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Tour o' The Borders - a life aquatic

(30 posts)
  • Started 11 years ago by LaidBack
  • Latest reply from LaidBack

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  1. LaidBack
    Member

    This event is building up to become bigger and bigger. John Anderson (Renner / Bicycle Works) has designed a course with a long and short route on it.

    The organisation was very good and around a 1000 riders were signed to set off from 8.30 this morning.

    Weather very blustery and wet. On climbs and downhills pedalling was required so my hope that I could laze about on the bike was thwarted. I was forced to work. On one section I was blown sideways off my MetaBike but averted falling down a gully. I walked on one section.... the shame of it!

    Dave McC quickly went ahead and made such good time that he decided to do the long route... even though it was not advised due to flooding. To access the B711 road and on by Buccleuch and Ashkirk Heights he had to wade through a river crossing the road. Visions of man holding a recumbent bike above his head.

    On the last bit of my 50 mile ride the sun shone so at least we could see the puddles. In fact the roads were 50% water it seemed. Was quite releived that no large potholes lurked - or maybe I was lucky.

    Needless to say it was fun...


    Rainy start Tour o' The Borders by LaidBackBikes, on Flickr


    Gordon Arms - last 15 miles by LaidBackBikes, on Flickr


    MetaBike 26 - Mavic XC717 by LaidBackBikes, on Flickr

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. Uberuce
    Member

    I think I made the easier choice in playing Sherpa for John and Rob, but I kinda regret not bordering that tour, in a masochistic way. Krom, to all concerned.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. HankChief
    Member

    It was my first Sportive - one to remember...

    I started fairly early at 8.20 (in the rain) and fortunately found someone about the same pace and started to chat. Then I got a puncture - before we had even left the 30 zone of Peebles.

    A little test of my tube changing skills later, I was off again. Didn't find a suitably paced group until half way up Paddy Slacks. Slightly disconcerting was all the retirals rushing back down the hill - how bad was it going to get...

    Was in a a Group of about 8 going over top and started pedalling on the way down, only to get another puncture. Fortunately another rider had stopped just up ahead and I managed to 'borrow' a tube from him (Thank you rider 688). Without that I would have had a miserably long wait for the broom wagon.

    Got going again and rode pretty much solo over the second climb, which was again hard going into the wind - getting blown into the ditch a few times. Just kept telling myself that we must get a tailwind for some of the climbs and the way home.

    At the split (between long & short) there we riders returning from the long saying it was flooded, so everyone was on the shorter route. This knocked 15 miles and 3 climbs off the route, and with a tailwind the return (and 2 climbs) didn't seem too bad for me (maybe I'm a masochist!), but I could see a lot of others suffering. When I got back to Peebles, someone was being taken away in an ambulance for Hypothermia...

    Don't know how bad the flooding was on the long route, but on the short route and just before the end, your shoes were immersed at the bottom of the pedal stroke. I was completely drench from head to foot, so it didn't make much of a difference.
    I finished at about the same time as the riders on the long route who got through before the flood got too bad - not sure how many that was.

    It didn't stop raining until after I finish although heading home the sun came out.

    Definitely up for doing it again next year, especially as the weather can't be that bad again... can it?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Does that mean that the Gordon Arms is open again? Potential lunch stop on a future CCE (summertime!) ride towards St. Mary's Loch or similar.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    This one?

    http://www.thegordonarms.com/about.htm

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. kaputnik
    Moderator

    That's it. Had been shut for a few years, but when we passed that way on last year's big ride via Talla it looked as if it was being renovated.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. kaputnik
    Moderator

    This poor chap (@oxygen_addict) had a mechanical, a crash, then needed rescued by a tractor!

    tractor ride picture

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. HankChief
    Member

    Fans of Pacman should check out

    VeloFlow of Tour o' the Borders

    Shows all Strava recordings from today's ride (I hope). You can clearly see the debate in some riders whether to go through the flood or not and a few turning back on first climb (there were plenty but maybe they didn't load it up).

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. PS
    Member

    Good-o if the Gordon Arms is back up and running. Would be good to know what real ales they're serving. Possibly best as a post-Talla pint, rather than pre-.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  10. Dave
    Member

    This poor chap (@oxygen_addict) had a mechanical, a crash, then needed rescued by a tractor!

    This is what I waded through, although perhaps it's even deeper here (I had to use the bike as a tripod to help me stand in the river flow).

    No tractor in sight :( I've yet to test whether my new dynahub still works after prolonged immersion under pressure...

    Can't think many would have crossed later than I did, I was only happy with it thanks to my questionable background in whitewater kayaking,

    Posted 11 years ago #

  11. Bruce
    Member

    I took part yesterday as well. I found the course challenging even without the weather coming into the equation.

    I set off with my mate at 9:30 and we found a group to stick with up the first descent, sadly my buddy dropped off the pace but I kept slogging away and avoided the big detour to the pie stop.

    The third and finally hill was great with a slight tailwind at somepoints throwing you up. The descent was rather quick.

    The last few miles were pretty badly flooded and I seem to remember being at least crank deep at some points.

    Arrived back after about 3:30 which I was happy with given the condtions.

    I was really pleased with the organisation of it all. The goodie bag contained some nice items, Clif bar and blok shots and the food afterwards was good quality and generous.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  12. Dave
    Member

    Yeah. The weather only served to cement this as a spring classic IMO. Great event.

