Pico de Veleta - September 2018

We knew there was going to be climbing. A lot of climbing. About 40km of climbing all told. Which is a lot! But more of that later.

After cycling across Scotland with Graeme in September 2015, and then a spot of touring around Cork and Kerry in July 2017, I think it was me who came up with the idea of tackling the longest road climb in Europe for this years cycling mini-break. Its nearly an annual event at this stage! Anyway, Graeme seemed keen so we gave it a bit of logistical thought, and hatched the plan.

The plan would involve flights to Malaga, and then a hire car to Granada where we rented the bikes. We opted for aluminium frame Coluer bikes from Bicicletas la Estacion in Granada, which proved adequate. My one was certainly in better repair than my own bikes, so I couldn't complain! After bundling them into the hire car, we headed out of the city to our air bnb accomodation in Quentar, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Little did we know that it was the fiesta weekend in Quentar, which looked like it was likely to be pretty noisy. Our first night passed without incident however, and we were up early next morning, eager to get cracking on the hills!

With the forecast looking good, we saddled up and headed off, first heading back down the valley before heading to Pinos Genil, where the road began to rise. It was already hot and sunny, and my knees were complaining a bit, so I stopped to make my saddle more level. Graeme was already far ahead - this was going to be like Bealach na Ba again, only longer!

Slowly the kms passed. Although it was hot, the climbing was ok and the road surface was very good. There were quite a few cars heading up the road too, but it was wide enough for them to leave plenty room. After a while I reached where Graeme was waiting and we took a break. Well, ok I took another break - I'd had a few already! And then back to the climbing! Onwards and upwards!

By late morning we'd reached the ski resort at Pradollano, where we found a cafe serving coffee, hot chocolate and chocolate brownies with ice-cream. Pricey, but worth it, as it was delicious! And then it was back on the bikes and on up the hill! Before much longer we reached the last cafe at the Hoya de la Mora. This is the end of the road for motor vehicles, but on a bike you can scoot under the barrier, and carry on up, although the road does begin to get a bit rougher after the barrier. It was getting cooler too, as we got higher, and the altitude seemed to be making it harder to breath, or at least I was having to stop more often to ease the pounding of my heart in my ears! No such problems for Graeme as he carried on up the mountain, apparently unaffected.

The views were wonderful though, and proved a useful distraction, as did the small party of Alpine Accentors that cheered me on for a few hundred metres up the road. By now I was pretty wrecked, and had to keep stopping for sneaky breathers when no-one was looking! I got chatting to a cyclist from Waterford who was making his way back down, warning me that the road got very rough near the top, and to take it handy. I pressed on, hoping all the while that the road would hurry up and deteriorate so I could stop! Eventually, just I could see some potholes and debris ahead, Graeme hove in to view, descending down to me. The road was pretty much impassable round the next corner, and although he'd walked a few of the worst sections, he didn't see much point in keeping going, as the weather looked like it was closing in, and getting a puncture would be bad news. This was good enough for me - I struggled up as far as the next corner, and then turned back, Graeme already far below me on the twisty road back down to the cafe.

The descent was great! Cold on the hands though, and with thinner bar tape than we were both used to, the vibrations were a bit savage! It was great to get back down to the cafe for a slap-up feed of huevos y papas fritas in the sunshine, before rocketing back down the mountain for a whopping 30-odd kms of descent - what a blast!

By the time we got back to base, we'd clocked up 100km and 2,900m of ascent - it was definitely time for a couple of chilled cervezas to celebrate!

Vendee, France, May & June 2018

We headed back to France again for the early summer holidays - this time to an inland chateau campsite, in the North Vendee region. As luck would have it, parts of the routes of the 1st and 2nd stages of this year's Tour de France were within easy striking distance of the campsite so I took in some of those when I got the chance. I took the SS again, as its grand for pootling with le famille, can handle a bit of track plus can easily take the knocks of being transported on the bike rack. No hills to worry about either, so multiple gears not needed.

