it was not a mandatory route and Lucy didn't put an info control there (unlike some of the other organisers would) I chose to go via Lockerbie. I wanted to see the CTC sign there. Back on B7076 I bumped into Dick and Phil (combined age of about 170) on a tandem. They would struggle on the lumpy route but did fantastic on the flatter route. I also saw two backpackers heading up north and a gentleman on a laid back trike with a trailer also heading north.
Coming back via Eskdale and Ettrick was great. Very typical low cloud conditions (it pour down earlier I was told @amir) with the smell of Woodburn. Maybe 3-4 cars met in total.
A very enjoyable day!
@Murun @Greenroofer @bill
Disc harrows was my first guess for the markings too, whilst they are normally raised for transport, if the road has a significant rise in the middle and the tyres are a bit squishy and bouncy they can still make contact as the tractor barrels along. But... disc harrows normally have one set with a scalloped edge and these markings look like they have been made with a straight edge. So, my next guess would be an old set of Cambridge rollers. The older triple sets can't be lifted and are transported (slowly) from field to field in a line. If the rollers are a bit worn and loose, and there is a rise in the middle of the road they can snake from side to side and I think that would leave markings like that.
Reposting as the forum ate the original post (though it's now old news anyway!)
So I missed PoP again this year because I was once again doing the Loch Ness etape.
This year after having our hotel booking at the Craigmonie cancelled at fairly short notice (it turns out that they're hosting Ukranian refugees so have had to cancel all their bookings for this year) we decided to treat ourselves and push the boat out by staying at the Rocpool. This turned out to be even handier for getting to the start gate than the Craigmonie, which is a small but welcome blessing when you've got a 4.30 wake-up call for a 5.30am start!
The weather gods weren't exactly smiling on us this year with temperatures of 5oC drizzle and a bit of a Northerly which thankfully didn't really get to the threatened 20mph winds except at the top of the Fort Augustus hill climb with the waiting piper shrouded in mist and fog. Very atmospheric but given how I felt wearing 2 layers of goretex and riding a bike to keep warm I can't imagine how chilly he felt standing in a kilt playing the bagpipes! A wee bit of a head/cross wind on the return leg curtailed the descent slightly before turning off along the more shelters B-roads along the Loch again towards Foyers and eventually Dores. I had a bit of a breakaway at this stage after the final hill so rode solo for much of the last 5Km or so back into Inverness. One last sprint for the cameras and I was over the line. A slightly slower speed than last year but given my lack of prep this year after my accident and the inclement weather I'll take that! The long soak in the bath afterwards was a welcome reward for my efforts.
Next year I'll do the Caledonia Etape so it doesn't clash with PoP
After a week of very contradictory forecasts, today was a near perfect day for the Fred Whitton. Sunny and warm (apart for a section near Sellafield) - maybe a touch too warm at the end. Early mists in the valleys burned off within the first hour leaving picture postcard views over the still lakes. As an icing on the cake an early inconclusive zephyr early gave way to a light tailwind for the last 30 miles. So really no excuses. A few extra kilos on my rear this year were definitely felt on the climbs, but better fuelling and hydration meant I was still able to push hard on the final 10 miles back to Grasmere. This, and not loitering too long at the feed stations, meant I trimmed 5 mins off last year's time - despite the poor show on the climbs!
A mighty ride @vladimpala. I've not done the Fred Whitton yet.
