Bealach-na-blip (2 of 3)

Race day.

After a carbo-loading breakfast, some nervousness in the ranks and a lot of faffing about with bikes, registrations etc, Nick, Andy and I set out toward the Bealach. Weather favoured us, unlike the rest of the country by the sound of it.

Put in a pretty good effort on the climb itself which I'm pleased about - split time was 38 mins 16. After a quick look down the results, I'm pretty sure that puts me in the top 40 from the field of 600.

Was truly knackering though, far and away the longest climb I've ever done on a bike. Even the fact that I overtook plenty of people on the way up didn't make it feel like much fun at the time!

Andy had me worried near the start of the ascent as he pulled away strongly and I just couldn't match the effort - my heart felt like it was stuck in the back of my throat. I could see him over 100 metres ahead at one point and it seemed I wasn't going to be able to reel him in. Luckily as the climb wore on I did start to come into my own and settle into a grim rhythm. Maybe about a mile from the top, I passed him again. A wee twinge of cramp late-on, but pretty good.

The three of us regrouped at the summit for the long descent to Applecross - the rough plan being to pretty much stick together as a group for the rest of the ride. Excellent fun, felt like the descent was over in a flash even though it must be about 7 miles. Didn't clock too high a top speed strangely - 39.somthing mph, though both the others were in the high 40s at points.

The Northern bit of the Applecross peninsula will linger in the memory of anyone who's ever driven round it - sharply undulating and twisty - and on Saturday, mostly facing a brisk headwind. The sun was out though and we were having a lot of fun.

Then the bummer. Andy and I were a bit ahead and decided to stop and wait for Nick to catch up. Last we'd seen, he'd only been about 100m behind and with the twists in that stretch of road it's easy to lose sight of people quickly. After a few minutes though, still no sign of him. We hoped he hadn't had a puncture or something and were starting to consider going back to look for him when a Red Cross ambulance pulled up to ask if we'd seen any incidents as there were reports of a fall and an injured rider. Bloody hell - rather hopefully I still was trying to convince myself that Nick had probably just arrived at the scene of the accident and was waiting for help to arrive.

Nope, he'd been hooning it down the second-longest (and maybe fastest - I clocked about 43mph) descent on the course (6 miles or so from the end), overshot the left-hand bend at the bottom and bombed off the edge of the road over about a 5-foot drop into a rocky streambed. (linked pics taken the day after, at the crash scene - check the skid)

When a guy emerged with a wet, badly grazed and shaken Nick in his car, gingerly holding his arm due to a broken collar-bone (with his bike in the back, carbon forks cleanly snapped-off), we were a bit freaked out to say the least.

Huge thanks to that dude, whose name I shamefully forget - sorry. And equally big thanks to the Red Cross, the race marshalls and subsequently the ambulance service. Top people all.

Needless to say, this put a bit of a different perspective on things. We rode back to the finish as quickly as possible behind the ambulance to tell the others, then back again to await news of Nick's condition and for the 'official' ambulance to arrive.

Nick coped tremendously well with the trauma though, as did his 6-months-pregnant wife (!) Gillian. They took the long trip to Inverness and back, for x-rays, right in their stride.


So in a Tour-De-France stylee, here are the inaugural Blebo Chain-Gang awards for the Bealach.

Polka-dot jersey (King of the mountains): Me - haha, sorry boys ;-)
Green jersey (Points victory for overall time in the lead, aggression on the short climbs etc): Andy - strong lad.
Combativity award (Attacking spirit and most biggest impact in the day's racing): Nick - descending faster than a stuka bomber and putting such a brave face on a could've-been-worse, but still pretty horrific disaster. Chapeau, sir.



Went out canoeing with Laurinha in the early evening (this shot was looking out from in front of the house a bit later). Finished the day with a lovely meal, courtesy of hostess Vicky, excellent company and banter after everyone returned from Inverness and a copious batch of well-earned (for once) beer & wine.