Etape Caledonia

papercorn2000

Squeezed under 4 hours (3.58.19) - despite two stops and not really starting to push until Loch Rannoch - in hindsight, wish I had ridden harder earlier.

Good effort from gillan 1969 - best time on the forum (I think) with 3.49.24 and 8th fastest on the day.

How did every one elses times match up? (If you care about these things!)

Well organised, nice route (a GP run on the same course ahead of the event next year?) but worth œ50? Don't know.

God told me to skin you alive.
http://www.ekroadclub.co.uk/

Tetedelacourse

I enjoyed it. I thought one or two things could have been handled differently. The registration was a joke. We took our bikes down from the B&B only to hear the crowd without bikes in front being asked, as above, if they had tri-bars or not and then being told well that's fine. No-one asked for ID either. Would have been useful to have markers for feeding stations eg next feeding station 10 miles or something like that. I thought the route was good apart from the boring bit from around 65 to 75 miles. Lastly having spoken to someone who did the Bealach in May, they seemed to get more for their money eg food at the end, better goodie bags etc but then I realise that wasn't on closed roads. On a personal note I wouldn't get hammered the night before next time, that was definitely not a shrewd move!

We came in around the 5h30m mark, having achieved the objective of finishing within the time limit. Great feeling and the applause en route was tremendous, so thanks Scoosh and everyone else.

Photos to be posted shortly.

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Will it be treats with Pocket and Sweets? Is that where we should go?

pneumatic

Best day's ride I have ever had in the UK.

Superbly organised and marshalled. The experience of riding on closed roads was fantastic. It made the group riding much less perilous, so we could concentrate on pace and position, rather than possible traffic; the descents were a joy (especially the one down from Shiehallion, during which I amassed an immodest speed by cutting the bends right and left). I knocked 46 minutes of the time it took me to scout the course 10 days before and there was an unexpected acquaintance in the crowd at the finish to call my name as I outsprinted the bloke next to me. You can't beat it!

BTW, I posted a warning about the hairpin on the way to Queen's view. Who ended up doing a Torvil and Dean on it? Moi! Back wheel went this way and that. I slid to a halt (still upright, thankfully) in front of the marshall.

Yes, it was a bit of a pain to register the day before (3 hours in the car, 12 minutes in Pitlochry during an apocalyptic downpour). I think if they want to encourage us to stay over, they should just encourage us to. Maybe a family campsite and a pasta party.

That apart, a totally memorable experience. Brian B, awayanbileyerheid!

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"Fast and Bulbous." Capt.Beefheart.

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Unknown

Any idea where/when the official times will be up?

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MTB eijit

papercorn2000

http://www.etapecaledonia.co.uk/Results.html

Here you go.

God told me to skin you alive.
http://www.ekroadclub.co.uk/

gillan1969

roger that peppercorn

twas a good day out...I'm not going to moan about the money as I'm old enough to make my own purchasing decisions

rather I'll focus on the event which I thought they did a good job of....the marshalling etc I will say was brilliant mainly because I was unaware of it...it just went smoothly with no hiccups and with the actual barriers out on the roads you knew you weren't in danger...

Unlike Brian B I do hope they come back because the event itself was great. How do you think you manage to persude a council and police to close roads???? tell them a tight fist called brian is coming with his own sandwiches and who won't be spending a penny???[:D]

the local business must love you..........

These events need to provide a boon for the local area and it is the sepnding power of the copmpetitors (and associated) which provides the rationale for towns to host these events. The fort William worl cup has been subject to an economic impact assessment as has the Girvan 3 day as the repsctive councils have to make sure the disruption is worth it

if you don't like people making money move to Cuba

I started in then fast group but we took it pretty slow until the big climb and it was fast from thereon in...I managed to be first in from the big route but as some of the later groups were faster then I wasn't actually first...if that makes any sense?? Still...nice coming along the finishing straight...beats my usual slinking in at the back of the bucnch on a cold wet b road with a sheep and a bored timekeeper as company

www.squadraporcini.com

gillan1969

PS

anyone know how the split times thing works for those times

I remember a timing mat a couple of miles before the big climb and think there was one at the end of the loch??

any ideas?

www.squadraporcini.com

Unknown

thanks peppercorn

got 4:21:23 . . . 234th overall so i'm really pleased with that. . . . much better than my overall result from the bealach and i felt much better the whole way round too.