2018 TdF poster

The Vendee region is brilliant for cycling! For one thing, it is mostly flat so there's no pesky hills to negotiate. Secondly, they have miles of really good and well-signposted bike tracks. Mostly these follow coastal routes, but there are some inland ones too. There's a whole host of info online about the different routes, such as this site here.

On the day I did a longer ride, I switched between these bike tracks where I came across them, and bits of the TdF Stage 1. To be honest, after the novelty of being chased by an imaginery peloton began to fade, the bike tracks were more fun and definately more interesting than plodding along busy roads! It felt easy to rack up the distance, with the scenery always changing and new things to see round every corner.

Just a month too early!

St Hilaire de Riez on Stage 1 of the 2018 TdF

There's a good variety of cyclists of all levels zooming about the Vendee, from caravanners on electric bikes right up to Froome lookalikes with full tri-bar set-ups. Overtaking one such time-trialler whilst on my single-speed was quite amusing, although I had to keep going to stay ahead of him, at least until the next roundabout!

Plenty wildlife along the way too, with black kites, exceedingly large longhorn beetles and this fine Fire Salamander all encountered by bike.

A fire salamander out for a walk

Here's the route I did from the campsite to the coast and then down to Les Sables D'Olonne, taking in part of Stage 1, and also a good deal of the bike tracks.

Audax Fever

I've only done one audax, but it was a good one! That was way back in September 2015, and up until now I haven't felt the need to try another one. A few months after completing the Lewis audax, my brother in law suggested trying London - Edinburgh - London 2017. Once I discovered what was involved (1,400 km in just over 100 hours) I politely declined....

However, now I'm sort of coming round to the idea! Obviously as the next one isn't until 2021, its safe enough to be considering it from a distance. I've done a wee bit of googlying and, while it still seems ridiculously full on, something about it is strangely appealing. Here's a link to a movie about the 2017 LEL, with a short trailer for a taster. Up for it?

I'm still not totally sure I'd be able to make it though. On almost every long ride I've done since the Lewis audax, I've asked myself how on earth I ever managed to do 308 km in one day. But I did manage it once so I should therefore be able to do it again. So I've signed up for a couple of audaxes in Cork over the next few months. The first is the Midleton 200, on March 10th, which takes in parts of counties Cork, Waterford and Tipperary. The second is the Three Rivers 300, on 14th April, which again starts in Midleton, but heads west, even passing through Clonakilty, so the lure to just sneak off home after the first 100km will be quite strong!

It will be interesting to see what state I'm in after the 300km ride, as I literally could barely walk the day after the Lewis audax. Guess these events will give me an idea of whether LEL 2021 is still worth pursuing, or if it is back to being a big fat NO WAY....

In the meantime, my brother-in-law has signed up for the West Highland Audax, only 1,000km with very little in the way of support. Thankfully, er unfortunately, I've something else booked for that week...

Scotland Coast to Coast Day 3: Bealach na Ba & Applecross

21st September 2015

All too soon the next morning rolled around. Both me & Graeme were a bit apprehensive - today we'd be climbing Bealach na Ba - a winding, single track road that crosses the mountains of the Applecross Peninsula. At 10km in length, its the steepest and longest ascent of any road in the UK, and is the third highest road in Scotland. Neither of us had done as long a climb before, and I was having flashbacks to the Lecht wall of two days ago - what if it was worse than that?

Our B and B host added to our nerves by telling us horror stories of terrible weather conditions on the climb and other tales of woe. All we could do was wolf the breakfast, slurp the last of the tea & coffee and saddle up.

We set off, back down the road as far as Lochcarron, this time sans drunk driver in pickup. At Lochcarron, we turned off onto the A896 towards Applecross. There was a bit of a testing climb not long after, and, as we were going to be coming back this way later on, I decided to stash my panniers under a tree to save lugging them up the Bealach. Graeme opted to take the extra weight, probably for additional training benefits or something.

