New event in Central Scotland: Trossachs Ton

wakemalcolm

This is a note I have just received from the organiser of the Trossachs Ton so I thought I would post it to generate some interest on the forum. There's no mandatory day before registration and it's within a hours travel of the majority of Scotland's population so it takes away a couple of my least favourite aspects of some events.

"Dave Brailsford, is the man behind the British Teams cycling successes at the Beijing Olympics. As Performance Director with British Cycling he believes we should all strive for the gold standard in whatever we do. Supporting the charity, Action Medical Research, he acknowledges the passion and hard work that is put into organising a challenging cycling programme for both new and experienced cyclists

The new ride in Scotland is the Trossachs Ton. A 100 mile circular route out of Stirling which has been enthusiastically put together by experienced local cyclists to make this the ‘must do’ cycle event in Scotland next year. Everything you could want; castles, lochs, glens and oh those hills!

Save the date – Sunday 21st June or register now at www.action.org.uk/trossachs_ton

The entry fee of £25 covers the costs of staging the ride. We also ask you to raise a minimum sponsorship of a further £25 to support the work of this charity.

Action Medical Research continues to have a significant impact on thousands of children and their families affected by disease and disability. Raising as much as you can will help us to find ways to prevent life threatening infections, such as meningitis and pneumonia, develop new treatments to improve the quality of life for children with muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy and tackle rare and devastating conditions for which currently there is no cure. To make life easy you can set up an online sponsorship when you register. Fitness programme and training schedules provided.

Find out more www.action.org.uk (new site coming in January)
Telephone 01505 864334 or email janet@action.org.uk"

cframe

Don't suppose you've any idea what the route is gonna be like? Didn't look like there was anything on the site but I could've missed it!

wakemalcolm

Cframe,

I think the route goes out from Stirling to Aberfoyle, over the Duke's pass, round Loch Katrine back through Aberfoyle heads off to Lennoxtown, over the Crow Road along the Carron Valey reservoir and back into Stirling.

I think they're updating their website soon, so there should be better route information then.

Interested?

cframe

I'm certainly tempted to give it a go, I've done the Glasgow - Crow Road - Strathblane - Glasgow loop more than enough times to know what to expect on that climb at least!

There's a bunch of other running events that day which I'd been considering as well but I've not committed to any of them yet.

Crapaud

wakemalcolm wrote:

Cframe,

I think the route goes out from Stirling to Aberfoyle, over the Duke's pass, round Loch Katrine back through Aberfoyle heads off to Lennoxtown, over the Crow Road along the Carron Valey reservoir and back into Stirling.

I think they're updating their website soon, so there should be better route information then.

Interested?

There's a bit of climbing then!

I'm surprised that insurance isn't included in the registration fee. I'd rather have had that than a t-shirt and a medal.

I'm interested, but I'll wait until the New Year to decide.

Any idea what the maximum numbers are?

BigG67

here's the route

http://www.routeyou.com/route/view/5249 ... chs-ton.en

daowned

Looks like a great ride for a good cause I hope it gets a good turn out and support. Is this the offical route Malcolm ?

The climb up the Crow Road and the Dukes Pass are two great climbs not to be missed in the area. I enjoy the road from Carron Bridge to Bannockburn after you get over the start from Carron Bridge you can well and truely get it moving on some nice smooth road to all the way to Bannockburn. The route round Loch Katrin is very nice as well with a few small hills thrown in to keep you on your toes. I would also use a little caution round here as well as there is some nasty bends round the loch.

wakemalcolm

Crapaud

I don't know what the maximum number of riders in the event is but Action Medical Research run a similar event down south with 700 riders.

Daowned

That's the official route as of now. Some of the smaller details may change but the main features should remain the same. The event has a contact in the local police who seems to be bending over backwards to be helpful and there's a hotel in Aberfoyle who are keen to get involved. The road aroud Loch Katrine is one of my favourites. I'm glad that there's an event that takes it in.

Crapaud

My ad-blocker, I guess, is blocking the route from loading. I assume, from what's been posted, that the approach to Dukes Pass is from the north, and the Crow Road from the south.

700? Hmm.. it might be less for a first-time event. I think I'll sign up early - it can be my motivation to get back out training in early January.

dm10599

Crapaud

I have only recently got back into cycle after living in the Callander area for years. A few months ago when news of the event first came out I decided to cycle round Loch Katrine and Dukes Pass from Doune.

I had forgotten how nice the scenery is up that part of the Trossachs and who quite and peacefull it is. I have just registered and several people from my work have also entered. I'm hoping that Action Medical Research receive a high number of participants for their first event as it certainly seems to be routed along some of the nicest scenery and areas of historical interest that Scotland has to offer.

Cheers David

wakemalcolm

Crapaud

They need to embed the route in their main site. They're promising a new site early in the new year which, I'm hoping, will include this. For info, Crow road is from the south but Dukes Pass is also from the south which is both the better climb and, IMHO leads to the better anti-clockwise circuit of Loch Katrine.

I spoke to the guy at Action and I think he said that in a first year event, they hope for about 350 but they're Castle Ride now gets about 700.

I'll forward on your views about the T-shirt and the medal with which I do have a certain amount of sympathy

richara3

Any idea how long they give you to complete this ride?

