An epic day in so many ways. An excellent monster breakfast in the Officers’ Mess at RAF Lossiemouth and fabulous weather saw the team out of the gate and onto the longest stage of the event – a minimum of 106 miles, with the option to push onto the JSMTC at Ballachulish to make a total of 126 miles. A later start and the chance to grab a little extra sleep was much appreciated and a fatigued, but eager team pedalled away from Lossiemouth. There had been a lot of banter the previous night as to who was ‘the daddy’ with the Chuckle Brothers promising to serve Tats up with the old Team Scotty ‘one-two’ south of Fort William. The banter was clearly taken seriously and the Scotties had already been caught dismounting kit from their bikes to save weight – phase 1 of the psyops complete.
A few miles out from the start and at the end of the ‘neutral zone’, Tats caught the Chuckle Brothers napping and launched an epic attack off the front which went unanswered by the Chuckles. Kev and Jay made an attempt to catch, but didn’t trouble a flying Tats who completed another solo time trial winner to the 1st feeding stn in Nairn at 28 miles; pysops phase 2 complete. The chasing bunch were headed by Kev and Jay who pressed on swiftly to Inverness as we had an appointment with Nanny Mc and some of Kev’s family at Inverness Railway Stn. The route was a pleasant ride along the coast of northern Scotland with a following wind for the main and some awesome scenery. A short stop in Inverness, a photo with Nanny Mc and the team then started the route down the Great Glen alongside Loch Ness, no monsters here and no monster hills, but certainly some ‘undulations’ to get over. The team had split into a lead group (working hard to stay away) and a non-chasing group who were just content to make a decent average speed on the run down the Great Glen, including one of the Scottys, conducting a watching brief from the back of the group. The 2nd feeding stn came up at 65 miles at the Loch Ness Visitor Centre in Drumnadrochit. Excellent work from the Support Team, who had pizza on hand for all and they even tried to sell RAFA Spitfire badges to the coach load of German tourists – not as successful as their pizza!! Bianca again was requiring a lot of fuel and was so hungry, it looked like she would start on the road kill, but a whole veggie pizza, toasted sarni, crisps and a squaddie bar later, she was ready to get on the road again. The Chuckle Brothers now pressed on ahead with the rear group being joined by guest rider Ben from the Support Team. Ben hadn’t done much cycling previously and as he wobbled about the carpark on a test run, there was much amusement. They next 30 miles to Invergarry were spectacular from a scenery perspective, but served up some testing long inclines and a headwind at times. Ben wasn’t given any quarter and was doing an excellent job of staying with the group. The lead group however had pressed ahead and the Support Team were struggling to stay ahead of them. A short pitstop in Invergarry and the riders pressed on to Fort William. A long drag to get up to Spean Bridge allowed the team to pay their respects at the Commando Memorial and briefly enjoy some spectacular views including the snow on top of the Cairngorms.
A lot of riders running on empty at this point and it needed a big effort on the front of the main group from the Super Domestique to keep things rolling. A seemingly endless but extremely fast run-in to Fort William ended and the riders chose to smash out the last 20 miles to Ballachulish and get those all important miles in the bag. Guest rider Ben was still with the rear group and was clearly starting to regret his decision to stay as the pace was steadily increased as the finished loomed large. With the light fading and weather closing in, the final group rolled into Ballachulish after an epic day in the saddle. Some big, big performances from all the boys and girls today, with a 126 mile stage in the bag over some nice lumps.
A very swift admin turnround at the JSMTC Ballachulish and out for a well deserved dinner, which saw 13 very tired people try to make polite conversation, eat and not fall asleep. Ride of the day goes to Ben (much to the disappointment of Tats after his time trial epic in the morning), for his brave (but foolish!) 70 thrash along the Great Glen as his first introduction to cycling – top man! Stevie P gets ‘drafter’ of the day over an excellent performance to draft Tats for about 65 miles on the run-in to Ballachulish!! There’s been a lot of eating and a lot of singing from Bianca, although she still hasn’t realise that Tats increases the pace in order to shut her up! Colin was in excellent form and kept everyone’s morale up, particularly when he briefly jumped on the front, wound the pace up on a hill, then promptly blew up, cueing much laughter from the group, thanks mate!
Tomorrow is likely to be a different prospect, with the met forecast not looking good. Don’t mind the rain, but just hate the headwinds – we’ll see what turns up.
Lots of bandwidth and service dramas tonight/today, so I'll add pics when we get out of the Highlands!
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