Cycle Sportif

I had never heard of a Cyclosportif or Cycle Sportif, hell I don't even know the correct name for it.

Saunders and Jean pointed me in the direction of the Loch Ness 360 website as they were doing the 360 MTB and the 180 MTB, I then saw the bit about the road cycle and decided I wanted to do it.

I wish I had taken my camera but I didn't want to carry any more weight than I had to.

All I can say is that it was an amazing experience for me. I had done a few 10 mile time trials years ago but had never ridden in a group of riders. The first 2 miles were in a neutralised zone as we were led through Inverness by a 'pace' car.
I soon noticed cyclists in front of me pointing this way and that and soon realised that they were pointing out drains, hydrant covers and pot-holes. When we reached the Holme roundabout the horn sounded and we were racing. Well some were racing I was just trying to keep pedalling !



I spotted someone in front of me and decided it would be easier to be with someone else rather than alone. I caught up and realised that this was the guy who had sold me a pair of running shoes in a shop in Inverness a month earlier, small world eh ?

We soon caught someone else and became three, then four. We continued 'chaining' along for about 20 kilometres. We then joined another group who then speeded up and our wee group got strung out, I was alone again. I then knocked my pump of when returing my water bottle and had to go back for it.

At 33km in there was a short hill climb and at 40Km a nice big downhill I reached speeds of 73.7 kph ( 46 mph )




I felt great at Fort Augustus but when we turned around and I started to climb back up the hill that old devil called cramp came a calling. I had to dismount. I had several attempts at climbing but the cramp wouldn't go away. I eventually topped out but I had wasted valuable time, I still felt great though.




So here we go. I got down to Fort Augustus in 01:44 but it took me 02:33 to get back with my crampy legs.

Important bits are as follows
Dist 94.15Km
Time 04:17:04
Av Spd 21.9 Kph
Av HR 80%
Max Hr 101% Ouch
Calories 3609
Total Ascent 2063.5m

Oh and here's the profile with that scary hill.


More strength training needed for next year !

7 Stanes Tour 08. Glentress.

Glentress please please us !



Oh boy, the 7 stanes hadn't set the heather on fire yet and this was going to be our last chance to get a buzz.


Sol, Saunders and I had a go at the shortened blue route and I was immediately aware that these trails were a considerable cut above the other two.

The Blue trail had switchbacks, something they forgot about on the Ae blue, and jumps BLOODY loads of jumps. Sol was very impressed.


Things were looking good for when Saunders and I returned to do the Red the next day.

Well they've done it. The trail seemed to have everything but the kitchen sink, two features I didn't even do, a nasty root section and a big chute. The Glentress Red route beats Golspies Red for shear scale and variety, oh and nice views




The highlight would probably have to be the Spooky Wood. You can tell something good is going to happen with everyone congregating at the top and savouring the building excitement of what is to follow.









Oh yes we shall return, but only to Glentress to do the Black, and Red and the Blue. OK we'll do the Green too !

It was a bit messy though.



Glentress only 9/10 because I'm saving that extra point for when I go back.

7 Stanes Tour 08. Ae.

The next Trail centre we tried was Ae.





All the kids went with us on this one so we had a go at the Green route. It was very nice and all the kids seemed to enjoy it. Sol also got to go on the Blue route with Saunders, Jean and I but as explained on the website it's just the green route with some forestry road added in, very disappointing.

Saunders and I had a go at the Red route, at 24 Km with lots of ups and downs it was quite demanding, but it was also quite boring and annoying.
No section of the trail got a laugh out of me like many other parts of other trails have. A lot of the trail, in particular Granny Green Luv, is extremely rough aggregate in a twisty line through the woods and that's it !

There were detour signs which took us up through a barely walkable and extremely muddy hillside.

The occassional nice view.



An more mechanical mishaps when my crank fell off, probably due to the annoying trail surface.




We eventually reached a massive heed which was quite impressive and then entered Omega Man which was supposed to be good but was too little too late.



Ae gets 5/10

7 Stanes Tour 08. Mabie.

Well, three out of seven ain't bad ! It was wet wet wet.



We arrived on the Wednesday and stayed at Barnsould farm. On Thursday we went to Mabie and did the red route.

I'll cut right to the chase and tell you that the trail was instantly forgettable apart from the tyre split.