I was further east but still in exotic England, on the Chevy Chase audax. We started in fog for the first 2 hours, rumbling up the Military Road with the Vallum on the left and Hadrian's Wall on the right. After Chollerford, we left the Wall, going towards Bellingham, then took a minor road left up on to the moorland - a kind of Wark/Bellingham bypass. It could have been beautiful up there - no telling due to lack of vision. But once back down in to the valley below Kielder, the clouds lifted. First and only cafe for me was at Falstone - very nice. I was riding on my tod due to no other proper northerners, so could choose my stops freely. Next over the top to Otterburn and Elsdon. A control outside the famous cycle cafe then up over into Coquetdale. We followed the Coquet into its upper reaches. This is superbly beautiful cycling country - well recommended. It reminded me of the Shropshire hills, but bigger. There are reminders of how close we were to the Border, with old roads passing into the hills, remains of pubs and stills. And after a few nasty sharp hills we reached the end, by Chew Green, home of Roman Camps and Forts, and where Dere Street crosses on its way to Trimontium and Elginhaugh. We headed up Dere St/Camel's Path onto the Otterburn military ranges. Thanks for the warning about the hill, @cyclops! I stopped halfway up to take a pic of the Roman earthworks. The roads on the ranges are superb, though disappointingly not uniformly downhill. The wind had upped its game while we were sheltered in the valley, and became a tiresome headwind most of the way back. We dropped out of the ranges into Elsdon again, then up the fearsome Winter's Gibbet. Then a long rippled descent back to the start for a veggie curry.
This is one of the best 200s around, with great scenery, but at the cost of 3000m of climbing. "In preparation" for this, I have done 2 200s, 2 300s and 1 400 in the last couple of months, but I had by far the worst DOMs for this ride.
Next I have an unavoidable month's rest from audax (hols/work trips) before a 600 from Stirling.
I did my first ever one after transitioning to proper roadie in the decade or so I've been in NZ.
Le Race is 99.6km with 1800m of climbing around four mean climbs with a long flat section in the middle between Christchurch and Akaroa.
Came like 8th last, but the aim was to survive, not thrive so I did!
@Stepdoh - survival is a win! So much better than DNF - so well done. Imagine these Kiwi hills are not graded for bikes! Nice to photograph but hard to ride.
@stepdoh brilliant! That's a lot of hills!
Will be at the Tour of the Kingdom this weekend & will be delighted to hold on to someone/anyone's back wheel.
https://tourotheborders.com/the-end-of-the-road-for-tour-o-the-borders/
"It's only a few hours of road closures, and only once a year, but the inconvenience is felt to be too much..."
It's a shame, it's always a great event. I decided not to do it this year because the organisers seemed to have gone for a 'sort of' closed road long route with some possibility of traffic management still in place. I didn't feel like paying 80 quid if I wasn't going to be able to give it full throttle on the empty roads, that's the main attraction for me.
I wonder how much money the event brings in to the borders, it has a lot of riders, quite a lot of whom stay locally and spend money in the surrounding area. Seems a bit short sighted if you ask me.
The old video of the farmers with their sticks from a few years ago sums it up though. They just don't like cyclists closing the roads. It's ok for farmers to hold up long queues of traffic in rush hour nearly every day on the A68 and A7 though (and I'm fine with that, they have jobs to do and have as much right as me to be on the road, but a wee bit compromise needs to go both ways).
I always thought TOTB was supremely well organised and the way they very quickly re-opened the roads in a rolling manner and published all that to social media as it happened was about as much as you could ask of an organiser.
Disappointing. They should run it in 2024 on open roads as a slow rolling protest à la XR ;)
Screw the Nimbys.
Looks like the Touro situation is becoming a little acrimonious.
https://tourotheborders.com/touro-response-to-council-statement/
Also, the last email I received from the organisers had Mr McCraw cresting Talla on ye olde High Baron as a promo glamour shot :) Nice to see a proper bike in the press!
I didn't spot that! Excellent... it's such a shame, getting on those roads when they are closed to cars is just brilliant
Inspired by all the efforts on PBP, I went mad and entered Lumpy Bannocks tae Spott on the 9th.
Apart from a random 100k in covid, I haven't ridden a brevet since the national 400 in... 2015
EERK
@Dave I will see you on Lumpy Bannocks then!
@amir and @edinburgh87 also doing it I think.
Anyone else?
Traditionally I would have a panic about getting ready for a brevet at the last possible second, but I managed to get the bike rolling yesterday and took it for a spin round by Kirknewton. It needs the cassette changing and rear mech straightening and some work on the cockpit but it's basically good to go.
