Dunbeath, and a new land speed record of 43.2mph, breaking my previous best back from day 2! 🙂
Category: Uncategorized
Berriedale Braes
Now that’s a hill! Massive long drag up Helmsdale, complete with false summit. Then 13% drop into valley and 13% climb straight back out. Think i just used up my brake pads on that descent! I think that’s the last of the monster hills though. Onwards!
Helmsdale
Sun? In Scotland? What a pleasant way to spend my last day of cycling. Now, Helmsdale and Berriesdale – they sound like nice flat places to cycle, don’t they? 😉
Golspie
View out of bnb window in Golspie. Today was flat and fast. Gradual inclines up followed by long gentle slopes down. The Black Isle in particular appears to be pretty much symmetric in this regard. I followed the NCN out of Inverness. Some of it runs alongside the A9, which is a dual carriageway at that point, but some of it is on quiet lanes. After a few miles, the cycle route heads off west towards Dingwall so I continued on the main A9 which was suprisingly good for cycling – lots of space, good visibility and fairly gentle ups and downs. A fine drizzle and overcast skies were the only downside. Despite not leaving until 10am (busy discussing hub gears with bnb owner!) I was making good progress so decided to aim for lunch in Tain, which was maybe 35 miles away. I got there at1245, even after some food shopping, so I must’ve been fairly whizzing along.
A toastie and hot roll was all I could find for lunch in Tain, but was very tasty.
With only 16 miles left for the afternoon, I lowered the pace to save my legs for tomorrow’s 72 mile hilly finale. It was much colder, with the drizzle turning into mist on the higher ground after Evelix. Still, it was nice to have a short fast day and to get in early.
On the last few miles before Golspie, I startled a walker by shouting hi, and then later met his walking partner, Andrew, waiting for him in a bus stop on the edge of Golspie. Turns out, they started their LEJOG journey in March! They still have 4 days to go, and it’ll take them 66 days in total! Wow!
Sutherland
Sutherland = Gorse, it seems. Also quite cold for the first time in a while. Time for winter gear. Isn’t it nearly June?
Cromarty Firth
I keep passing cyclists going the other way who don’t look too happy. I probably looked much the same when I was on day 2!
Eep
First road sign showing John O’Groats! If only distances were in binary . . .
Inverness
New breakfast record today – muslei, porridge, cooked breakfast and 4 bits of toast. Where does it all go?!
The Perfect Downhill
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past two weeks figuring out what the perfect downhill would be. It would start out high up, obviously. But if it descends too quickly, it’s wasted – you end up on the brakes in case it gets bumpy or gravelly. So you want a steady gentle slope where you can get up to 30mph or so and glide along. However, if it’s just a constant slope then you kinda get acclimatised to it, so it’s much more fun to have a bit of a descent, then a bit of flat, then a bit more descent, and so on. And, although curves are fun, a straight road has to be top choice for a purist’s perfect descent – get into an aerodynamic tuck, stay there and fly.
So it was an unexpected and pleasant suprise to find that this hill actually exists, on the east side of Loch Ness . The sting is that you have do the brutal, unrelenting 400m ascent from Fort Augustus to get there. The climb is too steep to spin up in my lowest gear, so I stood up in second gear most of the way, punching out a steady rhythm on the pedals and concentrating to keep on a sustainable pace. For some reason, the song ‘you will have a fishy on a little dishy’ keeps coming into my head on these steep climbs – must be the right tempo! It’s the kind of climb where the car drivers coming in the other direction give you incredulous looks. Anyhow, once you are at the summit (the real one, not the two or three false summits on the way there) you are rewarded by the sight of the road leading off towards the horizon in a series of gentle undulations. It brought a smile to my face, despite the rain that made a brief appearance at the summit – you can see how much fun it’s going to be.
On the way down, I think probably i travelled nearly 2 miles without pedalling a single time. It goes on for long enough that you have time to wonder if this is some kind of crazy cycling dream from which you’ll soon wake. But it’s not. It’s real. It’s just well guarded – by the most killer ascent i’ve seen on this LEJOG ride. Awesome! Diem carpe’d 🙂
Loch Ness
In which I find more adjectives to describe hills.