A massive relief to get out of the wind for the next while! Although there was a planned checkpoint and food stop coming up, I took the chance to stock up on a pie or two in the Leverburgh village store, served by the slowest man in the world. I know the audax is not a race but still - hurry it up a little, fella!
Back on the road and it wasn't long before I breezed up to the Temple Cafe to get my audax card stamped. There was quite a queue, and I quickly abandoned plans to get some grub, as it was clearly going to take a while. I got stamped and saddled up, leapfrogging a few of the guys who'd been ahead of me up till now (its not a race though).
Back to the main road and northward, up the hill and back towards Tarbert, followed by the reverse nightmare of getting across the Clishim again - the rain recommenced as I slowly climbed up into the clouds before turning to hail on the northern descent - painful on the eyes!
A steady northward slog, eagerly anticipating the next food stop where soup and a sandwich were being laid on. A couple of guys overtook me just before the turn-off to the Loch Erisort Inn, but I managed to stick with them for the last little bit before grub. Inside into the welcome warmth, and there's David sitting by the fire, coffee in hand. "What took you?" he said, while my soup was served up.
A short while later, we had to force ourselves back outside and back onto the bikes. I managed to stick with David for a bit, before his pace proved too high and I dropped back. But we were getting up the island quite well now. We retraced our route back to the Leurbost turning, where a sneaky right turn would have brought us home several hours early, but where the left turn waited to lead us to Callanish and then further north. I was quite puggled again by the time we reached the next control point at the Visitor Centre cafe at Callinish, but the tea and cake break was very welcome. David had another coffee, before trying to push some performance enhancing drugs my way. "Ibuprofen & caffiene is the job", he declared. I wavered for a while, and then necked two Ibu tabs when no-one was looking. Marginal gains indeed! How easy it is to get sucked into the seedy underbelly of (non) competitive cycling!
Back on the road, and the drugs began to kick in. Or was it the impromptu tuna sandwich I horsed into after raiding the garage at Barvas? We fairly flew north, the wind having picked up a bit, blowing us up the road to the Butt. I heard my first corncrakes of the summer as we neared Ness, but there was no stopping us as we headed up the lighthouse road to the most northerly audax control. A quick chat with the control invigilator, but the lure of beans on toast in the nearby sports centre was too much to ignore. What a life saver! Washed down with lashings of tea, it really began to feel like we were on the home stretch. It was just after 8pm. There were probably about 2 hours left of the days ride. We were nearly there! Just the Barvas moor crossing to go!
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| A tired & blurry shot of the lighthouse |
And what an endless crossing it was! Mile upon mile of barren moor, and that southerly headwind was back! Its always a headwind across the moor apparently, no matter what direction you are going! I spent an age watching the minutes tick by on the computer clock - interspersed with looking ahead to David's luminescent yellow jacket in the distance, and then behind to check for pursuants (its not a race though).
And then finally the road dipped slightly, and I could see a bit of Stornoway - I really was nearly back! I picked up the pace, buoyed up by the thought of a chilled beer or two, and being able to stop pedalling soon! I fairly raced down the hill off the moor, back into civilisation, back across town and into the carpark of the hall we'd set off from all those months previously. "Well done" said Ian Gilbert as he stamped my card for the final time. It was 10.20 pm. I'd been riding for over 14 hours - 308 km and umpteen hills! No wonder I was a small bit tired!
We loaded the bikes onto the car rack and headed back down the road to Leurbost, both figuring that it would be best to be home before we fell asleep. Beers, food, showers and then bed! What a day!
