Etape Caledonia

TallBlondJohn

Dr U Idh wrote:

Saw a red squirrel saunter across the road near Strathtay - then just sit on the wall watching the bikes go past!

Stone gateway on the left? I saw what I thought was a small stoat, probably the same critter.

That you James? have you fixed my SL02 (again) yet?

Cheers!

cframe

Chapeau to all the riders, local supporters, marshals and organisers for a fantastic day out!

daviesee

Cracking day today!

Need to find the best way to thank the locals who supported the event so well.

themightyw

Stop saying that you all got faster than your targets, I thought it was just me...

BTW if any of you are the lad in the Ireland jersey that I seemed to be destined to ride with then thanks for the company

Anyone got any photos of the general setup? My missus was in charge of taking snaps and she didn't even turn the camera on

thecrofter

Brilliant day, I was hoping for 5hrs ish managed 4.20, well chuffed. Huge kudos to bompngton the accomodation couldn't have worked out better. Thanks very much for the hospitality. Well done to everyone hipe you all got home safe.

BTW The church goers at Weem didn't seem too worried about having their Sunday interupted, the minister was out with some of the congregation applauding us round.

neil²

Now home after a visit to the distillery and a 370 mile drive back to Leicestershire.

The local support, weather, scenery, organisation all worked together to make for a cracking day.

Three of us came up from just outside Nottingham - I had the blue Team Nottingham shirt and Raleigh. Managed to do 4:11 and got into some very fast groups, one with the speedy green carbon Viner.

One highlight was at Weem where I happened to be on the front of a group of about 10 at 20-25mph and we turned a fantastic right hand sweeping bend, over on the wrong side of the road, to be greeted by a crowd cheering. The closest I will ever get to the Tour!

I am also dead chuffed with getting 38th in the KOTM competition. I went for it, hoping to get in the top 100, but didn't expect to do quite so well!

Steve_F

Can't agree more with the comments about the organisation, the weather, the route and the times.

I was aiming for sub 5 hours too and managed 4h16. Absolutely delighted! The first few hours were a bit crazy until I managed to get past some of the 'less experienced' riders. The roads were too busy for some of the riding that was going on.

Have the results been removed from the website? I was looking at them last night and can't see them now.....

Hope the rider who went over the handlebars at c.25 mph and landed on the verge was ok, he did get up and say he was ok and his mate was there so I never stopped. If he came out of that one unscathed well done! It was pretty spectacular!!

Skiddypants

First ride at this event and blew up 5 miles to go , crawled home with a time of 5h 43 mins.

Great day, well organised event and there seemed to be a lot of support from the public, cant fault the organisation and it was great to see people with mechanical problems getting help by the roadside. Roll on next year !!

Also, how would I find out my time for the mountain climb?

themightyw

Go to the website and click on the 'live results' or 'Results' button on homepage.

cframe

Steve_F wrote:

Hope the rider who went over the handlebars at c.25 mph and landed on the verge was ok, he did get up and say he was ok and his mate was there so I never stopped. If he came out of that one unscathed well done! It was pretty spectacular!!

Cheers for the concern, that was my mate with the acrobatics!

He ended up with a big buckle on the rear wheel (and that was on a set of bomb proof handbuiilt open pro's!) and a slight one on the front. Finished the race with no rear brake at all so it wouldn't rub! Physically he was pretty much ok but a bit bruised up from smacking the stem on the way down.

Happily we both still just managed our sub 5h target

Live results are still up here https://www.raceplus.co.uk/raceplus-ind ... _id=ETCAL1

Spender45

Was he the guy that hit the wall and squashed his sandwiches? My mate reckoned they stopped him from much worse back injuries. Perhaps there should be compulsory sandwiches as well as helmets.

There was a guy about 3 miles in pulled his pedal apart. Was left with just the spindle sticking out of the crank.

SurosaRider

I'm not kidding when I say that was the most enjoyable day's cycling I've ever had. Perfect weather, amazing scenery, friendly bunch and a respectable 3:53.11. LOVED IT!

SurosaRider

PS, where do you see the KOTM results? it's not in that big spreadsheet is it?

Skiddypants

See the link above - just type your name in the search function.

neilmacd

Spender45 wrote:

Was he the guy that hit the wall and squashed his sandwiches? My mate reckoned they stopped him from much worse back injuries. Perhaps there should be compulsory sandwiches as well as helmets.
quote]

Reckon that might be the guy who was in the same hotel as me he said he hit a fence when coming down the Schiehallion descent just at the bottom of it. He had a few cuts and bruises but nothing too serious and mentione dhe ha dlanded on his waterproof and food in his jersey pockets..