Unlike me! I was tired after riding it for only an hour...
Brilliant - we will see both a PBP hero and a restored audaxer.
Latest email says there will be gravel - just like the last 3 audaxes that I have done on my 23mm slicks :0
I’ll be there. No new roads but after InnerL most of them in “reverse” to the way I’d usually ride them. So functionally equivalent :)
Amir - eyes peeled for you en route to the start
I spoke too soon, when fine tuning gearing I realised there's a casing bulge on the tyre at the back, looks like abrasion, that one's had it... then the front tyre has a cut on the sidewall where you can see the inner. Bootable I guess! Urgh... need sleep!
Rambly ride report, half for my own benefit looking back on it....
So after scrounging together two spare tyres from the cellar to replace the damaged ones that had been living on the rims for the last few years undetected, I got to the start of the Lumpy Bannock in Porty feeling nervous but ready to go!
(At this point I haven't ridden 20 miles in one go for at least a year, in fact I think I've only done about one 50 mile ride since the kids were born in 2016...)
Immediately hit a niggle as I spotted a wobble in the front wheel after putting the bike together. I'm sure that wasn't there on the midweek shakedown... but no problem, there were ten minutes to snug up a couple of spokes, right..?
PING... oh, that nipple was seized pretty bad, I guess I need to try the next one over... PING!
After breaking two spokes I put the spoke tool down, and wondered if I really had to DNS my glorious return to brevet riding. But the wheel (which came from a 2000s-era Croix de Fer) had about 360 spokes, so I figured what the heck it was worth a try. (But now of course it had such a bad wobble that I felt obliged to mention it to everyone and make excuses!)
IDK how many riders there were, I think there was a 100k at the same time so maybe a dozen? We set off with a bang out the main road towards Sheriffhall, over the roundabout and down the A7 for a while. The traffic was OK, it was actually more dodgy north of Sheriffhall where I thought it would be chilled, and more patient on the A7 out of town.
Initially I was keeping up with the group (such as it was) but this level of effort was way beyond what I could manage for any length of time, so I just quietly let everyone ride off into the distance as we started climbing away towards Innerleithen.
I do at least have a good idea of how (bad) my power output is and settled on 200W as a good climbing target over the granites. The descents were fast and fun, but you can't descend fast enough in real life to compensate for being slow going up! I did catch up with a few riders (including bill who I never met IRL before) on the way to Inners.
I knew with weak legs and a hefty paunch that it was important to minimise time off the bike, so just grabbed a cake from the bakers and bounced on towards Mountbenger. Most riders had a more civilised stop, and I think I was temporarily towards the front of the course at this point.
Anyway, the winch over to the Gordon Arms was not too painful except that I had to drop down to my lowest gear at one point which boded horribly for later in the day. (Afterwards, Strava revealed that it took 33 minutes compared to my PR of 22 minutes...)
Just at the crest of the hill a few of the faster riders were catching up with me, but I left them behind dropping towards the valley floor, and had a great time buzzing down the Yarrow valley (nobody caught up until Caddonfoot, where I had to stop after I managed to get my water bladder hose tangled in my chain!)
That was the first 3.5 hours / 85k of the ride and about where the type 1/2 fun stopped and the type 3 fun began! I had forgotten how much neck strength you need to keep your head up on a fast recumbent, because I guess I acquired it slowly in the past. For the next 7 hours I would need to support my head with one hand or the other intermittently in a kind of reverse Shermer's neck situation.
Besides that, the limitations of the bike gearing were going to really hurt. Before we had kids I weighed 30kg less than today (urgh!) and had a healthy 4.5W/kg to play with. Can't quite make 2.5W/kg any more, so as I had plenty of free time for thinking during the appalling climbing efforts I realised that's like having to push a 25t chainring for the same effort you used to enjoy on a 45t.