I got my first puncture on my way to a wee bridge across a burn. Conditions were almost tropical.



Less than fifteen minutes later I had another one on a fairly innocuous stretch of track, and it was loud. Something wasn't right and a closer inspection by Saunders found that problem.

This later photo shows the cause. A split tyre.



Well we were deep in the tropical Mabie forest and needed a fix to get us home. I suggested a wrapper of some kind and Saunders said he had a Gel, so we scoffed it and patched the tyre.



When we got back to the van we decided that we had to go to the skills area in order to get some excitement out of the day. That's when we had our another memorable moment. Saunders chain snapped.




So all in all the fairly forgettable Mabie gets 4/10.

Laggan Wolftrax

We went down the road at the weekend and camped in Aviemore.



On the Saturday, Saunders and I drove along to Laggan Wolftrax.

This is so far the most southerly trail centre we have tried. We started out on the red route, shortly after the top I got a puncture ! The slime was in tube on the other bike not this one !



The rest of the route was quite nice, oh Air's Rock I hear you say. Well my advice is to do what we did. DO NOT STOP AT THE TOP. Keep rolling and you will do it no bother.
We did it once and then cycled back up and did that whole section again, this time we filmed ourselves going down the slab.




We then had a spot of lunch at the cafe topped up the fluids and cycled back up the to the top.



This time we descended the black route. Wow there's a lot of stone features on this one. POP another puncture for me.
A lot of warning signs before each part but the only one I saw was a skull and crossbones one near the bottom. Saunders tackled everything I think whereas I missed a few jumps on the start of the red as the bike felt funny ( the tyre was rapidly deflating ). I also missed a small part of a section on the black route as I had stopped at the top of it.

There is a good section of 'north shore' through the woods which leads to the Fun Park section with berms and tabletops a nice fast section which takes you back to the start point.

All in all quite a good trail centre, I would definitely go back again.

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words.

Yes, we forgot our cameras today.

Here's the data.

Fort Augustus To Inverness On The Great Glen Way.

61.62 Km.

03:56 plus a stop for lunch.

1272 metres total ascent.

Thigh busting climbs and excellent views of Loch Ness.

From Fort Augustus To Inverness

My Paddling Is In The Doldrums

I have definitely put paddling on the backburner recently. For several reasons.

The Fear Factor:
First of all I'm not to keen paddling in the firth next to my house because Invergordon is a very busy port and I have had close encounters of the big boat kind.
I'm not too keen on going solo anymore as I have a better understanding of the dangers and first hand experience of being caught out.

Getting Fit:
Some friend s of mine had recently discovered cycling and bought some bikes, I believe it was after going to spin classes. Jean and Saunders invited me out on a cycle one weekend. I used to cycle a bit before the kids arrived in 1998 and so thought it would be like riding a bike !

That night I decided I needed to get fit.

On November 1st 2007 I had my last cigarette ! Yes, that's right. My name is Muzz and I am a smoker. I was smoking up to 50 ciggys a week and decided enough was enough.

I steadily built up my cycling and also started running again. I am not a good runner and only ever ran for about a year in the past, this was in preparation for the 1998 Highland Cross.

So, at the moment I am having a day off from running and cycling but that means a bit of maintenance work on the bikes.

Paddling Difficulties:
My paddling remains in the Doldrums as I'm not finding the time for group paddling. My wife is working up north today so this evenings club rolling and rescue session looks doubtful unless I get someone to look after the kids. I work shifts so that has ruled me out of the weekend trips I wanted to go on. Others are possibly beyond my capabilities but it's difficult for me to gain the necessary skills for the afore mentioned reasons.

The Faff Factor:
The preparation and cleanup involved in Paddling is another consideration in my time strapped life. Packing the gear and kayaks into and onto the car ( forgetting stuff ). Driving to the paddling location unpacking, doing a couple of hours paddling and then undoing it all. Driving home unpacking, hosing the gear putting the boat away, drying the gear.
At worst cycling is putting the helmet, gloves and water bottle in the car and the bike on the back, some scoff or energy bars if you want. A forty minute drive will take me to the Wildcat or Learnie. Come home wash water bottle and throw top and shorts into the wash.

Or no driving at all, hit the hills near my house on the mountain bike, a big loop on the road bike or go for a run !

The Way Ahead:
I want to keep my fitness program going and in order to keep me honest I have entered some events. The Glencalvie challenge has been and gone but coming up I have.

