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Cycling in Edinburgh!

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01 / Original postCycling in Edinburgh!Colin Blackburn · 20 Jul 2004 02 / This pagePosts 1–10Page 1 of 1 · chronological order 03 / Latest replyPost #10Colin Blackburn · 21 Jul 2004

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UK and Europe
Published
20 July 2004
Last activity
21 July 2004
Original author
Colin Blackburn
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10
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Public discussion
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Rear derailleurs

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  1. Original post
    Colin Blackburn
    Archived post
    #1

    I took part in the UK's first urban adventure race in Edinburgh at the
    weekend along with two team mates. I was so knackered I took yesterday
    off and slept for the day. Although it was a multisport race cycling was
    the mode of getting from event to event as well as being an event in
    itself. Quick run down of the weekend:

    Saturday 8:00pm : 3 hour foot-orienteering in Edinburgh centre.
    Sunday 7:30am : start on foot from the castle esplanade, running down to
    the event centre in Princes St Gardens. Count the benches, then on the
    bikes. (The start was designed to split the start of the cycling. I don't
    think the police would have been too happy with 329 cyclists all leaving
    the Gardens at the same time.)

    Cycle via Grassmarket to Royal Mile and then cycle down some steps. Cycle
    back up to the Mile and thence to Holyrood Park. Dump the bikes below the
    Hawse and clamber up to Arthur's Seat for a shor foot orienteering run.
    Then an abseil off the cliffs around (or near) the Hawse.

    Cycle out to Portobello Swim Centre via various roads and tracks. Dump
    bikes. Grab a buoyancy aid and paddle each and then run several hundred
    metres up the beach. Grab two sit-on-top kayaks (a single and a double)
    and then walk with those to the water. Paddle out and down the coast line
    several hundred metres. Carry the kayaks up the beach and run back to the
    bikes with paddles and buoyancy aids.

    Cycle to Leith. Dump bikes at Ocean terminal shopping centre. Climb stairs
    to top of car park and use their bikes to do a short BMX-style course on
    the top two floors, including ramps over Volvos (the main sponsors.) Then
    run around the shopping centre to find two controls. Return to bikes.

    Cycle to outflow of River Almond (sp?) and then up to the wear. Wade
    across the river below the wear carrying the bikes and then carry the bike
    though the woods on the opposite side for a while.

    Cycle to Eagle Rock.

    Cycle towards Ratho. Dump bikes near canal. Run up canal. Kayak up and
    down canal (falling in twice, this wasn't part of the official programme.)

    Cycle to near Ratho adventure centre. Dump bikes and run to centre. Climb
    a boulder each. Then climb a rope ladder (well a metal rope ladder) and
    jump off the top, trusting the nice Ratho person to lower you down.

    Cycle towards Pentland Hills.

    At this point we had been out for 10 hours and we knew we would be out for
    another 3 or 4 hours if we carried on so we took the reluctant decision to
    head back into Edinburgh on Sustrans 75, another hour of cycling, since we
    need to get back to Durham that night.

    We missed out on some single track MTBing, some more orienteering and some
    (intended) swimming.

    So, if you saw some people cycling around Edinburgh on Sunday wearing a
    Volvo tee-shirt it might have been me.

    I'd recommend it if they do it again next year but definitely plan to stay
    overnight on the Sunday. Also, practice all the disciplines beforehand,
    especially the kayaking.

    Colin

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  2. LaoFuZhi
    Archived post
    #2


    Quoted message said:

    So, if you saw some people cycling around Edinburgh on Sunday wearing a
    Volvo tee-shirt it might have been me.

    So THAT'S what you lot were up to .......saw some of the pack heading
    towards me as I was headed towards the city on the A71.....

    Report
  3. Colin Blackburn
    Archived post
    #3

    On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 10:08:35 +0000 (UTC), LaoFuZhi <the.real.address
    [email hidden] thing.not.too.hard.to.work.out>

    Quoted message said:


    Quoted message said:

    So, if you saw some people cycling around Edinburgh on Sunday wearing a
    Volvo tee-shirt it might have been me.