On the course . . . was it me or did a lot of folk seem to have punctures on what i would consider really very smooth, clean roads?


I really enjoyed drafting along as part of the larger groups. On the outbound loop of the loch, i seemed to be zipping along past folk on my own. As we turned the loch and headed back into the light wind, about a mile down the road a large train started going past . . . i remember thinking " I'll have some of that " so as i passed another chap i merged into the train and went along with it until the main climb . . . made a huge difference when everyone worked together.

From there i tagged and chain ganged with small groups or the odd person till the last few miles . . . i had just a little bit left in the tank to pull away from folk on the last hills and felt sorry for a guy struggling up the last hill under the bridge and i flew past him towards the finish line.

Well done to all who completed it.

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MTB eijit

Paul McG

This was an excellent event.

I think the organisers and local council etc
need a few emails of support and thanks from those who entered, because they had to deal with a barrage of criticism from some petty minded locals.

Unknown

there was a split time at the start of the turn off for the climb ( but you still had a mile or so till you really started climbing )

and then there was a split time mat on the return leg of the small extra loop that you did. you descended down the hill, turned right and did a loop of a small glen. it was about a mile before you re-joined the main road again.

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MTB eijit

Flying_Monkey

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by gillan1969</i>
if you don't like people making money move to Cuba
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Is this the same gillan reknowned for posting somewhat incoherent vaguely socialist musings in Soapbox? I think we should be told! [;)]

Seriously, though I am very glad everyone had a great time. If you can afford a œ50 ride, good for you. I'm not objecting to this at all. The only thing that I am concerned about is that this does not spark price inflation for sportives in general, so that we have more expensive events and fewer in the lower ranges...

It is possible to have a more nuanced view of the world than either 'Pi<i></i>ss off, I can afford it' or 'stop this evil now!' [:)].

But I'm pretty confident that most sportive organisations have the best interests of the majority of riders at heart and are not in it for the money. If you want more support, it's still possible to do it without charging a lot - the Northern Rock Cyclone was well-supported but kept costs down with sponsorship, for example - that's just one model. The Richmond 5 Dales went for the minimal model - just signposting and simple timing, and only a fiver. That was still the best day out I've had this year so far...

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Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety

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gillan1969

indeed FM[:)]

50 bucks is pricey but when you see the closed roads scenario then the costs of that must be quite high (i.e. electronic road sign and all the other static yellow specicf etcape caledonia signs)

besides, try criticising an organiser who does it voluntarily!!!!!!!

Opinions it would seem do not count if the person who organisises badly does it on their own time[:)]

at least these guys have to live or die by their organisation and not hide behind the "well you do it then" line of argument

anyway...the price was right for the 1400 or so who paid up



www.squadraporcini.com

papercorn2000

Good point about the marshalling - very good and you were well warned abou the 2 or 3 really nasty corners.

It was a shame that so many people got p*nctures - at some points, there were people every 100m or so with one wheel or another off. I would also have thought that for œ50, the organisers could have supplied better weather.

Another criticism was that no food was supplied at the finish. Plenty of water, lots of encouragement, good organisation so on the whole I am happy.

My Mrs. missed my coming in, I had guessed that I would be in in about 5 hours, so when I phoned her from the finish, she was just thinking about getting ready to start walking up!

God told me to skin you alive.
http://www.ekroadclub.co.uk/

Tetedelacourse

Here's various pics of the day from a Tete perspective.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/94511681@N00/

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Will it be treats with Pocket and Sweets? Is that where we should go?

Tetedelacourse

ps I'm confident I would have beaten Gillan's time but my chain came off.

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Will it be treats with Pocket and Sweets? Is that where we should go?

papercorn2000

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Tetedelacourse</i>

ps I'm confident I would have beaten Gillan's time but my chain came off.