    Closed roads next year - although tbf I only saw about three cars yesterday thanks to all the flooding

    Posted 11 years ago #

  13. PS
    Member

    Closed roads next year - although tbf I only saw about three cars yesterday thanks to all the flooding

    Cars are pretty rare sights on those roads at the best of times and yet the road surface is usually in really good nick. Coincidence? ;-)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  14. slowcoach
    Member

    A708 road closed about 11 miles west of Gordon Arms, near Grey Mare's Tail. Road surface there no longer in good nick.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-22150140

    Posted 11 years ago #

  15. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Road surface there no longer in good nick

    Looks more like "Road surface is no longer there!"

    Posted 11 years ago #

  16. sallyhinch
    Member

    eek. that's our route to my parents ... shame for the poor folk running the cafe at St Mary's Loch

    Posted 11 years ago #

  17. ARobComp
    Member

    We set off at 9am and made good headway. laidback and dave came past and we followed them for a wee while then overtook them on the first climb - dave came back past our group on the second climb I think as we were going fairly slow due to some of our group REALLY struggling with the wind.

    I couldn't believe the force of the rain and wind though - it was insane. There was some moments where I could barely look up (had forgotten my glasses!). We had some good fun after linking up with a RC, half of whom had turned back, and 4 of us pulled a pack of 15 or so up the really heavy climbs.

    We made good time though and had lots of fun on the decents. We arrived at the turn off for the big loop and were told it was flooded. Dave went through at that point too but my lift (and the group) decided that they wanted to go short loop - I can't say I was REALLY that disappointed. Riding back we regularly went through flooded parts of the road. One was up to my hubs.
    Finished just after 12.30 on a moving time of 3hrs 15 mins for 80km. Was a good ride overall with some cracking decents at speeds hitting 50+km/h for a few km at one point.
    Chatting to some poeple afterwards one chap was washed off the road on the part you werespeaking about dave. He thought it would be shallow enough to ride through and ended up swimming.
    There was the chap with hypothermia and quite a few other cold people.

    I believe they started turning back people who didn't look strong enough to make it although I'm not sure on that.

    And at 1:30 the sun came out. Sods law.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  18. DaveC
    Member

    Wow I feel quite lucky that we only had wind on Saturday on the Port Navigation.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  19. ARobComp
    Member

    It really was the windiest/wettest ride I've had in a LONG time. AT one point I squeezed a good litre out my sealskin gloves

    Posted 11 years ago #

  20. Dave
    Member

    dave came back past our group on the second climb I think as we were going fairly slow

    Surely it was because I was going fairly fast? ;-)

    That was a fun climb - chipping away at all those struggling people, I felt a bit nasty. < 200W the whole way, new bike is a dream!

    Great advert for riding laid back, even though my form is terrible. I'm fairly sure that nobody who left after me made it back before me (admittedly with more than a bit of help from the flood!!)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  21. ARobComp
    Member

    Sorry I wasn't suggesting you were not fast. ;) I meant that we were limiting our pace so not exactly riding very fast up the hill.

    You were going pretty well though - it was interesting to wtch yuo riding just ahead of our group on the climb - one thing was that it seemed a touch wobbly in the wind up the hill although I imagine less windage than an upright. Is that just getting used to the new bike or was it affected by the side gusts?

    Posted 11 years ago #

  22. Dave
    Member

    Don't worry, I'm only messing. We can do a re-run next year :P

    When riding as slowly as that you can get blown about a bit. I think it's not as easy to pre-empt on a recumbent because your body is on the seat and can't be weighted without actually turning the bike.

    Still, apart from that one stretch I found it handled OK the whole rest of the day.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  23. Sparkles
    Member

    Oh my that was my first sportive, it was seriously crazy trying to stay on with the wind.

    Had a wee tumble off the bike but apart from that I managed to stay on and finish the short route. Not sure of the time as my computer stopped working with the weather.

    Wondering what to do next, if any ha ha!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  24. ianfieldhouse
    Member

    It really was a brutal day out on the bike – probably the worse weather I've ever cycled in.

    • cycling in lowest gear down a steep descent and finding it hard - Check
    • riding whilst leaning at what feels like 45º - Check
    • blown off the road - Check
    • riding through rivers - Check
    • can't see where you are going due to hailstones in your eyes - Check
    • cycling gingerly under massive fallen tree - Check

    I must have got past the point that flooded shortly before it did as I "luckily" got to do the whole long course. I've never been so close to just wanting to climb of the bike and call it a day before so am actually delighted that I made it round in a respectable 4 hours 40 minutes.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  25. Dave
    Member

    Scores are now up and I did (much) better than expected. Presume a large proportion of the fast boys didn't make it onto the long course, as I'm 21st senior male.

    Next year on closed roads should be fun.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  26. Dave
    Member



    This incident has also led me to the realisation that my calves rock.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  27. recumboris
    Member

    I started this and within 2 miles had a mechanical which took aprox 40 mins to sort at the side of the road. Then followed an entertaining ride which has been well documented about the conditions. Although signed up for the long route I chickened out and went short (mightily relieved I did so when I heard of Dave's river crossing)

    The sun did come out later - at least it allowed me to see from afar the flood near the end of the route. This I am sure came up over the top of my legs with the flood at seat level - I was on a Fujin low racer! Hats off to the organisers who did a fantastic job for a smoothly run event - even if it wasn't so smooth on the road with flood plain deposits!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  28. Puzzle
    Member

    That was indeed a crazy crazy ride!

    Never cycled in conditions like it - certainly character errrr soaking?

    Planning to return and do the full route this weekend.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  29. Bruce
    Member

    I am happy with my result for sure 49th out of 350 odd riders. 3h 28m

    Posted 11 years ago #

  30. LaidBack
    Member

    Ride Report from Dave McCraw's corner of the web

    Of course he should have been out Audaxing yesterday... ;-)

    Posted 11 years ago #

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