If you can't get a train to the Ride to the Sun and are overnight capable....
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=18076&page=7#post-283914
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Sport
"Ride to the Sun"
(208 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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I'm now planning on riding this.
What time are CCE types meeting at Bitts Park carpark, east side in the sun?
You can find me having a lay down here:
https://goo.gl/maps/xmJm1KAYx212
Dav eC
Posted 5 years ago # -
DaveC - had given up on this as no one said they were going (my bike club are doing a 200 miler to the north)
So did not book train or owt, but do have a big light
Posted 5 years ago # -
Won't be doing it this year, left it too late to book a train and my audax bike needs work done.
I understand the ride will be on The Adventure Show this year...
Really enjoyed it last time I must say.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I'm still hoping to do this, but likely won't know if I am until late next week. If I do, I'll probably get a train to Alnmouth or Morpeth and cycle to Carlisle from there.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Oh not more of those Hitachi cramped in like a tin of beans trains, with little bike space or relaxing areas, I took the train pennie express with no booking on 12 may. I actually thought you needed a booking as did one of the other 2 random cyclists that had booked. The Glasgow train will cost a fortune there is no cheap alternative that I have found to trans pennie express
Posted 5 years ago # -
Does anyone have any advice for getting to the start? Riding there isn't an option and I assume I'm too late for a bookable bike slot on a train now.
I hope it's ok to post the following email address here although they might be fully booked by now.
Next Steps
If you are interested, please send an email to ridetothesun.transport@cramond-scouts.org.uk providing:
· your name, address, mobile number and email address
· the number of coach seats, bikes and bags you wish to book.
We will reply with:
· an invoice with the sum payable
· your booking reference
· details for payment via online banking.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Thanks. I have just bought a couple of train tickets from someone on the RTTS facebook page. So if anyone would like the other at face value then pm me for details.
@morepathsplease, the scouts are not fully booked but the waiting list is currently empty. http://www.cramond-scouts.org.uk/ridetothesun.transport.html
Murray Moves (Recombodna?) is doing a bike cargo run to the start. Details here: http://createsend.com/t/y-C961C4B2F3769086
Posted 5 years ago # -
"What time are CCE types meeting at Bitts Park carpark, east side in the sun?"
@DaveC, all being well gembo and myself will materialise from the train station just after 8pm and will arrive at the park shortly after that.
Posted 5 years ago # -
There seem to have been Ride to the Sun reports in the audax threads and overnight capable thread amongst others but I thought I would put mine here.
It's long (100 miles normally is) and some of it has already been said elsewhere, but here goes.
gembo and I rode with Ronde from the station as far as Moffat. It wasn't the gentle pace we had planned but it was good to get 40 miles under our belt relatively cheaply. I've had a cold all week so by the end of it I was getting tired and glad for a short rest.
It can't be said often enough that the midges in moffat are horrendous. With several hundred cyclists parked on the street the midges had been summoned from miles around for a feeding frenzy. We didn't hang around long enough for chips and set off up the hill and a gentler pace.
There were only a few midges and no bats evident below the tree line on the beeftub so perhaps Greenroofer had already fed them all.
Over the top of the climb it was cold and on the decent possibly below 0 with wind chill. I eventually had to call a stop to change to the long finger gloves I had carrying and gembo added a jacket.
The Cyclorave was very surreal but the banana was a more than welcome break from handfuls of jelly babies. I added a merino layer into the mix too before we set off again.
The next stretch was the challenging part of the ride. The road wasn't too undulating but the surfaces were very variable, thankfully not such bad potholes as the stretch to Moffat but a lot of rough high vibration stretches. The dark and remoteness also lead to a certain amount of boredom. Even minor street signs started to appear interesting. I was also a little short on breath so had to slow the pace now and again.
The crowds in Penicuik were cheerful and gave us some encouragement. By the time we were heading out of Penicuik the sky was getting lighter and I was feeling a little fresher.
A small mechanical stop meant we just missed the Fairmilehead lights where gembo headed off to avoid a long wait for sunrise and a climb back to Balerno from the coast. The lights seems to take a very long time to change and it wasn't until Princess Street that I rejoined the riders who passed us.
I was well ahead of schedule so took it easy through the city and arrived just as the beer supply was dwindling. Freshstart's bacon rolls were more than welcome while waiting for sunrise time. I met a couple there who had abandoned a friend with a broken bike south of Moffat, early enough that they could call a spouse taxi to take them back home.
Sadly the sunrise was an anticlimax as the only small bit of horizon with a cloud was over Fife where the sun should have appeared.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@acsimpson, I knew you would catch that other Brompton.
Making 8 pound donation to PoP tomorrow (pay day)
Posted 5 years ago # -
@gembo, @acsimpson - I was in the Ronde bunch, which got dramatically smaller after Moffat (two of us, then three, then back to six at the Crook Inn). The pace was getting a little bit spicy and I was quite glad I managed to drop my chain at one point, just to get a breather!
Posted 5 years ago # -
Too bad we didn't get the chance for a proper introduction. If that was the chain drop before Moffat then thanks. It gave me the chance to open my jelly babies. I had literally just ended up on the front and didn't expect to be able to hold the pace that had been set that far. Thankfully I was demoted when we set off again.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Yes, that was me, despite my road bike having just been serviced a week earlier. I went from near the front to almost last man at that point (my more usual habitat on club rides). Still, better warning of potholes and a bit easier getting towed along!