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Will it be treats with Pocket and Sweets? Is that where we should go?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I have it on good authority, that the people on the first page missed out the whole of Loch Rannoch and merely went straight ahead at the turn. Allegedly.

God told me to skin you alive.
http://www.ekroadclub.co.uk/

pneumatic

Papercorn, if they did miss Loch Rannoch they would either have been on the intermediate course, which went that way, or among the group at the end of the list who were DQ, presumably for not crossing all the timing mats.

There WERE a lot of punctures. I began to expect it would be me next. However, I got round intact. This morning, however, the poor old Roubaix looks like it has spent a night on the beach below the tide line. Better do the decent thing and clean it up.

Thanks to the comprehensive results service, I am now basking in the utterly meaningless achievement of having beaten my race number.

Next stop; the Ventoux in August!

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"Fast and Bulbous." Capt.Beefheart.

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nwallace

There are riders not in the DQ list that dont' have times lsited for all the timing mats, and some times that are huge compared to those around them for the first one.

Passed about 6 punctures on the way out to the junction then one or 2 afterwards. There was quite a bit of debris at the bottom of some of the hills but by the time i got there there was a clean path through.

80th out of 120 thought it would be worse than that :-)

The variety of motorbikes used by the marshals was interesting as well, all seemed to be loud enough to hear from a decent distance away as well.

Peter Main

What a superb event. I can't fault the organisation on the day. It was brilliant riding on closed roads. I had no idea how much effort would be taken to make the route safe by coning off every possible entry onto the course (even gates from fields) and positioning marshals everywhere they could possibly be necessary. Riding alongside Lochs Tummel and Rannoch, creaming along in a group of 20-30, knowing that nothing was going to come round the corner towards us was just fantastic. The organisers went to a great deal of trouble to ensure that riders knew about tricky corners and other potential hazards. The bananas and water were very welcome too.

Despite some 'bad' publicity, we felt nothing but support as we rode along; from the locals as well as visitors who were out cheering and clapping; the piper standing at the roadside, piping us past was wonderful - my thanks to him. My impression was that, in general, the locals supported the event; it was great to see so some employed as stewards as well as the TA and St Andrews First Aiders also present. No doubt the council workmen and police on duty were paid overtime. The band at the finish was a nice touch. I came home feeling that what had seemed like an outrageous entry fee was entirely justified.

On the down side, pre-event communication needs to be improved; initially we were promised a start sheet four weeks ahead; we got it with less than 48 hours to go. The build up to these events is more interesting if you can see in advance who and how many have entered. The event website hardly changed for weeks on end. What happened to the promised regular news updates?

The Saturday registration and bike inspection was a joke; no-one wanted to inspect our bikes after we'd gone to the trouble of getting them to Pitlochry. How about an arrangement for non-overnighters to register early on Sunday morning or even post out the information and timing chip? In our case this would have saved an 80 mile round trip. There is no point in adding to pollution by making 'locals' travel between their home and the event just to register the day before. In the end, the process took only 60 seconds.

Personally, I had a great ride; my fastest of the year. One outstanding memory is of a motorcycle marshal coming alongside and warning me that there was a group coming up fast and maybe I could hook a ride. I managed that and punched above my weight for 10-15 miles before finally getting dropped. I'd forgotten that, at my age (60+) you can have so much fun on a bicycle. No-one seemed downhearted by some rain and the huge amount of surface water from the previous day's monsoon making it a very wet ride. It could be even better on a nice sunny day!

Was it worth the entry? Definitely, yes; if only for the closed roads.
Was the course too easy? Well no, not really, just different and much faster than some of the hillier sportives I've taken part in; you can make any ride as hard as you like. There seemed to be plenty of hills.
Does pre-ride communication need improving? YES!
Would I do it again? Absolutely; those who decided not to take part missed a great day. When word gets out about just how good it was there will easily be another 1000 riders next year and it will be an even bigger, more exhilarating experience.


pete-the-bike

Unknown

pete - were you wearing red gear?