Loch Ness Cycle Sportif

Cairngorm Adventure Triathlon

The Charmer

That's August to October taken care of. In July we'll be hitting the south, spending a week doing the mountain bike trails near Dumfries and Peebles.

I am sad that Kayaking isn't getting much of a look in at the moment but this year I am putting family and fitness first. I have even got the wife running, she can do 20 minutes non stop at the moment. I see a marathon on the horizon LOL.

Keep Running, Cycling, Paddling...

Glencalvie Challenge 2008

Well since we have been doing a bit of cycling lately I decided to enter a wee race for charity, the Glencalvie Challenge

This event allows you to either walk, run or cycle 17.5 miles through amazing countryside from Black Bridge to Glencalvie. Black bridge is on the way to Ullapool just before Loch Glascarnoch.




I went along with Jean and Saunders with whom I have cycled on numerous occasions .We arrived before 0900hrs and were soon joined by the other competitors.

The hooter went and we sped off. Saunders didn't waste any time heading to the front, I thought 'What The Hell' and overtook the wee group ahead and slotted into second place. I could see Saunders disappearing over the tops of the upcoming hills as sooked in the air and tried to keep the legs turning at a decent pace.

The road was quite undulating and I tried to rest a wee bit before every approaching hill. Thanks to my FR305 I had recently discovered that 'knocking your pan in' on the climbs doesn't actually nock that much time off so I gave a measured effort here and tried to make time on the flat and downhill.

The speed graph and corresponding data table tell the story.




Although I was delivering a measured response to the trail, this was a challenge and I wanted to see how fast I could go. Staying in specified HR zones was out, I was just trying to maintain a decent average speed. The HR graph and table were a bit of a shock to me when I viewed them. It appears I was 'Knocking my pan in' after all :)




The mile markers rolled by and I grabbed the cups of water at the feeding stations and poured them over my head !

Saunders was out of sight after the first 7Km and uncatchable. I rolled over the finish line in second place !
Saunders posted a time of 1hr 9 mins and I got 1hr 13mins. Saunders wife Jean finished as fastest lady with a time of 1hr 27min.

The organisation for the event was really good. Regular stations along the route, mile markers stress free start and helpful encouragement by all support staff along the route.

I think we may go back next year.

Inconclusive but Fun.

Took the new bike on a trail that I had done with the Kona in January.

I call it Kinrive To Inchidown although I start from the house.

The actual cycle was great. It was a lot warmer today than it was on the January cycle. The bike bhaved very well going up hill. I used the Poploc on the road and the smooth offroad climbs. This is a bar mounted system for effectively turning the front suspension on and off.

I had one dodgy moment on the descent when the back end slid out a bit, this without me locking up the back under braking.

I analysed my data in SportTracks as usual. Here is a speed comparison.



It looks very promising, the new machine being faster on the descents also !

All may not be as it seems though. The data for the heart rate also shows an increase.



On the previous cycle I stopped a few times to take photos for the blog, the stops are edited out by the software but could easily result in a comparatively lower HR.

I like to think that the bike managed to be 8.5% faster with or without me having to exert myself 9% more !!!

Out with the Old

After not justifying it's usefulness or my ability to generate spare time to use it, I sold the river kayak this week. I hope Neil gets more use of it than I did.



On a brighter note, we took delivery of a new bike.



A lovely Cube LTD Race which will be put through it's paces tomorrow.

A Recent Cycle

Saunders picked me up at 10 o clock and we went to the first location.

Wildcat Black:



I think the worst part of this route is the Lactic Ladder.
You can pick it out on the below profile, it's between 27 and 32 minutes.



To the right of the word 'Ben' near the summit you can see a very bendy line, that's it. The best part of the route is Valhalla which is graded red.

After we had finished and had a wee snack it was off to the next route.

Balblair near Bonar Bridge.



This route consists of some lovely rock outcrops with lines spray painted onto them.

The route is graded black and has a lot of surprises, a lot of ups and downs some of them very steep.


Our day was not over. We nipped over to Carbisdale next to do the Red and Blue routes there.
No black route to do. Sorry no route trace for this one yet.



The routes are just north of a 1650 battle between the Royalists and Covenanters.