Warning sign. Note excessive panniers

Before long we reached the last junction before the Bealach na Ba began. There was an ominous sign warning of imminent dangers and other perils, so we took a photo and then set off. The climbing was gentle for the first couple of km, and I began to wonder what all the hype was about. But then, slowly things began to get steeper, as we got further up the valley. The craggy cliffs round about began to close in as the road climbed, and the low cloud threatened to block out the scenery below us.

You can't say we weren't warned!

The climb continued. Up ahead, I could see Graeme and his panniers making good headway. The long straight road eventually switched to the left, and I could see hairpins climbing into the clouds. We'd already decided that if either of us had to put our feet down, then the climb wouldn't count, and there was going to be zero tolerance of any attempts involving the walk of shame! I did discover that some of the passing places were wide enough to allow me to circle round for a while, which allowed a bit of break from the upwards grind. Luckily Graeme didn't notice, but hey, it wasn't like I put a foot down or anything!

Looking up the valley (this was taken on the way back down, as I couldn't stop for photos on the way up!

I may have done a few birlies in this passing place on the way up

Onwards and upwards! As I reached the start of the hairpins, I saw a rather large camper van coming down the road towards me! I had to keep going, and couldn't risk slowing up in case I had to stop for it. Luckily there was just room enough for me to squeeze past, and I could carry on to the top. The mist closed in before the summit, where I found Graeme waiting. We'd made it! But sadly there was no view and with the cold, damp mist swirling around, we pushed on down the other side, eager to get below the clouds and get some breakfast in at the Applecross Inn. The road surface on the way down was good, and with no traffic we were able to get a good pace up. The sun even came out as we dropped height, so we were quite warm as we dropped into Applecross.

Me approaching the summit through the mist - no panniers!

Dropping down towards Applecross - back into sunshine!

Outside the Applecross Inn - the egg rolls were great!

Tea, coffee and egg rolls were duly dispatched inside the Applecross Inn. I think its possible to stay here overnight, which would probably be a bad idea, with a whole bar full of ales and whiskies at your disposal! With a mid-afternoon train to catch, we didn't have much spare time to hang around, and all too soon, we were back on the bikes, retracing our route back over the mountains again. This time, I took frequent advantage of the many photo stop opportunities to get my breath back! Once again, Graeme was up ahead and didn't notice so all was good!

The return climb

Graeme adjusting his panniers at the top

The return climb didn't seem as steep as the way in (probably cos I kept stopping), but we still worked up a good sweat as we reached the top. The mist had lifted a bit, allowing good views down the Bealach back towards Lochcarron. I took a shot of Graeme as he dropped down the descent, and we both felt sorry for the one other biker coming up, walking...

Graeme descending the Bealach

Looking down the valley - no panniers!

The descent was great! Smooth surface and minimal traffic so we were able to fairly whizz all the way down to the start of the road. Up and over the smaller hill then, remembering to retrieve my  panniers, before raiding the garage in Lochcarron for recovery products and making the flattish run to Strathcarron station. We had a wee while to wait before the train, so got changed out of our cycling gear, which felt strange after being in it for the previous 3 days. Once aboard the train, we started consuming the gleaned recovery products and toasted our successful coast to coast attempt with a cheeky San Miguel or two. We'd had great weather on the whole, with little rain, great scenery, good food and fantastic day-long cycles! Marvellous altogether! As the train rolled towards Edinburgh, we were already plotting the next biking debacle!

Recovery starts here!

Love that profile!

Scotland Coast to Coast Day 2: Grantown to Ardaneaskan

20th September 2015

Up with the lark and after a grand but strict breakfast we loaded up the panniers and headed off. Should probably have stopped for a second breakfast at the Wee Puffin but alas it wasn't open yet! It was a grand morning with a light(ish) south westerly wind that wasn't giving any trouble as we headed towards Inverness. Before reaching the Big Smoke we called into Graeme's sister's for tea and cake, and then some more cake, after all, we had a long way to go!

