Sundays jaunt - and then there were two!!

Well, with "The Doc" still playing the man flu card it was left to the 3 remaining carbonauts to take up the 100 mile challenge and we planned to meet at Tore at 07:30. Not realizing that Tore had more than one meeting place i waited for 10 min's at the bus stop whilst Keith waited at the petrol station...and John was no where to be seen.

 

07:50(ish) we decided to make our way down the cycle route towards Inverness to see if we could spot our missing hero...and yes we spotted him approx half a mile down the road, wheel of and trying to change a tube. the damage was more than first thought and John had actually burst his tyre so in true carbonaut style akin to Captain Oates he insisted we leave him by the side of the road and carry on without him - basically told us to bugger off!

 

So, now 2 down off we went down into Inverness, over the Kessock bridge sticking to the immaculate cycle path that is as clean and smooth as a ploughed field and out onto the Aberdeen road heading for Elgin. We turned off at the airport road and went along the bottom road into Ardersier, then left up to Nairn. once in Nairn we had a prolonged break and a cycle along the beach looking for a public toilet where my riding partner had to make a small deposit.

 

Off we went again and quickly realised that the flat route we were taking was in actual fact far from flat, there was a lot of traffic and we took every opportunity to cycle left of the white line, not sure if this is a designated cycle path or just somewhere the local councils store their excess stones. I might add at this stage we were on a time limit here, Keith had to be back in the Muir at 3pm so we were watching the clock for a turn-around point.

 

We made it 5 miles from Elgin (which was the target) and at 45 miles on the clock we decided to head back, and as Keith pointed out it should be all down hill with the wind behind us. Something strange happens when out on these runs because this is not the first time we have appeared to climb more hills on the way back than were there on the way out.

 

Anyway, headed back to Nairn at a steady pace and stopped in Nairn for a pasty and a coffee where upon we sat outside a local bistro and discussed the fine cuisine on offer. Refreshed we were heading out of Nairn and a good pace of approx 20mph, got about 4 miles from Inverness when for the second week running I got a puncture, this time the back wheel. Keith leapt into action similar to that of a Maclaren pit stop crew member and within no time he had his hands on my tube, sorted it out and we were ready to get going again.

 

Into Inverness and up to Tore we arrived at Tore approx 2:30pm with 83 miles on the clock, hadn't taken into consideration the extended route out via Ardersier so we were not going to achieve our 100 miles, but as we both said it would be nice to do this as a team.  With both having 6 miles to get home we both detoured slightly and both finished on 92miles for the day.

 

The weather was nice (bit cold to start with), the company was excellent and it was a good run out. Taking into consideration the confused start, my puncture, the toilet stop and the 30mins in Nairn for a small break we achieved the 92 miles in approx 6 hours which I think is pretty damn good.

 

"The Doc" & "I.T Johnny" did say they would get out somewhere today....lets wait and see if they blog!!!

 

Bob