# The Fellowship of the Chain-Rings - Arran 2013, Part 1



## Fubar (8 Jul 2013)

The day started bright and early, it was a beautiful sunny cloudless morning in Fife. A 6am wake-up call and breakfast before packing the car with all the essentials for the day and a few text messages to ensure @Col5632 was awake and ready to be picked up. Car packed with bikes and kit off we went heading for the ferry terminal at Ardrossan, a 70-odd mile journey from Dunfermline which we found with few problems, though the western sky had clouded over. Arriving at the car park nice and early @GBC (George) and @Glasgow Finn (Alastair) were already raring to go. Unpacking the car the first event of an eventful day occurred – I’d forgotten my backpack with money, cards, jacket and jelly babies all packed! A quick phone call home confirmed I’d left it in the kitchen in my haste to leave – Muppet! A fact that was repeated several times by George and Colin. So no jacket with the sky looking increasingly threatening - great.

Thankfully I had a spare fiver and some change in my bike wallet, and the kind CC Ecossers agreed to see me through the day - Whew! Unfortunately I had offered to pay everyone’s ferry fare on my credit card to “speed things up”, so had to explain my muppetry over and over. Soon after Mike, Jamie, Stephen, Ross and Dougie rocked up and Colin went up to buy our tickets whilst I loitered outside the ferry terminal next to Fred MacAulay (comedian and Radio Scotland presenter) – I didn’t bother saying hello as I figured he had no idea who I was and was probably out for a quiet day. Muppetry was repeated by Colin who bought 1 ticket so had to queue again for another one! Once the train from Glasgow arrived so did Rasmus and Ed, plus about half the population of Mordor er Glasgow – who knew Arran was so popular?!?





Colin was particularly excited as it transpired he had never been on a boat before – how can you get to the age of 27 without being on a boat?




Leaving it tight we loaded ourselves on the ferry and deposited our bikes in the hold before heading upstairs for a quick photo opportunity before breakfast, with complaints ranging from cost of a roll and sausage to the lack of butter on the rolls (complaints about food is a recurring theme on CC Ecosse rides!). 45 minutes later we were embarking from the ferry in Brodick and the clouds had burned off leaving blue skies and warm sunshine – a Phil Collins moment, No Jacket Required!




Having regrouped off we went heading South, a volley of electronic Garmin bleeps accompanying our departure. Almost as soon as we were out of the ferry terminal we were climbing, the 3 miles from Brodick to Lamlash a nice wee warm up for the legs! A lovely downhill run into Lamlash gave the first opportunity for a bit of speed then a quick stop for a drink. The roads were still quite busy at this point as the traffic moved to and from the ferry terminal. We made our way tentatively through Lamlash due to the traffic (very impatient overtaking by one van in particular) and to ensure no-one dropped back. After one stop I found myself at the front of the peloton – nose-bleed territory! Me at the front of any ride is as rare as a Paul Gascoigne sober moment, yet it seemed to happen twice on this journey. Thankfully it didn’t last as I was soon overtaken by Rasmus, Jamie, Ed, Doug, etc, etc, etc.





After Lamlash we continued heading south to Whiting Bay, the weather getting warmer but with just enough of a South-westerly to keep the midges at bay, though our water bottles were taking a beating. As with most CC rides there are as much of a variety of abilities and ages as there are personalities, and George and I (as the more senior) are normally the rear-gunners – and again so it proved on this adventure. No bad thing for me, George is excellent company however it did lead to us holding up the group somewhat. No matter, the CC motto “no-one gets left behind!” is frequently repeated on our rides! Our two newbies Alastair and Mike were demonstrating their hill-climbing prowess to the group, with Ross and Stephen steaming along like they were born to cycle and Jamie, Colin, Rasmus, Ed and Doug their usual power-houses. To be continued...


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## Col5632 (8 Jul 2013)

Great write up so far Mark


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## Pat "5mph" (8 Jul 2013)

Wot? Truncated at the most thrilling bit!
Can't wait to read and see the rest of this adventure


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