etape

Up early this morning (4:40am) to collect a friend and head north to Pitlochry for the Etape Caledonia. The weather actually wasn't too bad when we set off and we got to our car parking place in plenty of time; 15 minutes later and we headed down the hill to the start line... and I got my traditional Etape puncture! Fortunately it happened before the start this time; unfortunately it meant we missed our starting slot and ended up in group L.

The sight of 5000+ cyclists is quite something; the centre of Pitlochry was absolutely packed out.

We started off in reasonable weather that held for approximately 15 miles. After that it was a headwind and rain until we turned at the far end of Loch Rannoch. Quick zip along to the foot of Schiehallion where I (and everyone else) was overtaken by a guy on a singlespeed! He was totally flying; very impressive. Due to the headwind we had to pedal down the farside of Schiehallion and then turned up Glen Lyon into the strongest head wind and rain of the day; that was easily the low point. Finally turned the corner and zipped back towards Pitlochry past Castle Menzies for the last twist of the knife: Logierait. Basically there's a very sharp left hand corner that takes you up a very steep wee hill and then a strongly undulating road for the last 5 miles.

End result: 4h 35m 21s for 81 miles. Not too bad. The guy who won, however, did it in 3h 37m 15s. Unreal.

The etape is full of all kinds of bikes and cyclists: cyclo-cross bikes, tandems, recumbents, old bikes, top-of-the-range-everything-carbon, ... This was the first time I'd seen a wooden bike, however.

Hung around at the end to wait for some friends and saw Joe finishing; I thought he would appreciate me bellowing at him...

+1/2 also had an event today: the Women's 10km in Glasgow. This was a big one for her as she sustained a knee injury some time ago and has been struggling to work out how to run without aggravating the injury again. More horrible weather (well, it was in Glasgow) but she did it no problem at all! Yay!

Back to the ranch, both got cleaned up then out for the traditional post-etape BBQ (sheltering under the eaves of the local pavilion) then band practice for me for 3h.