The views from the Kessock Bridge were really good, as we trundled along the walkway, safely off the main road. After the bridge, we found a set of steps off the walkway, which led down to a much quieter road that ran westwards along the north shore of  the Beauly Firth, before the main road to Ullapool for a spell, prior to heading south-west (into the wind), and the long haul to Lochcarron.

Inverness from the Kessock Bridge

Beauly Firth from the Kessock Bridge

Ready

I have to admit I really struggled with the headwind. It wasn't particularly strong, but was enough to slow me up so that I couldn't get into the Big Ring and was left frailing and snailing along, whilst Graeme powered off into it. I could see him miles ahead as the the road ran along beside a river - at least it was flat! Eventually, he stopped to wait for me, and then had to put up with me whinging and complaining about how terrible it all was, while I horsed a mars bar. He then suggested that we try drafting and sharing the duties on the front. This was the first time I'd experienced drafting, as I mostly ride on my own, and what a difference it made - sitting on Graeme's wheel was soooo much easier, and he was good enough to keep checking his pace to make sure I didn't get dropped. I recovered enough to do a bit on the front too, and we fairly raced along the next section, eventually reaching the shelter of the trees and escaping the headwind section for the day.

Looking back north-east, after the long headwind slog

Before too much longer we reached Lochcarron, which was the last point where we could get food and recovery beers before reaching our B&B for the night. There was plenty of grub and a couple of pints slipped down easily. We figured we'd better not have any more till we reached the B&B, but each bought a couple of takeaway tinnies to see us off to sleep after another hard day.

View from the hotel

Recovery beers

Tennants Bidons

After the grub and the beers, the 10 km to the B&B flew past, with the last couple of kms proving very exciting, after i "accidently" flicked the V's at a pissed guy behind me in a pick-up who was trying to get by but needed me to stop to let him past. Eventually I waved him by, and then he stopped up ahead to "have a word" with me. I whizzed past him again, and soon reached the B&B, where I hid behind a large lorry. At that point, I also remembered Graeme was behind me - ooops! Yer man had stopped him, and was indeed very over the limit, but had been all smiles. No harm done, but a dodgy moment none the less!

In to meet our friendly hosts, and arrange breakfast, before necking the tinnies and crashing out. We'd made it across to the Atlantic side of Scotland in two days, and only had a short day still to go. It would be rather steep though, as we were heading up Beallach na Ba....

Scotland Coast to Coast Day 1: Aberdeen to Grantown

19th September 2015

I think it was on a train to Aberdeen prior to a birding holiday on Shetland, that I first discovered that Graeme was a bike nut like me. Although we'd known each other for years, since we were teenagers, this was the first I'd heard that he did a lot of cycling, and vice versa. We'd been fortunate to be able to get first class tickets for only a fiver more than the standard fare, and with the aid of some complimentary alcohol, and a few additional purchased tinnies, a plan was hatched to try to cycle from Aberdeen to the west coast of Scotland, taking in the infamous Beallach na Ba climb too.

And so it was that I flew into Edinburgh the following September, all set for the adventure to begin. Graeme collected me at the airport and we headed straight to Biketrax to pick up my Genesis hire bike so the fun could start. Somehow we managed to squeeze it into the back of his Polo and get it back to his house where it was swiftly reassembled for a test run. The rental road bike had no mounts for a rack, but I'd brought a seat post rack that I was hoping would be suitable for taking my fairly meagre baggage. We decided that augmenting this by attaching a longer old pannier rack of Graeme's using cable ties would give a more robust structure to hang the bags off, and stop them going into the spokes. It looked a bit shonky, but actually worked really well!

Nice Rack!

A quick test run and, satisfied that if I could make the roundabout at the bottom of the road and back whilst fully laden, I'd be grand on the C2C. We finished up for the day and retired to the beer garden for the evening, excitement building for the start of the trip!