Crapaud

dm10599 wrote:

... I had forgotten how nice the scenery is up that part of the Trossachs and who quite and peacefull it is. I have just registered and several people from my work have also entered. I'm hoping that Action Medical Research receive a high number of participants for their first event as it certainly seems to be routed along some of the nicest scenery and areas of historical interest that Scotland has to offer.

Cheers David

Can't disagree with that! With half decent weather it's a beautiful area. I did a lot of my training for the TDC up there - lots of fond memories.

Just removed my ad-block to get a better picture of the route - there are a couple of roads that I've not done, so I'm in. I just need to see if my credit card's fossilised now.

wakemalcolm wrote:

I'll forward on your views about the T-shirt and the medal with which I do have a certain amount of sympathy

I might just have a cunning plan to get insurance, but that's for another thread (if it should transpire).

I've no problem per se with a t-shirt and medal, in fact a t-shirt's welcome. I've never been too sure about the idea of a medal though. For a start, I've never been able to get the chocolate out of the bleedin' things.

wakemalcolm

richara3 wrote:

Any idea how long they give you to complete this ride?

Richara,

You can get on the road at 7am, so I think that there's plenty of time to get the miles in. Once you've had a few training rides in with the West Lothian Clarion, you'll not be concerned about this.

nwallace

On that link, Google maps refusing to work in Firefox here but works fine in IE7.

162km is just too far for me. and 7am is far too early...

wakemalcolm

nwallace

From what I understand, 7am is the earliest that you can start - you don't have to leave then if you don't want to. They seem to set groups off over time to avoid too much bunching. I think that the route's ideal for someone looking at their first 100 mile event and, in the past, that's been one of Action Medical Research's target audiences.

nwallace

Was away to edit my post to be more appropriate:

Being Fife based Stirling is much better than Glasgow and if there are different start times then that would be good, though for me the closer to midday the better.
Most I have done in a day is around 126km though that was after a 110km day.
Looking at around 10 hours for me I reckon as I drop to around 18kmh average on an 80km ride.

Could always train and see what I can do when it is decision time.

richara3

wakemalcolm wrote:

richara3 wrote:

Any idea how long they give you to complete this ride?

Richara,

You can get on the road at 7am, so I think that there's plenty of time to get the miles in. Once you've had a few training rides in with the West Lothian Clarion, you'll not be concerned about this.

Youve not seen me on a bike :oops:

i would like to do something like this and seeing as this one is quite local it would make sense... I will see how much cycling I can get done over the next couple of months and then i will give it some serious consideration.

pneumatic

That looks fantastic! It's a month after the Etape Caledonia, too, so I could train for both incrementally.

Any idea what sort of average speed would be expected? I reckon I could manage somewhere between 20 and 25 kph, but that's going to put me in the 7 hour category. Would that be too shameful?

wakemalcolm

Pneumatic,

Agree with you about the timing compared to Etape C. It might also appeal to people sorting themselves out for Etape and the Marmotte. If you're thinking about 7 hours, keep in touch: you'd be a good wheel for me to follow.

Cheers

cframe

I wouldn't be surprised if I was around that mark too, I was just over 5 at Caledonia last year and that's somewhat flatter I'd imagine…

The Mechanic

I might give it a go myself. The route covers some of the roads used on the Katrine Kapers 200km audax. Great route but rained all day last time I did it.

wakemalcolm

Ah Mr Mechanic, this one's scheduled for mid-summer's day: what could possibly go wrong?

pneumatic

ok cframe and wakemalcolm - sounds like I might have a chance of company in the peloton. My etape C times so far have been 4.44 and 4.55 (i.e. getting slower!)

Now to wangle it with the House committee!

I'm doing a fastish 70 miler tomorrow, so I might have changed my mind by nightfall! :?

dm10599

There is now 15 people from my place of work registering for this event. I have been asked to organise weekly runs to prepare the less experienced riders for the event which does include me.

We are really looking forward to the event and hope to do the event in sub 7 hours all going well.

Cheers David

wakemalcolm

That's pretty impressive David. Think I'm going to recommend Action Medical Research get some contact with my HR people and advertise the event on our intranet.

richara3

:shock: All this talk of doing it in 7 hrs is a bit offputting for me I am just aiming for a finish..... hope someone waits up for me as I crawl over the line 3 hrs later :oops:

I admit if I do the event it will be more of a long day out than a race against the clock.I hope I wont be the only one with the same outlook/ ability


Andy

wakemalcolm

Revised website for this event:

http://www.action.org.uk/get_involved/trossachs_ton

and Action Medical Research's series of 100 mile events throughout the country and the year:

http://www.action.org.uk/get_involved/cycling#term-67

mitchgixer6

Just signed up for this event, and will be my first Sportive, and my first 100 mile run. Really looking forward to it, after having dome lots of road running races I hope the atmos will be the same if not better.

Been getting the training in recently so will hopefully be in shape by June.

equivalence

Just signed up for this myself. Never done any event like this before in my life. I'd better start putting in the miles!

wakemalcolm

equivalence wrote:

Just signed up for this myself. Never done any event like this before in my life. I'd better start putting in the miles!

Equivalence,
Plenty of good training advice on the website:

http://www.action.org.uk/files/amr_cycl ... e_09_2.pdf

If you can, try and join up with a club too. There's nothing like knowing you're going to be in good company to encourage you out when the weather's not the best but you know you realy need it.

Where are you based?