Douglas F Shearer

Etape Caledonia

Team Macchiato (John, Vo and myself) flew (drove) into Pitlochry for the Etape Caledonia last weekend.

We stayed at The Pitlochry Backpackers Hotel on the saturday evening. This proved to be great accommodation, apart from the taxi rank directly below our window, where what seems like the entirety of the surrounding area’s young people procure their transport home. So that was 2 hours sleep then…

Luckily we had prepared the bikes the night before, so all we had to do in the morning was get up, eat, and collect our bikes from the van (Thanks to Colin of MacDonald Cycles for the loan of it).

Our start was at 0810 (Early or what), so we were off 10 minutes behind the first starters. Vo and I stuck with John until the first decent climb (Pics here and here) where the groups began to splinter. We got with a fast group, but had to stop for a toilet break a bit further on, so lost out on that advantage.

Groups came and went, and some were just too slow for us, so we’d blow off the front. About 35 miles in we got with a really good group which had a Perth RC guy on the front who refused to yield for anyone, so we were happy to sit on wheels.

We stopped at the bottom of Schiehallion for yet another toilet break (Toilet breaks wasted us 6 minutes!). The group of 50 or so guys we were with trundled on. Another 50 guys trundled past. 2/3 of Team Macchiato started the ascent.

We had decided that we should stick together, except on the climbs where we were free to reign terror on those more gravitationally challenged. I passed all 100 guys before the end of the first steep section, spinning freely while others seemed to be pushing silly big gears, and weaving all over the road. I was on my own for the next 5 miles across the top to the feed station. There I filled up my water bottle, and planned to wait on Vo. He was right behind me.

We started the descent, which due to closed roads meant we could use the whole road to get round the corners (Did I mention it was either raining or just wet the whole time?), with the added advantage of having no-one else to get in our way. At the bottom we started to put more effort in than the first half, knowing we only had 25 miles to go. We caught a few people up, got a little group going, then stopped, again, for a toilet stop.

Now we started to chase, for 7 miles we took short turns on the front to keep the speed above 25mph. the carrot of the group just in front of us was too much to resist, and based on it’s previous speed, we had decided to sit in for a few minutes, then go to the front and see who else still had fresh legs. We caught them up, sat in for a minute or two, then got caught by another faster group. Doh! Should have known and just waited.

We sat near the front in case anyone decided to go, but we didn’t get the time. Someone shouted ‘steep climb’, we saw it up to the left, heading up at almost 20%. ‘Time to go’ I said to Vo, and instantly dropped the hammer right from the bottom, dropping everyone. I upped the gears in my usual sequential style as soon as the climb eased for a short distance, keeping my pace high.

I ran over a patch of gravel, and thought I had a puncture, but it turned out to be one of the East Kilbride RC guys, Guto Williams, catching me. He had a little dig on the next steep section, but I wasn’t going to be dropped on a climb, not that day! I chatted with him over the flat top section, speaking about who I knew that was in the EKRC.

A short descent took us to the main street in Pitlochry, where I just span up, not interested in a sprint. So why bother with beasting the climbs? That was just for my own head, to validate my form, and to take revenge on all the bigger guys who give me a hard time on flatter sections.

I finished the route in 4 hours 6 minutes. Vo was a minute behind, and john 30 minutes down. I was 18 minutes down on the winner, so definitely more work to be done for next year.

I’m still on a bit of a high after it, and was super chuffed with Vo’s performance to. And of course John, who finished with a VERY respectable time, despite doing about 4% of the training Vo and I had done.

Roll on next year!

So Many Races, So Little Time

The weekend of the 23rd and 24th of June 2007. Just the same as any other weekend on the race calendar. Or so you would think! For me there was the choice of four races, and below is my rundown of what they are and why I will, or won’t, be doing them.

1. Mountain Mayhem. (£47.50)The original 24hour race, now in it’s 10th year. It would have been nice to go ride this on a fast team, but a frankly uninspiring course with little climbing, and a long journey down south, means it would probably be slightly dull from a riding point of view, although the social will be good as always.
2. Aviemore Merida 100. (£60) This might well be one of the best mountainbike enduro events on the calendar for 2007. It is bound to have some amazing trails, and take in some awesome big climbs.
3. Scottish Mountainbike XC Championships. (£25) This was fairly high on my priorities, and I would expect to be able to get a top five this year, but at the moment I don’t know where the course is. It could also be decisive for series placings, but you get to drop one or two rounds, so that is fairly safe as long as nothing goes wrong at other rounds.
4. Etape Caledonia. (£49) 83miles, 2079m of climbing. All on road. 2500 victims riders. The first of it’s kind in the UK. Some great mates along too. This sounds like the one for me! Although not really a race, it would be nice to get a fast time around this. The large amount of climbing is certainly appealing to me, and I missed out on the Bealach Na Ba Challenge entries, and event which involves another 900m of climbing.

So the Etape it is, although plans may change depending on whether my entry is accepted, and how fast I’m going.

Update. Prices added after a discussion about the cost of the Etape with Steven ‘Dynamite Kid’ Moffat.