Posted 5 years ago # -
@mandopicker. I remember the chain coming off. Ronde lot seemed chatty and the guy who did the lead out for the first twenty miles was interviewed for the telly. Neil D.
The pace ronde were doing after Moffat was too fast for me for a number of reasons - 1. It was too fast for me anyway. 2 too fast in the dark for my eyes as my night vision is poorer now than it used to be but not as poor as big GED's who struggled to recognise me at crook inn. 3. Too fast with the bad road surface and too fast with all the different cyclists out in the road.
Seemed to be fine for the smaller ronde group though. Maybe in daylight I might have hung from the back was good cycling with the group from Carlisle to Moffat. Really enjoyed that bit.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Gembo - Neil saved my bacon with his roll of sellotape (to secure his flip flops to his bike...I'm sure there's aero gains) as the o-ring holding my light snapped just as we were getting to the Crook Inn.
For the record, I was the guy in the (non-Ronde) orange and black top. I too was shelled out the back PDQ when the road went upwards on the Beef Tub. I climb like a stone. Dipped in lead. Cemented to a pile of large lead-coated stones.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@mandopicker, yes Neil handy person to have. When my light fell off the more handsome version of Chris Froome must have gone back for it and returned It to me at the very useful chain drop. Very kind.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@gembo, what a light it was too. I didn't mention it in my write up but it was impressive. It left my normal winter commuting blinder light struggling to make any mark on the road.
@Mandopicker, good choice of colour. I was in an orange running jacket as it is lighter than my night vision jacket and has a built in back light.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@acaimpson ah yes that was the full photon torpedo light. But it was my back up light that fell off.
I was in the black ride to the sun too with the red and yellow stripe. I bought it last year in prep for this year and had the whole Torm range of colours to pick from so it was weird that everyone else had that one too. I think probably because Fraser picked that one and everyone saw him wearing it?so it has become the RTtS top. Also it is the standout garment in the range.
Posted 5 years ago # -
For those who are interested in trying to spot themselves or others the RttS will be on the adventure show on Sunday.
"The BBC Adventure Show with Ride to the Sun is this weekend - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bn6f1s. Sunday October 7th at 1900 - BBC2 Scotland, Sky, FreeSat and afterwards on iPlayer. See if you can see yourself, and again, please share this to all that might be interested. We’re not the main feature (running and swimming stuff - bah!) but I think we can expect about 12 minutes and the producers are really happy with how it looks. "
Posted 5 years ago # -
@acsimpson, did you enter the competition to win a shand?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Spotted Dave C near the start of the 12 min section. He has form of course with previous appearance when they covered the audax with the ferries.
Posted 5 years ago # -
A couple of spots of Dave C, I thought. And a couple of yours truely and also Mr fimm in the section about the Lairig Ghru race.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I enjoyed that programme. RttS sounded more fun and eccentric here than there?
The Lairig Ghru bit was gorgeous and a great event but maybe demonstrated how little point there is trying to talk to someone as they crest a 700m col at race pace? Anyone tried to talk to me there would get a death stare. Surprised she got the few anodyne replies that she did.
Amused to see a few folk I know including ex-colleagues.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@IWRATS
The interviewer would have been pleased with an anodyne response from us when she came alongside on DBT as my friend was not feeling too great and struggling a bit and I wasn't happy that she commented about me not wearing a helmet.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Also, reflecting on the programme, the swimmer who crossed the Minch. I mean. That's got to be one of the greatest sporting achievements of the year. And yet it was reported with one of the oddest headlines and articles ever.
I'm wondering which of their characteristics have caused them not to attract national acclaim;
* Female
* Endomorph
* Amateur
* No commercial sponsor
* No competition
* Thirty nine years oldDid I miss any?
Posted 5 years ago # -
THe swimmer was on the news at the time but not high up. and not for long.
You missed she swam in the freezing water following strict rules of only wearing a bathing costume and the two men who attempted the crossing with her had wetsuits and buoyancy / visibility floats. Both of them bailed. Worryingly in the article the support team lost one of the men for a while.
It was quite zen at the end when she had a mile to go but the tide was against her.
I think it unlikely that anyone else will ever be able emulate this woman. Good technique too
Posted 5 years ago # -
Yes, that was the most impressive part of the program. I wonder how much extra drag is generated by the wetsuit and bouy.
There was one point near the end when she only moved 100m in an hour. I think that was about the time the others gave up.
@Iwrats. I like to think the lack of commercial sponsor is the reason for the lack of coverage. However I suspect the other items on your list are part of the reason for not having a sponsor. She was the youngest of the three to try it on the day.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Her name is Colleen Blair. She and I were in the same swimming club a good 25 years ago in Dundee. I remember her just starting out doing open water swimming then, and wondering why you'd not want to be in the warm. In those days, we trained to go fast, not go long, but she wasn't much of a sprinter, as can be seen now.
Her list of swimming achievements is very very impressive and she's a nice woman too.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@condor2378
Fantastic. Please pass on my frank adulation next time you see her.
Posted 5 years ago #
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