WHat a great day out on the bike though, weather, event, locals and everything about it were superb apart from the final climb towards Pitlochry where I nearly rear-ended someone who pulled their foot out the pedals and ground to a halt when I was on their wheel.

Managed it in just over 5 hours. Official time is 5:44 but obviously that includes all the time spent at feeds and in my case in first aid stops.
Well chuffed with my time and how I felt the whole way round apart from the final mile or 2.
Just need to set about earning enough brwonie points from the mrs to enter next year

SurosaRider

themightyw wrote:

Go to the website and click on the 'live results' or 'Results' button on homepage.

Oh yeah, silly me. Cheers! wish I'd given that hill a bit more welly now but not having ridden it before hand didn't know what to expect. will kick it's ass next year!

godihatehills

did anyone see that army guy who went over his bars and took out another guy in blue on a giant- tight decent into switchback in the first 20 miles....went end over end and smashed helmet.... he still finished in under 5 hours .... KIN HARD......

Alain Quay

Great day out, great organisation and weather very kind.
One complaint, which I've noticed over three Etape caledonias:

GUYS, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE AT LEAST
OCCASIONALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE
APPLAUDING SPECTATORS .

A wee wave or a nod costs nothing - in money or lost time.

BigG67

Wonderful day..my best time ever and weather outstanding.

I'll be entering of 2011 as soon as I've sorted out the dates in the diary.

Only comment for the organisers is that the finish line needs to come back 100 yards or so. The bloke telling us to slow down before the end wouldn't need to if there was a decent deceleration area before the tight right hand turn, and as I was aiming to break 4:20 and was sitting at 4:19 on the run in I was having to balance prudence with my competitive nature.......managed it though

bompington

Alain Quay wrote:

Great day out, great organisation and weather very kind.
One complaint, which I've noticed over three Etape caledonias:

GUYS, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE AT LEAST
OCCASIONALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE
APPLAUDING SPECTATORS .

A wee wave or a nod costs nothing - in money or lost time.

Can't be too hard can it?

2 more little things:
- Is it that hard to put the gel wrapper back on your pocket?
- There are about 78 1/2 miles of empty road where no-one is going to see you except other participants. So how come I saw a few people stopping to pee right next to houses? (and in one case - right in front of a spectator who had a video camera set up...)

Alain Quay

A mate of mine describes such cyclists as 'self obsessed rhymes wiith bankers.'
I think it's the TdF mentality

neilmacd

bompington wrote:

Alain Quay wrote:

Great day out, great organisation and weather very kind.
One complaint, which I've noticed over three Etape caledonias:

GUYS, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE AT LEAST
OCCASIONALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE
APPLAUDING SPECTATORS .

A wee wave or a nod costs nothing - in money or lost time.

Can't be too hard can it?

2 more little things:
- Is it that hard to put the gel wrapper back on your pocket?
- There are about 78 1/2 miles of empty road where no-one is going to see you except other participants. So how come I saw a few people stopping to pee right next to houses? (and in one case - right in front of a spectator who had a video camera set up...)

I saw one guy effectively peeing in someone's front garden at a farm house just between Strathtay and Logierait FFS. Even at the first feed at Kinloch Rannoch there were guys jumping the wall to head into the woods for a quick slash. The marshall at the feed was telling them they could use the toilets in the hotel. It's the wee things like that - no pun intended - that can turn the local population from being pretty supporive and encouraging into backing the likes of the numpties of ACRE and in worst case putting a stop to such a fantastic event

SurosaRider

Gel...urgh. snotty consistency plus chemical flavour.

I tried something a bit different on Sunday though: Powerbars, unwrapped from their annoying flaky plastic and then re-wrapped in rice paper. GENIUS! no mess, no fiddly unwrapping as you go and no litter! Spread the word.

mr_quiggs

[Three of us came up from just outside Nottingham - I had the blue Team Nottingham shirt and Raleigh. Managed to do 4:11 and got into some very fast groups, one with the speedy green carbon Viner. ]

Reply to Nick2

I was with Jamie(?) on his "speedy green viner" for the whole route. (3hr52.58) Not bad considering we started at 7.35. We had a great pace going along from the Weem to Logierait helped in part by the couple on the tandom. The sharp uphill left at Logierait sorted us out though!
Still buzzing after the event.[/quote]

Wallace1492

Cheers to meeting some of the formers - Bopington for the accomodation, Cramond and Doogee for the chat and a few beers.