    So THAT'S what you lot were up to .......saw some of the pack heading
    towards me as I was headed towards the city on the A71.....

    I was one of the three number 63s.

    The rules strictly forbade us racing on the roads and cycle tracks which I
    found odd because it was a race. And there was, clearly, lots of
    overtaking. When is a race not a race?

    Also, much respect to the guy who lost his entire rear derailleur. He
    rebuilt the chain and had two manually selectable gears. On the steeper
    hills he was towed by one of his team mates (towing is quite common in
    adventure racing apparently.) I can't imagine how he will have coped on
    the single track stretch.

    Colin

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  4. Jon Senior
    Archived post
    #4

    In article <[email hidden]>,
    [email hidden] says...

    Quoted message said:

    I was one of the three number 63s.

    The rules strictly forbade us racing on the roads and cycle tracks which I
    found odd because it was a race. And there was, clearly, lots of
    overtaking. When is a race not a race?

    When it's on the open road, since road racing is (IIRC) illegal in
    Britain. While you are _obviously_ racing, by making it forbidden by
    rules, the organisers avoid falling foul of the law.

    Quoted message said:

    Also, much respect to the guy who lost his entire rear derailleur. He
    rebuilt the chain and had two manually selectable gears. On the steeper
    hills he was towed by one of his team mates (towing is quite common in
    adventure racing apparently.) I can't imagine how he will have coped on
    the single track stretch.

    Now that's the way to do it.

    Jon

    Report
  5. Ambrose Nankivell
    Archived post
    #5
    Colin Blackburn said:

    I took part in the UK's first urban adventure race in Edinburgh at the
    weekend along with two team mates. I was so knackered I took
    yesterday off and slept for the day. Although it was a multisport
    race cycling was the mode of getting from event to event as well as
    being an event in itself. Quick run down of the weekend:


    <snip>

    Colour me jealous. Sounds like a brilliant event

    A

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  6. Colin Blackburn
    Archived post
    #6

    On 20 Jul 2004 11:52:32 +0100, Ambrose Nankivell <[email hidden]>

    Quoted message said:
    Colin Blackburn said:

    I took part in the UK's first urban adventure race in Edinburgh at the
    weekend along with two team mates. I was so knackered I took
    yesterday off and slept for the day. Although it was a multisport
    race cycling was the mode of getting from event to event as well as
    being an event in itself. Quick run down of the weekend:


    <snip>

    Colour me jealous. Sounds like a brilliant event

    The activities were very good but the whole thing was very corporate. We
    were required to wear the event shirt without obscuring the word Volvo or
    Haglofs. Why is it that adventure racing is always sponsored by car
    companies? We signed away all rights to our own images and even if we took
    our own photos we were denied the rights to publish them on our own
    webpage. I realise that events like this cost a lot of money to organise
    but we paid 60 quid each of that too so it was expensive for us.

    It was filmed---we were filmed personally at several points---and should
    appear on C4 and Sky Sports at some time. If anyone sees it mentioned in
    listings or a trailer can they give me a shout?

    The results have just appeared and we came 8th out of 47 finishers of the
    'short course', ie those turning or turned back at Ratho. 47 teams
    finished the full course. 18 teams didn't finish at all.

    Colin

    Report
  7. Ambrose Nankivell
    Archived post
    #7
    Colin Blackburn said:
    Ambrose Nankivell said:
    Colin Blackburn said:

    I took part in the UK's first urban adventure race in Edinburgh at the
    weekend along with two team mates. I was so knackered I took
    yesterday off and slept for the day. Although it was a multisport
    race cycling was the mode of getting from event to event as well as
    being an event in itself. Quick run down of the weekend:


    <snip>

    Colour me jealous. Sounds like a brilliant event

    The activities were very good but the whole thing was very
    corporate. We were required to wear the event shirt without obscuring
    the word Volvo or Haglofs. Why is it that adventure racing is always
    sponsored by car companies?

