In my efforts to maintain some sort of fitness until I can resume running
again, I thought I'd dabble in the world of Audax. Three weeks' ago I
cycled the Drumlanrig sportif (80 odd miles) and heard about a 200km Audax
starting in Strathaven this weekend. A moderately hilly route called "The
four passes" with 3,700m of climbing.
I'd been told to expect pipe smoking greybeards on odd machines but it
didn't quite turn out like that! Much more like my club's evening rides
with plenty of carbon in evidence & miniscule packs for essentials.
Being a bit of a "worse case senarioist" I had a pannier bag stuffed with
all sorts of things I didn't use (and probably didn't need). I was cursing
the weight of my bag as the day wore on.
43 riders set off on the 200km course at a fair old lick under greyish skies
but pleasantly mild and with little wind. We headed eastwards towards the
old A74 and thence down to Crawford, our first info point. It was then on
to Elvanfoot, Thornhill, Penpont and Moniaive for a welcome stop at the
Green Tea House. (Well worth a visit if you're in the vicinity).
Up till now we'd maintained 19mph for the first 57 miles, considerably
faster
than anything I've managed over that kind of distance and I can only surmise
that we must have had a bit of a tailwind. Still, it was an encouraging
start.
Suitably refreshed with a bacon roll and an excellent huge cup of tea, it
was onwards to St. John's town of Dalry. Rightly or wrongly I headed off on
my own before the rest of the pack I'd been riding with set off. Mainly
because I doubted my ability to keep up with them for much longer. About
half and hour later they swept past me and although I tried to tag on, my
legs just couldn't keep up on the hills so I resigned myself to doing the
rest of it solo.
Had to stop in Carsphairn for an emergency ice-cream. A real lifesaver!
After that is was a slow drag up the valley to Damellington at which point
the ice cream kicked in and the ride over to Cumnock passed reasonably
comfortably. Cumnock marked the 100 mile point and I was feeling pretty
good still. From there in was an undulating 10 miles to Muirkirk, a stretch
of road that doesn't have a great deal to commend it. At Muirkirk it was
time to strike over the last pass (14 miles) to Strathaven. By now my legs
were rapidly losing the will to live and my quads were aching whenever I
stopped pedalling. Still it was the home stretch and it was just a question
of plugging on until the welcome sight of Strathaven hove into view.
In the end my falling pace dropped my average speed (not including stops) to
about 15.5 mph which I'm more than happy with considering the distance.
Including stops I was out for about 9 hours and I don't think I really fancy
spending more than double that attempting a 400km Audax. I take my hat off
to you tough guys who can do those!
Overall it was a great route taking in a lot of varied countryside and some
nice villages. I'm sure there could be many worse places to do a 200km.
Tim