It was early. Quite early. Not race day early, but early enough. 7am to be precise, as I rolled into a car park in Yorkhill, meeting up with Jo & Lexy to head out on the longest cycle of my life.
Da da daa daaaaaaaaaaaaaaAA!!
After the obligatory tyre pressure checks & last minute pitstops, we were on the road by about 7:30. Given the miserable May its been weather wise but with a reasonable forecast, my layering strategy was on the slightly cautious side, but such that I could easily take off or fold down layers, but I was glad I started that way, as it was a bit parky first thing in the morning.
Crossing the Clyde, we headed out through Renfrew, avoiding the main road as much as possible until we joined the A8 not long before Langbank, where Lexy filled the draft bank by leading us out to Greenock - given the speed of the traffic, none of us were much for trying to readjust the order. The road surface however was quite lovely and, being effectively a nice big dual carriage way, it brought me back to the Lisboa Middle Distance Triathlon. I would definitely like to go back there some day and see what I can do on the course now! (for those that don't know, most of the bike leg is on a closed section of motorway in Lisbon city centre, and its a fantastic surface to get some good speeds in, the only downside is that its 4 laps of the course, with a turn at the far end and a dog leg at a entrance ramp, which means you are having to do 3 x hard turns each lap)
Cruising through to Gourock we jumped on a ferry to Dunoon, and were joined briefly by Tom who'd set off later than us from Glasgow. 15 minutes later we were back on the road, and not long after that, Tom took off at his own pace and we headed up along beside the stunning views of Holy Loch and out to Loch Long. Heading out along Loch Eck, the day was starting to warm up and dropping down to Loch Fyne the gloves were changed and the jacket came off. No longer at risk of overheating, cycling continued nicely.
Climbing up beside Stob an Eas was rewarded with a cracking descent, though given it was a single track road I managed to hold myself back from going too fast, on account of not wanting to end up a hood ornament for a Range Rover.... Would be fantastic if the road was closed to traffic.... More climbing awaited and it was on up to the Rest & Be Thankful car park. It hurt (particularly at the bit with the 16% gradient sign), but I knuckled down and kept at it, topping out to the gorgeous view down between The Cobbler and Ben Donich. After a breather here & a photo op, it was down the side of the Cobbler on a road that reminded me a bit of the drop from the car park on the crow down to Lennoxtown, only longer, less steep and with a poorer road surface. At the top I took off, accelerating hard down the hill and managed to get through the temporary traffic lights without having to stop, then I took that speed held it up as best I could into Arrochar, when we stopped for lunch.
Out of Arrochar, it was a lovely rolling road, through which I forgot to restart my Garmin, but I noticed before we got to the A814 (a cheeky wee section, the lead on Strava is currently held jointly by two GTC members). At this point I was about 110km into the ride, and happily surprised at how OK my legs were feeling, even if we had had a couple of breaks in the ride, though to my credit I'd been taking it steady on the climbs & not trying to get excitable and over do it. Up and down and round past Faslane, then it was onto Glen Fruin with its cattle grids and torturous climbing. At various points I looked down and saw that my speedo was ready under 7km/hr. It was not very comfortable, but I refused to let this hill break me, so I just kept going until the top (and another set of stunning views).
Plenty of downhills, and a few short uphills (that I chose to blast up, as I figured I had some matches to burn) followed until we joined the A82 at Loch Lomond, where we were treated to some classic driver dumbfuckery, making sure we had at least an inch as they squeezed past (some with oncoming traffic, others with none - they just clearly couldn't be arsed moving out properly). Hating (some of) the road users and at risk of bonking, I was grateful to turn into Balloch & took the oppurtunity to pause & stuff my face a little before we headed along the quieter roads to Dumbarton. Back onto the A82 again still wasn't fun, but at least I was feeling a touch better, though I was very happy to take the Bowling turning onto a much quieter road.
All that was left was the straight road through Clydebank, then along South Street (with a little bit on the aero bars to see how comfy it was after 160km - not too bad actually!) into Yorkhill and no more cycling today! Hurray! 105 miles in the back! First legitimate century ride I think (Glasgow to Edinburgh last year was 95 I think, though the weather conditions were worth an extra 5 or 10 miles onto that total). To celebrate, I ran for half a kilometre and finished off my tablet before stretching out.
Tonight my legs don't feel that bad. I'll be interested to see what tomorrow brings....
So at 170ish kilometres, I've done almost the distance of Roth, including a similar amount of elevation increase, (though given this is the hardest climb out there, I should be OK for that now) and I'm not feeling gubbed. Of course, out there I won;t be able to take a leisurely lunch and there will be no drafting of buddies, but hey, its feeling much less daunting :)
Big thanks to Alex and Jo (particularly for the time at the front round Balloch / Dumbarton when I was struggling) for the company, though I think Alex was getting a little worried about all the singing...
Tonight's blog (and today's ride) is(was) brought to you with:
Faith No More - I Started A Joke
Bee Gees - I Started A Joke
Cartman - Come Sail Away
Styx - Come Sail Away
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