Sunday 23 May 2010

Etape Caledonia May 16th 2010

Etape Caledonia - Really good. I had been looking forward to itand after the disappointment of a mechanical in the Hampshire Hilly Hundred last week I really wanted it to be good.

We (myself, my brother, and four other Guildford Pelotoners) stayed in an activity cente in Aberfeldy which was about 15 miles from Pitlochry at the end of the Etape route.

We flew up Saturday morning toEdinburgh, hiring a car then driving up arriving at Aberfeldy at lunchtime. We checked in then assembled the bikes and rode the 15 miles to Pitlochry to register. We had lunch there then cycled the 15 miles back to Aberfeldy for cream teas.

In the evening we had dinner at the accomodation (Lasagne or Pasta Carbonara), went for a walk and turned in at 9:00 pm. The accomodation was one small room with three sets of bunk beds and a small en-suite. There were six of us in the room. Despite that, we all had a good nights sleep. Amazing

The following morning we were all up at 5:00 am, breakfasted and headed off in the cars with the bikes to the start line. The weather was supposed to be bad with heavy showers at lunchtime but it was cold but bright at that time.

The start was chaos but we got away at 7:30 am. The weather just got better as we went on. The sun came out and it warmed up (not a lot but a bit). It was a very scenic route with good roads (roads were closed to traffic during the race). The race was advertised as 81 miles with 2000 metres of climbing. It was wrong, there was only 1000 metres of climbing. My brother and three of my mates all managed between 4:01 hours and 4:05. I came in at 4:31 which isn't too bad considering my fitness. Another Pelotoner was nursing his brother, brother in law and mate around (not cyclists) and finished in 5:23 (he was capable of a faster time than me).

It was a really nice ride. Anyone could have finished it in those conditions.

Lunchtime we were back at the accomodation early afternoon packing away the bikes and listening to the Grand Prix when we heard on the news about the problems with the flights. We managed to talk to the car hire companies and change the drop off from Edinburgh Airport to Luton Airport (at extortionarte cost) and proceeded to drive back south past Hadrians Wall and to civilisation.

We got to Luton just after 10:00 pm and I got home to Surreyat 11:30 pm.

Good weekend. I will probably tempt fate and do it again next year