Etape Caledonia 2010

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adscrim

Veteran
Location
Perth
I passed one guy who appeared to have a small digital camera in a waterproof box attached to his handlebars, quite a few helmet cams and a guy on a brompton. He didn't have a camera but merits a mention - he was fizzing along too! 3 hrs 55 mins for me. I'm more pleased that a very pleased pleased thing (thanks in no small part to a guy from Dunfermline cycling club that did a huge amount of work in the first thirty miles).
 
Sorry. Missed this thread yesterday. Below is my write up of the day, taken from another thread. Can't understand how we missed you HLab. Scoosh and I were at the finish in our CC shirts for quite a while!!

Started not so great, taking the bike out the car it had a flat tyre. However, got that sorted and then to the start. I've never seen a carpet of cyclists before...now I have! Despite the large numbers the start went smoothly and off we went. About 20 miles in and the tyre goes flat again! :sad: Get that sorted with the help of a local resident, who also gave me a spare!! Many thanks to that gentleman! Scooch past me at that point, so the chase was on! Caught up a wee while later, had a quick chat and parted ways (well he is an old man ;)).

Plenty of opportunity to work in groups which helped keep the pace up. Then came the hill. Actually this is where I found that my hilly commute has been helpful. I definitely passed more than passed me. :becool: Steep at the start, and not too bad after that. Met kfinlay on the way up and had a wee chat and then we both enjoyed the amazing downhill after that. Very smooth roads, no cars.....weeeeeeee! (43.5mph max).

Following the hill was the Fortingnal loop that wasn't the most exciting and we had a bit of a headwind. Nothing major and then back with the wind at our backs. Getting near the end with 11 miles to go I decide to look at how long I've been cycling. Less than 4 hours!! :becool: Blimey, it's been fast.

So head down for the finish with a wee touch of cramp threatening in the legs. I knew about the nasty wee climb after the turn, and so was ready for it. Brilliant. Again my commute with the short sharp climbs helped here and I passed a large group on the way up. :smile: A couple more sharpish climbs and then downhill to the finish (with a wee climb right at the end). And what a great welcome!!:sad:

So my stats are, official 4:34. Actually (remember I had a puncture) 4:16. :biggrin::biggrin::thumbsup: Well chuffed. 19mph average. about 1.5mph above my previous best.


It was a great day, lots of support on the route. Perfect weather, light wind, cool and dry (sunny at times). Amazing roads, I have never ridden on smoother, and a brilliant atmosphere.

The roads were very fast today and I think nearly everyone was posting good times. However, it still feels good to take over an hour quicker than you thought.

I'll be doing this next year! :biggrin:

P.S. viniga's wife was good enough not to give birth during the race! :biggrin:
 

r0bbti

New Member
what a fantastic day! good cycling weather, beautiful scenery, well organised. The experience of cycling fast on closed roads was brilliant. Have already entered for next year. Did just under 5hours officially - but about 4h 40 without stops for puncture/friend falling off. Very pleased as aim was to finish before the broom wagon!
 

zizou

Veteran
Left my cycling shoes in the room as i rushed to make the start time. Didnt have time to go back but had a spare set of pedals in my bike toolbox so fitted them - but they were mountain biking flats with pins so not ideal at all for road stuff. Particularly when wearing really flexible soled canvas trainers. Really annoyed at myself for this, my recce ride i got 5 hours 5 mins and i was sure i would beat that quite comfortably. Ended up being closer to 6 hours ;)

Good day though hopefully will be back again next year!
 
OP
OP
HLaB

HLaB

Marie Attoinette Fan
Nice pics, I was quickly herded over to the other side of the car park at about the same location. Did you have a helmet cam?

I did most of the event on my own but at 60 miles another nice chap from (Glasgow South) told me to grab his back wheel which I trully did (well not literally I still have some fingers ;-) Didn't get a chance to say thanks however we got swallowed up by a larger group but I never realised he got dropped.
 
HLaB said:
Nice pics, I was quickly herded over to the other side of the car park at about the same location. Did you have a helmet cam?

I did most of the event on my own but at 60 miles another nice chap from (Glasgow South) told me to grab his back wheel which I trully did (well not literally I still have some fingers ;-) Didn't get a chance to say thanks however we got swallowed up by a larger group but I never realised he got dropped.

Ah, I ignored the guy telling us to move along and moved back a bit towards the presentation stand.

No, I decided not to wear my camera. No cars anyway! :biggrin:

When I met kfinlay, he didn't know who i was. When I mentioned I was magnatom, he was surprised I didn't have the camera on. He'd apparently asked somome else who had a camera on if he was magnatom! xx(
 
OP
OP
HLaB

HLaB

Marie Attoinette Fan
magnatom said:
When I met kfinlay, he didn't know who i was. When I mentioned I was magnatom, he was surprised I didn't have the camera on. He'd apparently asked somome else who had a camera on if he was magnatom! :biggrin:
There was quite a few folk wearing cameras, all bulky ones however. xx(
 
OP
OP
HLaB

HLaB

Marie Attoinette Fan
magnatom said:
So my stats are, official 4:34. Actually (remember I had a puncture) 4:16. :biggrin::biggrin::thumbsup: Well chuffed. 19mph average. about 1.5mph above my previous best.

Very smooth roads, no cars.....weeeeeeee! (43.5mph max).


P.S. viniga's wife was good enough not to give birth during the race! :biggrin:
Well done Maggers, your stats for the climb are good, (25m, 1sec) now where could you have saved that second :biggrin: Pity about that puncture or most likely it'd had been a sub 4:15 or better.

I'm not suprised you hit 43.5mph :smile: with my timid descending I hit 36mph :biggrin:

PS I hope things went OK for vinigia's wife and congratulation to them both.
 

viniga

Guru
Location
Glasgow
Well I pedalled round extra fast just in case I'd have to slipsteam an ambulance to the labour ward :smile: but thankfully little Viniga stayed put. Great day, perfect weather conditions and very happy with my times 03:48:47 for the overall and 20:43 for KOTM. Both very much personal bests.

Great to meet Scoosh again and Magnatom for the first time. Well done to all the Cycle Chatters! :biggrin:
 

TechMech

Senior Member
Well I made it round, and that for me was the main thing :thumbsup:

Official time of 05:50:46 and KOTM of 00:35:36 (Cycling time from computer of 05:20:54)

I got 40.1mph on the descent and could smell the brake blocks frying when braking for the right hander at the bottom of the hill.
 

Stephen-D

New Member
Well all i can say i WOW totally loved every single moment of the ride today, met a friend from my Local Cycling Club so we went round together, this is my first ever sportive and the first time ive hit the 81 mile mark so it was a battle. the place had a fantastic vibe and even my pregnant misses came up to see me at the finish line. At times i felt like crying but it was al worth it. the training that i put in for it totally worked out well, looking forward to seeing the pictures.

my final time was 4:54:47 which they texted to me shortly after finishing which i thought was cool.

 
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