Anyway, there was a short but unpleasant climb in the scorching sun from Clovenfords to Stow where I stopped generously for water & ice lolly. The climb out of Stow was virtually impossible but at least the descent was wide open and snappy. It took half an hour to cover the five miles to Lauder :(
From Lauder to Duns was fine riding, a few ups and downs but manageable gradient and fantastic weather, though my legs were now absolutely fried and I only averaged 150W on the climb up from Thirlestane castle. At one temporary roadworks I hit a boulder and pinch flatted the front wheel, and it felt like a welcome 5 minute reprieve to get off the bike and fix it. Luckily I was not going full gas, so I had time to stop before losing steerage.
Back in 2016 I had a big splashdown at nearly 30mph on a front flat, maybe there's something to be said for road tubeless after all :/
Anyway, by now most riders were ahead of me I think, but I did catch up with a few in Duns on a more leisurely schedule than my body allowed. I had to scrounge a pump because mine had somehow been lost between the flat and the next control, leaving me a bit on edge! Banana milk, tangfastics and granola bars were taken on board at the co-op for the next leg over Crystal rig.
I'll be first in line for a memory wipe when the tech is available, but climbing over the rig was agonising and may as well have been walked (53 minutes to cover 5.4 miles). Then the descent is on very narrow, rougher roads so you're hanging out on the brake levers to avoid a darwin award. Still, at least it was all over bar the trip back through Haddington, right?
Wrong! There were still three -ish short and stiff climbs to cope with including one cold start immediately after a ford. The Strava segment names include "Vomit Valley", "Brunt divebomb" and "Starvation top".... at this point my weary soul had nearly expired with the kind of painful empty leggedness that I just don't remember having on any brevet before. Still somehow I crawled out of the Lammermuirs like a half dead thing and began the journey back towards Edinburgh.
At this point there was a bit of a headwind, which nobody on a recumbent welcomes either- even if it hurts less than on a normal bike. It felt like I was operating on half power, making just 130W for miles west of Haddington (in my outdated mental image, 250W is reliable all day, not burning the candles pace).
The last kilometres of a brevet always drag for me, whether it's a 100k or a 600k and this was no exception, but suddenly I was at the Asda jewel turnoff and reached the finish. Surprisingly it was an 11 hour ride, I guess because I spent so little time off the bike.
So yeah. And I already entered Moulin Moors 200 next month, which is a good thing because I might not have otherwise!
Not many people have Strava flyby permissions these days, but you can see some of the riders here:
Quite the write up Dave, and nice to meet you on the Granites (and think caught a brief glimpse of your recumbent in Haddington).
It's a great route, probably one of my favourites now, and it's nice to see the Lammermuirs featuring more on Audax events (there's also Lanterne Rouge and my CrystAAAL Rig). Always feel pleasantly "chewed up" after a ride there.
Had a great day out, mostly with @bill and others NOTP. Next for me is "Cheviots, Castles and Coasts" out of Alnwick at the end of the month, I think..
@dave, I never thought this went over Sherriffhall? But the rest Chapeau.
Good to finally meet you @Dave! Nice write up.
Moulin Muirs is a great route. Have done it 3 times now (twice as the calendar event, once as a perm, in reverse and in spring rather than autumn). Escape Route in Pitlochry is a great lunch stop but always rammed with the Ronde bunch as it's their annual weekend away. Last year I picked up a Veloforte bar on of the back roads and it must have fallen out of one of the Ronde's pocket. The bar was really good. No wonder it costs as much as a bacon roll.
Thanks @edinburgh87 for company. It was fun!
So there's an amber rain warning out for Moulin Muirs tomorrow... trying to decide whether to risk it (can I even get to the start? Will there be obscure roads that are totally flooded out? Or will it be a wet paradise of empty roads due to drivers staying away?)
Likely rain ALL day - measured in inches.
I've foolishly committed to Etape Loch Ness next year. Any tips for getting there from Edinburgh? Think my most likely option is to get the train with a bike reservation up the day before, but is there some secret option for experts?
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