70+ mile bike ride planned for tomorrow

[thecraw]

Having been thoroughly pissed off with the state of my golf over the last couple of weeks I've decided to take my witer fitness campaign to a new level tomorrow. Instead of a depressing time on the course with bumby cored greens I'm going for a cycle run.

Route planned is leave Lochwinnoch at 0700 and cycle to Wemyss Bay, a distance of 19 road miles before getting the 0845 boat over to the Isle of Bute with a well earned cup of extortionate Calmac coffee and a 35 minute rest before getting back in the saddle and cycling the 8.5 miles from Rothesay to Rhubodach at the north end of Bute where the ferry will take us across to Colintraive. A 5 minute crossing.

From Colintraive the plan is to cycle over to Tighnabruich and onto Portavadie, a distance of 18.5 miles, where we shall have a well earned pub lunch in the marina. I'm not looking forward to the climb into Tighnabruich nor the climb back out of Tignabruich on the reverse however I will hopefully have the vistas of the world famous Kyles of Bute to distract me from the leg burn and pain.

The return route will be as far as the Rothesay - Wemyss Bay Ferry where I will get the train back home. 73 miles will be enough for one day and I aint going to cycle back up the Haylie Brae in Largs after that. I think I'd die or I may even already be dead by that stage.

Wish me luck, lets see how fit I am, I suddenly think I'm Lance Armstrong after cycling 18 miles a day to work and back for the past few months!

 

[stevie_r]

I hope you enjoy it! Having never cycled further than 40 miles in a day (and that was a younger, much fitter me) I can say with all sincerity that I would probably die half way round

 

[wull]

well thats a belter of a cycle,some nice parts though.

 

[Dodger]

Superb Craw.....gives my dear auld late Grandfathers gaff a look on the way past in Port Bannatyne (next door to the Port Royal Hotel/Boozer with a maroon coloured garage door).

Tip for you as well.......go to the Kames Hotel in Tignabruich for bait,it is bloody fantastic in there and Pat will look after you although that said you may not make it back oot before sunset!!

Have a great day and let us know how you get on.....pictures of the Kyles as well!!

 

[r1965h]

Sounds like you have a great day planned.

My golf has got to the point where I wonder why I bother playing, I find cycling much more enjoyable.

Hope the weather holds out for you.

 

[Iaing]

Good luck mate! You'd better get a rubber ring ready to sit on tomorrow night.

 

[thecraw]

Rubber ring, radox and sudocrem.

 

[Yer Maw]

fantastic. your saving grace was mentioning the 18 miles to work as I was thinking that's going to be great till 50 miles then HELP. Mind and eat little and often with a big breakie to start. I'm impressed.

 

[Imurg]

Yer bloody mad you great Scottish Pillock!

Get out on the course and play yer way through it!!

Seriously though - good luck Mate. Sounds like a tough day.

 

[thecraw]

Just back in from walking the dog. Its dry but overcast and I'm sure that I'm going to get wet at some point today. Think I'll leave at 0650 now as I'm ready and it'll give myself an extra 10 minutes to catch the first of our four ferry crossings today.


Hopefully I'll be in some sort of fit state to put a report of my progress tonight. Until then its pedal power all day.

 

[chris661]

Imagine, all the way riding on someone else's chopper!














Good luck hope it doesn't rain too often!

 

[USER1999]

Sounds fun. The most I have done is about 110 miles, and it was about 10 miles too far. The last bit was a slog into a head wind.

Good luck, and have fun.

 

[algar5]

All the Best Crawford. I'm just about to jump in the car for the 7 mile commute to work. Think the most I have cycled is 40 miles when I was 14.

 

[StuartD]

Christ man, your golf must be really bad

Best of luck though. You probably will still have some use for the GAC

 

[StrangelyBrown]

Good luck, I cycled 16 miles once and I was done in.

I pity your arse too...

 

[bigslice]

as long as you wait at red lights and dont cycle on and off the pavement then good luck. do you have a caravan aswell gggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[MizunoGreyhound]

Good luck craw and watch out for the men in white coats. You must be mad...........

 

[bladeplayer]

If you think bad golf is a pain in the ass ...try cycling 70+miles good luck you basket case

 

[thecraw]

Had a great day today if I'm being perfectly honest. My backside is absolutely fine however after the last few months of cycling in and out of work the saddle sort of moulds to your bum or your bum moulds to the saddle, not sure which.

Anyway I was up early and raring to go, the dog got an earlier than usual boot out of his bed and a 30 minute walk which also served as my warm up! After that it was into the saddle and offski. The first part of my epic was from my house to Kilbirnie in Ayrshire (a place where they eat babies and drink their own bath water!) which was along the cycle path, this made for easy and quick progress. After that it was onto the road and heading towards Largs, the lads who came along to the Millport trip will know where Largs is. The climb out of Kilbirnie was surprisingly easy, maybe it was because I was fresh and still had the nice hot cuppa swirling inside my belly, I was impressed by my progress where it was then plain sailing along the Largs moor road before dropping down very sharply to Largs.

The trip through Largs itself was fine. It was then a case of the coast road all the way to Weymss Bay, a trip of 7 easy flat miles. WAS IT HELL. I have never been so scared in all my life on a bike, I used to commute daily in and out of Glasgow without a hitch but this road was sheer madness in rush hour. Its a single twisty carriageway along the coast, with a national speed limit of 60mph. Well the buses, lorries, cars do not give a sh*t about a nutter on a bike. I had that many close shaves with cars and a lorry who were not prepared to wait or give any room to a cyclist that I was seriously thinking about lifting my bike over the crash barrier and waiting till rush hour had past. I'm made of sterner stuff and kept going!

I made the ferry time easily and had the luxury of 35 minutes and a rotten but warm coffee to relax with before I met Graham on the Isle of Bute. It was then a lovely 8.5 miles cycle along the coast to Rhubodach for the boat across to Colintraive,

This is a view from the ferry looking up the Kyles of Bute, as you can see it was a rather dull and overcast day but light winds which are always welcome when on the bike. Once on the other side it was a case of plodding along on the many many climbs and decents as well as some decent tarmac to boost along the progress.

The fun really starts with the long almost six mile slog up the hill to Tighnabruich which was a killer, a stop was required for fuel, and a Snickers hit the spot. The next photo at least gives an indication of how high we had to climb when you look how far below the Kyles of Bute are!

Thankfully there is an awesome downhill into Tighnabruich where we stopped for a well earned cuppa before we headed off to Portavadie Marina where we planned our lunch stop. The food was absolutely superb, well I guess by this stage a scabby horse would have tasted superb but I can recommend the steak burger and hand made chips. Champion!

These probably don't do the Marina justice but its in a fantastic location and they also offer fantastic accommodation deals.

Luch was the signal to head back and boy was the climb back out of Tighnabruich a killer, a real leg burning calorie sapping slog which almost defeated me but not quite, if the climb had gone on 100 yards further I'd have been off and pushing. Thankfully it was over where it was then an awesome downhill six miles of free wheeling madness. I enjoyed that and we deserved it. The 8 miles back to Colintraive were into the wind but it wasn't too bad. We made the 1500 hours boat back to Bute where another tea stop at Grahams house was most welcome before the final couple of miles for me to the Rothesay boat back to the mainland.

This signaled the end of my day and the train awaited me.

The last view of the ferry.

 

[Dodger]

Awesome.

Heading to Tignabruich for New Year with a crew of ten but we will be taking the motor!

Can't wait for it!