A very hard day in the saddle today for so many reasons. The little niggling injuries are starting to get bigger and the cumulative effect of over 800 miles in the saddle is definitely starting to take its toll on the riders bodies, well certain body areas anyway. More of that later.
After the epic admin faff the previous evening, the admin faff to escape from the Wardroom was relatively painless and the various messes did put on a big breakfast, although the Wardroom staff were bemused as to exactly why Bianca still needed to eat breakfast for 3 men after putting away her bodyweight in food the previous evening! Feed the monkey and it keeps spinning. Obvious really.
Clearly a lot of tired minds and bodies today. The banter is normally fast, harsh and unrelenting, but the ride out of the gate at HMNB Clyde was unusually quiet, if not silent as the Super Domestique led the group out on the first leg to the Erskine Bridge. Definitely having the welfare of the team foremost in his mind, Colin decided to break the silence with a blatant attempt to take out Tats from behind, caught a wheel and went down hard in the middle of the road. As luck would have it right in the path of 2 artics on both sides of the road. Some riders will stop at nothing to get out of the rest of the ride. Colin got a mixed reception for his efforts – Scotty R immediately went to check out damage to the bike, Scotty M looked for any spares he could thieve from Colin’s bike and Stevie P got on the phone to PMA to see if he could have the likely vacancy at RAF Leeming. Sometime later Colin was eventually picked up out of the road and dusted down. Other than a spot of road rash, there was only damage to the ‘Old Man of Tydrum’s’ pride. That said, I look forward to watching him try and get out of bed unassisted tomorrow morning. He got back on and hit the front, smashing out the pace like a man possessed – good drills; until he got a bollocking from Bianca for going too fast. You just can’t please all of the people all of the time! Sadly, no more excitement for a few miles, although Kev and Scotty almost kissed the tarmac themselves after too much staring at the passing scenery; both are nominees for today’s ‘pest’ award.
Through Helensborough and Dumbarton and off to a very important photocall with none other than Colin’s Mum, Mrs Hunter near the Erskine Bridge. She was most welcoming, although we had to warn her not to leave any food out before she let Bianca in the house. She did suggest to Colin that he “was too old for this”. The ‘Old Man of Tydrum’ was silent. A few pics later and after a very kind donation, we bade farewell to Mrs Hunter and conducted an ‘out of contact admin move’ through the nightmare of Glasgow, picking up the route a little way south. The route started with some nice rolling inclines to get the thighs warm again and a suitably disappointing headwind to drop the average speed a little. That said, the weather has been pretty kind to us today after the rubbish it served up yesterday at times. The team split into 2 groups, with the sprinters moving out ahead and the climbers in a larger group a little way behind, but always gaining ground on the ascents.
The biggest drama today without doubt has been the savage condition of the roads. Argyll & Bute won the prize for the worst roads in Scotland yesterday, but were promptly outdone big style by Dumfries and Galloway. Utter rubbish. Particularly the B7078 which parallels the A74(M). Bone shaking, filling loosening and chalfont bursting. And that was the good bits. The parallel cycle lanes and paths were in even worse condition and often littered with debris. I was going to say something along the lines of ‘my backside hasn’t seen that sort of punishment for sometime’ but I’m sure it won’t sound right, so I won’t. Even trying to get some speed on the downhill sections was almost impossible and the whole team made slow and painful progress. Might have well gone cross-country – it may have been faster! In the few sections that had a decent surface, the speed picked up swiftly and the boys and girls were happily smashing out 20+ mph averages. At the feeding stn in Abington Services, there was time for some en-route crevice management and the Support Team raised morale with some epic size cream cakes. For some of the riders, it had been a hard and difficult day to the point, but spirits picked up and once more we cracked on southwards. A lot of other cyclists on the road today and a few other groups doing long events. The climbers caught up with an ex-military team of guys on the JOGLE heading to Dumfries. After a brief chat and some pleasantries, the climbers took great pleasure in smashing them on the next hill, with Bianca smiling sweetly as she dropped them like a worn out sock. Hard rules in the climbers’ group these days.
A few tasty inclines to get up and over during the course of the afternoon, but nothing that the team hadn’t dealt with previously, but the blustery headwind picked up and made the going hard, particularly past the various windfarms. Can’t think why. After a seemingly endless run into Lockerbie, the team RV’d and conducted a brief spot of re-org with a great deal of arse related discussion and comparison. Trust me you don’t want to know. Thankfully, before my joints were shaken from their sockets and all my fillings fell out, the team arrived in Gretna, where the obligatory photo was taken before the last few miles to Longtown. Strangely enough, as soon as we crossed the border into England, the road improved and the crevice punishment subsided – not before time. I’ve never been so pleased to leave Scotland before!
An impressive list of injuries are building amongst the team: Tats – achilles; Kev – backside; Bianca – wrist, shoulder; Colin – shoulder, road rash, pride; Stevie P – knee, groin; Scotty R – back. Jay wins the prize for the most broken bits – knee, hamstring, hands, backside, balls. Even the Support Team have managed to damage themselves with a schoolboy fall in the shower from Fletch. Careless. We’ve also managed to brake Scotty M permanently and he sadly returned to RAF Leeming at the end of day, with Ben following a death in the family. Sorry to see you go guys, but we look forward to seeing you in a few days.
A big day tomorrow with the small matter of Shap to get over before the roll downhill into Preston. Keeping the wheels turning and stopping and more body parts from falling off will be the order of the day.
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