June 30th – 3 more days, Aviemore for the first of them
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74.8 miles – total so far = 859.6
4,774 feet of climbing – total so far = 54,557
Max elevation 1,528 feet
Interesting day today.
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Started with the fire alarm going off at 6:30. Thankfully that’s getting up time nearly anyway. Just somebody with their shower on too hot. That must have been rather a warm shower.
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After the fire alarm, usual start to the day, food, radio, dress, bike and then off on the road.
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At breakfast we had another brush with the generosity of people when one of the waitresses was asking about what I was doing as I was dressed in my bikey stuff. Another donation.
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Now, todays route looked fun. That’s where we use fun in that not fun kind of way.
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Four big mountains, all well over 1,000 feet, and one of them climbing from about 300, but looking at the days climbing stats, there wasn’t much uphill apart from those.
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That makes it very different to Cornwall where the ups and downs just don’t stop coming. This in many ways, more gentle Scottish countryside, is a lot less demanding on the body to ride as the climbs are over a period of time. However, three of the mountains today actually were pretty steep!
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Longest hill first, over 5 miles of up and the biggest bottom to top, but at least got it out of the way first thing. In my measuring yardstick, 2 ½ beacons worth of up.
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Off we go then. First bit is quite gentle, all along the side of Loch Tay, but most of the time can’t see the thing, just know it’s there. Then, off onto a side road at Keltneyburn and up a climb that starts at about 350 feet and ends about 1,270 feet, so it is a fair old up, but it’s over nearly 4 miles so, while it is more than a couple of beacons, it is half the gradient, so not a bad start to the day. Legs warm in the gentle drizzle, but not drained. That rest day clearly was good. Then down we go.
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Met the team ok at Tummel Bridge, quick feed and then on again.
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Next mountain equalled 2 beacons, starts at 500 feet and goes up to just under 1,300 and then down and then another 1 ½ beacons, including some really steep bits. 4 miles of up and 3 miles of up for these. The second one of those had hairpin bends to make the gradient less severe. I had used an image of that part of the road on the route part of the website for the day as the picture looked pretty. I didn’t realise when using it how steep it would be, damn the flattening ability of the camera.
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The last climbing was just steady up and ended up going alongside the A9. This at least was a cycle path that was rideable. When plotting, I hadn’t been sure if I would have a stretch of dual carriageway to ride along, but thankfully I was off to the side.
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Met the girls. Good timing as it tiddled down while we lunched, hence a slightly longer stop than planned while we watched it pass over. At least we had a nice loch to look down as we were at Dalnaspidal (can’t believe it has a name as it had one house) and the loch was Loch Garry. Let’s hear it for Garry. I used to play football with a Garry, didn’t know he had a loch named after him. Surely there aren’t two Garrys.
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After that, a fair bit more A9 cycle path, go over the peak of the day and looking around see that there is still some snow on the hills. It is June for goodness sake. Then ride past another distillery (grrrr). Train line here has a station at Dalwhinnie, I wonder what the distillery was. Also, was the station there first and the distillery was named after the town, or did they set up the distillery and then the station came afterwards?
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At the third stop, I was entertained to hear that mum had been pooed on by a bird while getting a really bad cup of coffee, and it was warm. The poo that is, the coffee less so.
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Off again, at Kingussie, cut under the A9 and onto back roads to Aviemore. Stop to take a picture or two with some cows and some kind cyclists took one with me in that wasn’t a selfie. They were at the end of a four day ride and seemed quite tired.
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Last meeting in Insh, the cyclists go past me then and I catch them again afterwards, I seem to be able to do more of that than I did at the start. Maybe I have ‘ridden myself’ a bit fitter after all as I don’t consciously do this, it is just natural pace. Then into Aviemore to be greeted at the hotel by a piper outside. Sometimes clichés are not clichés because they do actually happen. Even better when we find out that the piper is called ‘Spud’.
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Apparently, and I think this is true, Spud has been piping for a while, and does weddings and the like. His most famous wedding being when he was piping at Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s wedding.
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Looking back on today, successful day. Route was perfect, weather kind in when it rained, hills ok, other cyclists pleasant and the main roads good, hotel was a hoot.
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We are really drilled in the evenings now. It just happens. Come in, sort bike, drink shake, change clothes, wash some of cycling gear, blog, route plan, eat, finish planning and bed. There is a quiet efficiency about it all. You would almost think that we know what we are doing. And tonight, it’s almost nice to be doing this again after the rest day, as this is what we are now about.
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However, there is a little bit of an edge now that we have restarted. I think we are all starting to get a bit freaked out by the fact we are now close. No rest day that in some ways was a target, the only target now is the end. Where the end had been way beyond the horizon, it now feels as if it is just around the corner, well maybe a couple of corners. Also, aware that we have had very good fortune. No issues, no bike or body problems, ok the weather has been variable, but quite rideable, have we just been storing up the bad karma and bad luck? I don’t think we have, fingers crossed.
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Only two days to go.
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150 odd miles. 860 odd done, that’s a lot of miles.
£135 to go on the fund raising target. This ride has raised £6,865.
It’s all getting close to the end.
Wonder what happens after that?
