Noodley
Guest
Having had to wake almost before I went to bed and drive overnight to the North of England for my last audax I was looking forward to a late rise and a short ride to the start of the Glenisla 100km, organised by a member of my club. So after a late Saturday night, involving a few glasses of wine, I retired to bed.
However, my thoughts of uninterupted sleep and a late rise were hampered by O2 deciding they would send me a series of text messages informing me I now had WAP access and something else which I have never heard of
. This would not normally prove too much of a problem for me as I could have merely switched the phone off after the first message; however my phone had been hidden by one of the Noodlettes and I could not work out where it was. I later found in my sock drawer when I was getting dressed to head off to the start! How I laughed…
And so it was following a rather disturbed sleep that I set off to the local Leisure Centre for the start at 9am (or in reality 9am and a wee bit). The sun was shining and the forecast was for this to continue for the duration of the ride
. Being an astute kind of chap I also noted the wind was to our backs as we headed out of town and looked forward to an easy first half, during which I decided to take things nice and steady and have a chat with a few club members.
The first 25km or so were relatively flat and we made good time thanks to the wind blowing us along. When the climbing started the wind once again made it bearable and I found myself a bit ahead of the group I had been riding with, also passing a few solo riders. As I came towards the top of a long steady climb I decided it was time to take a photo, and reached into my back pocket for my mobile phone. I unintentionally switched it to the media player fuction and set of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing the theme from “The Big Country”, and decided I should turn the volume up a bit until I crested the climb – I thought it was quite fitting with the snow capped mountians in the distance.
The rather much shorter descent saw me hit a maximum of 67kph, and it was during this I realised I had not tightened my saddle bolts sufficiently last night after I made a few minor adjustments to it
. A short break saw this matter resolved, and following a series up “up and down” bits I reached Kirkmichael where we stopped for a coffee. I spent a good while in the café before deciding it was time to head off again into the wind, which was now head-on. Having taken it steady on the way out I decided it was time to remind my legs that they could turn a wee bit faster and it didn’t take long for me to pass a succession of solo and paried up riders as I found, despite the strong wind, I was climbing uncharacteristically well on the many short sharp climbs and not quite so many long drags. The flat bits and downhill bits were good as well.
Before too long I found myself only 5 miles from the finish and decided I should arrive there by taking a longer but much more pleasant route – which also allowed me to cycle past my house. Just as I turned onto the road which leads past my house Mrs Noodley called me on my mobile and asked my whereabouts. On being told I was nearby she said she would send the Noodlettes out to wave to me as I went past. On approaching the road end I spied the Noodlettes running along the grass verge towards me.
I pulled to a stop for a chat with them, finding out what they had been upto in my absence. I discovered Younger Noodlette had spent the morning going for a walk with a couple of neighbours and their dogs, explaining to them how I had wrestled and killed a shark with a hammer during our last holiday and that I had also rescued her from being mauled by a tiger – I bet you never knew just how daring I am
, nor that sharks and tigers lived in the far North of Scotland .
And so I cycled the last few miles to the finish, where I ordered two rather tasty sausage rolls and a can of diet coke (one has one’s figure to think about!) – not quite the food of shark-killing tiger-wrestling heroes, but lovely nonetheless and they sustained me for the short journey home again with the wind at my back.
All in all a pleasant day out, with 115km total distance covered and my bike doesn't even look tired.
However, my thoughts of uninterupted sleep and a late rise were hampered by O2 deciding they would send me a series of text messages informing me I now had WAP access and something else which I have never heard of
. This would not normally prove too much of a problem for me as I could have merely switched the phone off after the first message; however my phone had been hidden by one of the Noodlettes and I could not work out where it was. I later found in my sock drawer when I was getting dressed to head off to the start! How I laughed…And so it was following a rather disturbed sleep that I set off to the local Leisure Centre for the start at 9am (or in reality 9am and a wee bit). The sun was shining and the forecast was for this to continue for the duration of the ride
. Being an astute kind of chap I also noted the wind was to our backs as we headed out of town and looked forward to an easy first half, during which I decided to take things nice and steady and have a chat with a few club members.The first 25km or so were relatively flat and we made good time thanks to the wind blowing us along. When the climbing started the wind once again made it bearable and I found myself a bit ahead of the group I had been riding with, also passing a few solo riders. As I came towards the top of a long steady climb I decided it was time to take a photo, and reached into my back pocket for my mobile phone. I unintentionally switched it to the media player fuction and set of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing the theme from “The Big Country”, and decided I should turn the volume up a bit until I crested the climb – I thought it was quite fitting with the snow capped mountians in the distance.
The rather much shorter descent saw me hit a maximum of 67kph, and it was during this I realised I had not tightened my saddle bolts sufficiently last night after I made a few minor adjustments to it
. A short break saw this matter resolved, and following a series up “up and down” bits I reached Kirkmichael where we stopped for a coffee. I spent a good while in the café before deciding it was time to head off again into the wind, which was now head-on. Having taken it steady on the way out I decided it was time to remind my legs that they could turn a wee bit faster and it didn’t take long for me to pass a succession of solo and paried up riders as I found, despite the strong wind, I was climbing uncharacteristically well on the many short sharp climbs and not quite so many long drags. The flat bits and downhill bits were good as well.Before too long I found myself only 5 miles from the finish and decided I should arrive there by taking a longer but much more pleasant route – which also allowed me to cycle past my house. Just as I turned onto the road which leads past my house Mrs Noodley called me on my mobile and asked my whereabouts. On being told I was nearby she said she would send the Noodlettes out to wave to me as I went past. On approaching the road end I spied the Noodlettes running along the grass verge towards me
.I pulled to a stop for a chat with them, finding out what they had been upto in my absence. I discovered Younger Noodlette had spent the morning going for a walk with a couple of neighbours and their dogs, explaining to them how I had wrestled and killed a shark with a hammer during our last holiday and that I had also rescued her from being mauled by a tiger – I bet you never knew just how daring I am
, nor that sharks and tigers lived in the far North of Scotland .And so I cycled the last few miles to the finish, where I ordered two rather tasty sausage rolls and a can of diet coke (one has one’s figure to think about!
) – not quite the food of shark-killing tiger-wrestling heroes, but lovely nonetheless and they sustained me for the short journey home again with the wind at my back. All in all a pleasant day out, with 115km total distance covered and my bike doesn't even look tired.