The plan was to take an early train to Aberdeen, and then cycle down to the harbour, with the official start point being Girdleness Lighthouse. This meant an early departure from Graeme's, and a half hour cross-town cycle to the station, where we managed to find our alloted bike slot and seats - time to relax for a couple of hours before the real biking began!

Graeme preparing for the off

Me propping up the lighthouse compound wall

Before too long we were unloading our bikes off the train and heading down to Girdle. We'd both spent a lot of time birding there over the years, so it was fun to be cycling past some of the old haunts. We took a few photos at the lighthouse, with the North Sea at our backs, and then we had to get on with it! I think we'd only gone about 1.5 km before I suggested the first stop at a bakery in Torry, for the first macaroni pie of the trip - well, you have to get those carbs in on the big rides!

Breakfast of Champions!

Onwards and westwards into Deeside then, heading to our first official stop of the day - "lunch" at Fiona's. Another old birding friend from our Aberdeen Uni days, Fiona had toyed with the idea of joining us for a bit of the ride, but had decided we'd only have slowed her down. The kilometres rolled by and we reached Fi's house after a couple of hours of pedalling. She'd gone to a lot of trouble for us too, hand made hash browns, googling the recipe it seemes pretty complicated and involves wringing the liquid out of the spuds with a tea towel - I had imagined she'd just have bought them out of the supermarket freezer section when she'd asked if there were any specific dietery requirements for lunch!

Somewhere up Deeside!

Alas, all too soon, we had to get back on the road, as we had to get to Grantown on Spey by nightfall. Everything continued to go well until we rounded a corner and saw a vertical wall of road ahead of us - the start of the Lecht climb!

It was hideous! It felt almost vertical and I was quickly reduced to making zigzags across the road to make any upward headway! Inch by inch I somehow managed to get up that first wall (the Strava segment is encouragingly called Corgarf Killer Climb, and is apparently 13.5% on average). For the record, I currently hold the 2,173rd fastest time up it, out of 2,921 attempts. Somehow I got to the top and thought I'd better take some photographs to record the historic achievement. Up ahead, I could see Graeme in the distance working his way up the next incline. When I was finally able to breathe again, I gave it a go too! Mercifully, the second phase wasn't as bad, and eventually I found Graeme waiting for me at the top (pleasingly, still just inside the strava segment finish point, so we've similar times!) The decent was marvellous, although over rather too quickly.

Photo stop after the wall - Graeme is just visible racing up the second part of the climb

Me cresting the Lecht summit

I was hoping that was it for the serious stuff for Day One, but sadly there was another lungbuster to take in before we were done. The Bridge of Brown was another double figure percentage hill  mountain requiring maximum effort to haul myself over it, although I think Graeme found it not too bad!

The Scenery

After that, we didn't have too much further until we reached Grantown and our first nights accomodation in a seemingly rather strict b&b. We didn't care though - we'd conquered the Lecht, travelled some 141 km and 1,869 m of ascent from Aberdeen and, best of all, we managed to find The Wee Puffin restaurant selling excellent recovery craft beers plus large quantities of delicious burgers and chips to refuel us in Grantown. Day One was over and we were well on our way across Scotland!!

Monster burgers at the Wee Puffin, Grantown

Recovery beers!

Taking stock!

An overly long absence from the blog but thankfully not from the bike! I managed to finish the year with just over 6,000 km up, and a pretty good amount of climbing too. Also did all 12 of the monthly Strava fondoos too, which is the first time I've managed to do that.

The year in summary

So what of 2018? Well, I'm going to keep trying to do the 100 km a week, plus a Strava fondoo a month, to give c500 km a month. Hopefully a couple of bigger months along the way will push the yearly tally up above 6,500km. I've already been doing some tentative planning for a September trip to the Sierra Nevada in Spain, which sounds amazing, and will hopefully come off. Plus maybe another mini bike break in Cork/Kerry in July if I can swing it - we'll have to see how it goes!