Oh I forgot to mention the weather. We managed to get rained or hailed on at every route. We also had a wee drop of thunder whilst on an exposed hillside riding metal objects. Fun fun fun.

I got back to the house after 1600. A great day out.

Getting Busier

I have been busy lately. Since my last post I have been doing mostly:

Skiing in Bulgaria.

Our family have never skied before and so, in case we didn't like it, we decided to try the cheaper end of the market. Borovets in Bulgaria.

We stayed at the Rila hotel which was a really nice place. very clean and efficient.



It was reassuring to know that no guns were allowed !



On the first day we were issued with our lift passes and gear tickets and headed straight to the top of the mountain. We began our training with the instructor Eva another adult and several more children.



The kids picked it up quite soon but I was getting frustrated, not snow plwing and falling over !





Karen managed to transfer her water skiing expertise to the slopes too.



I was struggling, but the views were breathtaking.



On day two the top green run was fog bound so we had to practise on a low down blue route. This involved trying to dismount the poma, button lift, ski drag ( pck your own name ) on a steep slope. The kids were falling off all the time. We did get some snow plough turn training done but it was a bit of a disaster.

The next day the gondola was shut all day because of high winds. The instructor didn't want to put us back on the lower blue because of the previous days dismount hassle and the fact that the snow was getting slushier.



We grabbed a local taxi friver, George, who took us on a wee tour of the nearby Town of Samokov. I purchased some of the local grog called Rakia and a couple of bottles of wine. The prices in Samokov were less than 50% the prices in the resort of Borovets. I can also recommend eating at 'The Old House' in Samokov.

Thursday was excellent. We were back on top using the green toute and the top button lift. Eva took me away to do a blue route, I fell once but I was really getting the hang of skiing.

Friday was another disaster. Top runs closed with fog again and after an attempt to use the bottom blue ending up in several bad dismounts and people sliding off the hioll in all directions in slush, we gave up.

We had one more full day at the top on Saturday but by this time our instructor had gone to sit exams. I asked her replacement what we were going to do now we had learn't the snow plow turn and she said I would find out next year !!

In summary.
Hotel. great.
Food. OK but some strange stuff served in the hotel. We ate out twice.
Prices. Shop around. The resort can be dear and on top of the hill it's daylight robbery.
Skiing. Potentialy really good but spoiled by bad snow low down, lift closures and fog.
Return. No we have booked Passo Tonale for next year.

Recent Cycles And Video

Today I just want to recap on some recent cycles.
Last week I returned to the Wildcat with Jean and we did the red route.
I rode it slightly better than last time, Valhalla is still brilliant but not as intimidating as it was.






Later that day when I met up with Saunders we did a black trail at Balbalir, near Bonar Bridge.
He told me about the youtube vid of the Valhalla section at the Wildcat.

Saunders and I rode the Black route at Balblair near Bonar Bridge.
Low and behold, theres a youtube vid featuring that route too:



Man what a lazy post this is !

WildCat Black Route.

At the weekend we managed to round up lots of adults and kids. We all went to Learnie Red Rocks, ten in all, and had a great day out.




Today Saunders and myself went off to tackle the Black Route on the wildcat.

You can read all about it on the Wildcat Website.

This is the first time I have ridden a black route although Saunders has done it before. The first real obstacle was the Lactic Ladder.



I don't mid steep climbs and switchbacks but add in the stone slabs and it becomes really hard to get the front wheel up safely. I ended up doing a wee bit of walking.



As we climbed we looked across and could see part of the descent, lot's more stone slabs and rubble where there was some more walkies.

Anyways, we did make it to the top without any damage.



My photographer ( to whom I had given a backy all the way up ) took this photo of Saunders and me.




Now the fun began. We passed through 'Monumental' at varying speeds with an ooya, jeeza, holysh soundtrack. It was here that I found out what full suspension bikes are for. My legs had survived the climb without a twitch but they were now sore acting as my rear shock !

I think this bridge was the start of 'Run The Gauntlet' another rocky technical section with some walking.



The rest of the route was fast. We passed into the red route which we have done a couple of times before. This now seemed a lot easier and we managed a lot of the drop-offs without using the escapes. I did a big one on the lower section by accident as I couldn't see where I was going !

A brilliant day out. The FR305 says it was 12.34Km and took us 1 hr 11 mins ( not counting stopped time ).

Head for the Wildcat NOW!