    Most annoying. I can think of several answers to that question but I
    guess it was rhetorical. Keywords are "Disposable Income,
    Aspirational", etc, etc.

    Quoted message said:

    We signed away all rights to our own images and even if we took our
    own photos we were denied the rights to publish them on our own
    webpage. I realise that events like this cost a lot of money to
    organise but we paid 60 quid each of that too so it was expensive
    for us.

    Not very good. I can't imagine that they made a lot of money from
    being that restrictive about images. I guess that it's possible people
    may take the exclusivity away from whoever publishes it, but it's
    still harsh.

    Quoted message said:

    The results have just appeared and we came 8th out of 47 finishers of
    the 'short course', ie those turning or turned back at Ratho. 47
    teams finished the full course. 18 teams didn't finish at all.

    Well done. Hopefully you'll be able to do the whole thing
    sometime. Sounds very knackering, though.

    A

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  8. Graeme
    Archived post
    #8

    "Colin Blackburn" <[email hidden]> wrote in
    news:[email hidden]:

    Quoted message said:

    Cycle to outflow of River Almond (sp?) and then up to the wear.

    Spelling of the river is spot on, "wear" though? ;-) I used to live a few
    minutes away in Cramond (Caer-Amon= The fort on the River Almond)

    Quoted message said:

    Wade
    across the river below the wear carrying the bikes and then carry the
    bike though the woods on the opposite side for a while.

    Which weir was this? There are a few on the river (Cramond had a number of
    iron mills) and I can't think of any I'd particularly like to wade below
    and some of those end in sheer cliff faces on the other side.

    Sounds damned hard work, but bloody good fun! I won't kid myself that I'd
    be able to do it though. :-\

    Graeme

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  9. Pyromancer
    Archived post
    #9

    Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Colin
    Blackburn <[email hidden]> gently breathed:

    Quoted message said:

    The activities were very good but the whole thing was very corporate.
    We were required to wear the event shirt without obscuring the word
    Volvo or Haglofs. Why is it that adventure racing is always sponsored
    by car companies? We signed away all rights to our own images and even
    if we took our own photos we were denied the rights to publish them on
    our own webpage.

    That's insane. Legally, any passer-by on the street could take as many
    pictures of you as they felt like and published them all over the place.
    It's complete madness to try and prevent the participants from
    publishing their own photos.

    Sounds like a fun event though!

    NP: Manowar - Hail and Kill.
    --
    - Pyromancer Stormshadow.
    http://www.inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk <-- Pagan Gothic Rock!
    http://www.littlematchgirl.co.uk <-- Electronic Metal!
    http://www.revival.stormshadow.com <-- The Gothic Revival.

    Report
  10. Colin Blackburn
    Archived post
    #10

    On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 15:39:33 GMT, Graeme <[email hidden]>

    Quoted message said:

    "Colin Blackburn" <[email hidden]> wrote in
    news:[email hidden]:

    Quoted message said:

    Cycle to outflow of River Almond (sp?) and then up to the wear.

    Spelling of the river is spot on, "wear" though? ;-)

    Sorry, that's what comes of living in the Wear Valley and working in
    Durham, where the weirs were on the Wear.

    Quoted message said:

    I used to live a few
    minutes away in Cramond (Caer-Amon= The fort on the River Almond)

    Quoted message said:

    Wade
    across the river below the wear carrying the bikes and then carry the
    bike though the woods on the opposite side for a while.

    Which weir was this?

    The first one up from the mouth.

    Quoted message said:

    There are a few on the river (Cramond had a number of
    iron mills) and I can't think of any I'd particularly like to wade below
    and some of those end in sheer cliff faces on the other side.

    We had to clamber over some railings and drop down a 7 foot wall. We then
    had to get all three bikes over the ralinghs and down the wall. The water
    was about knee deep but there were some big flat rocks on the opposite
    side.

    Quoted message said:

    Sounds damned hard work, but bloody good fun! I won't kid myself that I'd
    be able to do it though. :-\

    It was, it was, and we thought that before we tried.

    Colin

    Report

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