So, what of the trip itself? I have to say that it was harder than I had expected. In hindsight perhaps that was a bit predictable. I’d never ridden over 80 miles in a day before, but had to do it 4 times in 6 days. I’d never ridden more than 170 miles in a week, but had to ride 500 a week twice one after the other. I’d never climbed more than 4,500 feet in a day and had to do it 3 times, 2 of which in the first 2 days and I had to do all this with fully loaded panniers (12kg) and day after day for 14 days.
So yes it was hard, but what really made it harder was the relentless wind. Normally rides start and finish at the same place so any wind gives easy parts to make up for the hard parts, but this was sapping both mentally and physically with virtually no respite. The wind on Day 8 was actually dangerous for an hour or so where we fought to make any headway at all against the strongest wind I’ve ever ridden in. But on the few occasions when the wind was not against us, how great it felt. I’ve just seen the following on the website for the Drumlanrig Sportive we stumbled across
“Well done to all of you for battling against that relentless wind. I reckon anyone who managed better than 15mph average is worth a gold award and everyone else who got round a silver standard”
On the other hand, we were so, so lucky with the weather. Apart from an hour on Day 1, we had beautiful warm sun every day. I have a classic cyclist tan, with very dark forearms, lower legs and face and pasty white everywhere else! This made the views and the scenery absolutely stunning every single day of our trip. I cannot believe how beautiful this country of ours is. My photos, taken with my Blackberry, give hints of this beauty but cannot accurately reflect the beauty we saw and enjoyed.
We also met a large number of lovely people. Most times we stopped for a breather or to take a photo, or have our meals, we chatted to whoever was about. Maybe it was our frame of mind, but almost without fail, people were friendly, interested and helpful. Our hosts at the various B&Bs were great and some I would go out of my way to stay with again at some point.
One unforeseen outcome of this trip was the way it seemed to bring our family(ies) closer together. Everyone was interested, everyone chipped in and it was great. We enjoyed riding with our older brother, Paul for a couple of days as well as our Dad for a while. It was lovely to share a meal with our older sis, Chris and her husband Pete and of course the Athlete’s lunch with Mum was superb.
And so onto my title. This trip was of course about an iconic cycling trip, but it was also a chance for me to spend time with Ian which is not something we can do very much of in our everyday lives. I loved the time we shared. We are very similar in many (but not quite all) ways and we had no cross words or even close to it in the whole 2 weeks. We laughed a lot, once so much I really actually fell off my bike.
With a young family, Ian has not been able to train anywhere near as much as I did and the mental toughness he showed especially in those first hard 2 days was immense. Ian told me at the start that whatever it took, he was going to complete this and I always knew he would.
This tune was one we both sang a lot on the ride. The starting words seem very apt – The Road is long, with many a winding turn, that leads us to, who knows where who knows when – and to be honest apart from the chorus, I didn’t know the rest of the words.
This is where the analogy falls down. The song goes on to talk about one brother carrying the other, and on our ride nothing could be further from reality. We did this trip together but we often travelled at our own pace and we each did what we had to do. We knew the other was absolutely there if needed, but as it happened we never really needed to call upon this.
I watched Ian get stronger each day and when he left me for dead climbing away from Rannoch Moor I loved it (but I got him later J ). He also got the highest speed of 48.6mph against my fastest of 46.8mph – not that I can’t forgive and I’m gunning for him there.
So, we’ve come a long way. It’s been almost exactly a year since I took up cycling after stopping my previous addiction of motorbike racing. This trip has been great and I’m sure I’ll look for a new challenge to aim for soon. For anyone thinking about doing this, whatever you level of fitness, I’d say just go do it – It has been an experience I’ve loved and won’t forget anytime soon. Nae Bother.