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MTB eijit

jsmithfym

I did it. It was great was really worried about punctures got none but when I got home my front tyre was flat. Roll on next year cos I'm going to buy a new tent that is as waterproof as mine used to be ten years ago.

Noddycp

Well a great day I thought despite the weather. I got totally soaked in about the first hour but didn't get too cold. Beat my target of 4.30 by a good margin so very happy. Managed to join in with a couple of big groups and flew along some stretches but blew horribly with about five miles to go and probably added 5 inutes to my time as I grovelled into Pitlochry. I just don't seem able to make myself eat enough on these long rides.

I thought the organisation on the day was excellent and the closed roads thing was fantastic - being able to fly round bends knowing you can use the whole road is excellent fun. Staying in the area the day before - you could see where a great deal of the œ50 went.

I'd echo some of the comments about the Bike check though. They definately didn't need people to bring their bikes up to be inspected. All they were interested in was the absence of tribars and the presence of a rear brake. Better to advertise that requirement well beforehand and simply check bikes on the way to the startline having warned that a check will be made?

However the day before registration was possibly neccesary just to get these numbers processed properly although it was so well organised that registering took seconds when I did it about 6pm. Whether it would be like that if 1400 people tried to register all at once at 7 in the morning is another question.

I'll be back next year and will take the family up again - they had a ball too, it's a great area - and the dog learned to swim in Loch Rannoch!

Ah well - the Beallach next

Cheers

Noddy





Physicists are atoms way of thinking about atoms

papercorn2000

The short-cut comment was a joke FFS. You know, an untruth told in such an obvious way as to elicit a humourous response?

Sheesh![V]

God told me to skin you alive.
http://www.ekroadclub.co.uk/

Not David Millar

Peter Main says it all. A truly fantastic experience and worth the œ49.

Improvements for next year:
Bike registration was a joke and totally unnecessary.
A decent race number to attach to the front of the bike - something plastic that won't rip or turn to pulp in the wet - past events I've done were plastic and clearly show up in any photos taken on route.
A greater selection at the feed stations - rich fruit cake, flapjacks etc.
Some food at the finish - even a hot drink and cake would suffice.

Will I come next year - YES and then I'll make a long weekend of it hopefully stopping 3 nights in local B&B. I drove up on Saturday - 7 hours with the roadworks on the A80 and drove back after the event on Sunday - 6 hours - 586 miles return.

Had it been dry and sunny the scenery would have been awesome and breathtaking. I had been hoping for a time close to 6 hours and came in 5:16 so I'm well pleased with myself.

pneumatic

sorry papercorn. I think I was still too thrilled/knackered/damp to pick up on that. Don't lose that sense of humour!

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"Fast and Bulbous." Capt.Beefheart.

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papercorn2000

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by pneumatic</i>

sorry papercorn. I think I was still too thrilled/knackered/damp to pick up on that. Don't lose that sense of humour!

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"Fast and Bulbous." Capt.Beefheart.

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<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

[:D][:D] No probs!

God told me to skin you alive.
http://www.ekroadclub.co.uk/

Unknown

pictures are now up at sportcam.net


if i search for me, there are 4 pictures . . . .2 of which aint me ! . . . hmmm.... time to go trawling through the unidentifyables . . . .ho hum

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MTB eijit

istreule

In all my (5 correctly identified) pictures I look like I am about to cry. In my head I definitely enjoyed it more than my visage suggests! Had a great day, and will certainly visit those roads for a more leisurely circuit when it is not raining.

nwallace

Seems every camera i saw got a picture of me (1317) possibly helped that I was never cycling at the same pace in the same place as anyone else.

Must have been a nightmare going through all those pics and identifying the numbers.

pneumatic

Oh dear! I look slow, sad and very bulbous. It didn't feel that way, honest! The best ones of me are buried among the unknown soldiers; worth having a dig in there.

Also, they're a bit pricey. When I went up Alpe D'Huez, I got an HD e-copy for 15 euros, which is about what you pay here for one 7x5 print. Glad I've got a good scanner.

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"Fast and Bulbous." Capt.Beefheart.

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