Loch Arkaig

There was more sections on busy bitmac than I like but I headed to Loch Arkaig on the bike this afternoon. I took the higher gravel track parallel with the loch side road at the Butterfly Reserve. It was very very rough and had I known in advance would have avoided it. I just kept on thinking it was going to smooth out round the next corner. It needs pounded by a few heavy wood lorries.
On my return I l came up behind two proper looking cyclists at Gairlochy
 lock. They had skinny smooth rolling tyres on and legs like tree trunks (pictured). They seemed to be slowing down thinking about stopping then picked up speed again. I could have passed them just at that point but feared the embarrassment of them sailing past me on the killer ascent coming up in a mile (just after Mucomir). They did pick up a bit of speed and when they hit said hill slowed down a lot. They didn't appear to be struggling and held a much higher gear than me. However they didn't hurtle away as I had anticipated. On the down hill towards the Commando Memorial the gap stayed the same and to my surprise they did pull over in a layby and we exchanged waves and a hello as I went past. Given they were probably heading for Wick tonight they were entitled to a break.
I cycle and walk hills on my own so I have no feeling for my relative fitness. I think I might be holding the rest back if I was in a group.

The app gave me 60km and over 700 meters of ascent.