Was looking for 5hr 30min, came in at 4hr 31min. Well pleased.... although had a poor KOTM.

Did see people just peeing anywhere, in front of houses, for gawds sake, 78 miles of empiness and they pee right in front of someones house!! Bring your litter home too - saw a lot of bottles scattered near the end, but maybe they were accidents on the rough roads.

Also agree with acknowledging the applause, I certainly did, and almost always got another cheer back, made me feel great, the crowd like being acknowledged, and its not as is you are going for a world record that a wee wave or "thank you" will upset.

Very well organised, great course, lovely crowd, both competitors and spectators.

Cheers - I am in for 2011!! Will be gunning for 4.15.....

Cliffter1970

The crowd were awesome, its a shame some people litter. Some of the stuff dropped was obviously accidental such as full gel pouches and half full bottles and at least they wouldn't blow away into the hills but the loose wrappers were obviously in the main just lazy. Didn't spot any riders peeing next to the crowd/gardens but that is out of order.

My first ever event like this and I expected to be over 5 hrs and registered as over 5hrs 30,was delighted to come in at 4 hrs 50.28. Definitely planning on doing it in 2011 will prob sign up this week. Got the Norwich 100 to look forward to in a few weeks. But the closed roads were great, need to shift somewhere between 3-4.5 stone to cope with the hills though wouldn't have got up em without the gentler gearing from my triple.

I was planning to have my bars ready opened for next year, found them hard to access during the race. But the idea with the rice paper is awesome I'll be copying that instead.

themightyw

Alain Quay wrote:

Great day out, great organisation and weather very kind.
One complaint, which I've noticed over three Etape caledonias:

GUYS, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE AT LEAST
OCCASIONALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE
APPLAUDING SPECTATORS .

A wee wave or a nod costs nothing - in money or lost time.

+1

I thoroughly enjoyed the support of the spectators, and a even if you're powering along you can at least give them a grin.

Anyone know when the official photos come out? I usually don't go for that sort of thing, but it was a particularly cracking day. It looks like they'll be here eventually: http://www.sportcam.net/Race.aspx?id=81

Also does anyone know the name of the local newspaper? I'm certainly going to be writing a big letter of thanks.

fenski

The local paper is called the Perthshire Advertiser http://www.perthshireadvertiser.co.uk/

neil²

SurosaRider wrote:

Gel...urgh. snotty consistency plus chemical flavour.

I tried something a bit different on Sunday though: Powerbars, unwrapped from their annoying flaky plastic and then re-wrapped in rice paper. GENIUS! no mess, no fiddly unwrapping as you go and no litter! Spread the word.

I like the idea.... but don't they absorb your sweat and then taste rather salty and mush up a bit?

I also can't stand the gel litter. I think that most people try to stuff them back in their pockets only to find them missing when they get home, but I did see one rider finish the gel and then just chuck the wrapper with seemingly no shame. [ insert insult of choice here ]

Mr_Quiggs wrote:

[Three of us came up from just outside Nottingham - I had the blue Team Nottingham shirt and Raleigh. Managed to do 4:11 and got into some very fast groups, one with the speedy green carbon Viner. ]

Reply to Nick2

I was with Jamie(?) on his "speedy green viner" for the whole route. (3hr52.58) Not bad considering we started at 7.35. We had a great pace going along from the Weem to Logierait helped in part by the couple on the tandom. The sharp uphill left at Logierait sorted us out though!
Still buzzing after the event.

We stopped at the bottom and top of the climb so that added 15 mins - I had moving time of 3:56:00 but I forgot to zero the bike computer at the start line so was probably slightly quicker.

We had a warning about the Logierait corner and climb before the start - THANKS! Being in the right gear before losing momentum was crucial there!

davelakers

I had a fantastic day that could have been better if I hadnt had too much ale and a curry the night before.
7 miles in my mate had a total blow out on a descent and it went with a proper bang, frightened the hell out of all of us around him. His tyre was wrecked but we managed to patch it up and nurse it to the Mavic wagon where the mechanic replaced his tyre, completely FOC, in about 2 minutes. After the delay and nursing my mate for a while it took me a bit to get going again and I finished with a ride time of 4.39. Im confident that with a bit better luck next year I can improve that by 30 minutes. I was in my Ribble Valley CRC kit and a few people did comment that they were from my part of the world!!

Here is the story of my ride http://connect.garmin.com/activity/33607401

I would love to say a big thanks to the locals who were out in force cheering us on and I made every effort to thank them all who were cheering. i thought the litter situation was way better than last year, but apart from accidental littering there is no excuse whatsoever to drop your litter.