Etape Caledonia 2011

[Lwhiteyw]

I saw a cyclechat top in T, so I guess it was possibly you, aberal. I had a great day, and it was lovely to see the locals out supporting - can't have passed many houses without people at the gate.

 

[HLaB]

I must have been pretty close to you then. I was supposed to start in T, but getting to the start line was very difficult. I queued up the main street for ages, but landed up in W. I spent pretty much the whole day threading through other cyclists - until I came to the last ten miles or so, when I hit a lot of faster people.

Yes people are right to be cautious, and I held back where there wasn't room, it isn't worth getting hurt for, but they didn't need to block the whole road when there were clearly other people trying to get by.

What colour are the cyclechat jerseys? Orange and blue like the logo?

I was on a red specialized allez, with a karrimor longsleeve blue and black jersey. I also had my number on my front, where almost everybody else had theres on their back. In my defence I'm sure the woman when I registered told me to put it on my front!

I was supposed to start in U but with the weight of numbers ended up in Y. It was based upon my brother's mate's (who I replaced at the last minute) expected time. We spent most of the day weaving through traffic too.
The top is the Orange and Black one, similar to the logo. I was wearing the similar bib shorts, black arm bands and silver polarized Rudy project glasses. I was on a blue kinesis Gran Fondo.

 

[HLaB]

I'm glad I started late (Y Group) - it took the pressure off slightly.

You were in the same group as me I didn't stay in it long though

Congrats on the new bike btw, what did you go for in the end?

 

[themightyw]

Terrible to hear about the crashes, but with 5000 or so riders it's sadly likely that there would be one or two. Just a shame that one seems to be a serious one.

Have to say I was expecting today to be painful, rainy and horrific as I'm far less fit than last year. Decided to sit back and enjoy it. Sat back... enjoyed it. Then realised about 15 miles from the end that I was actually only about 2 minutes off last year's time. Chased it for a bit but didn't have it in me. Finished around the 4h 30m mark, a minute and a half down on last year.

Have to say though, as I'm sure I did last year, that it's AMAZING to see so many locals out cheering us on. Just one example - was flat out of energy & grumpy at about the 65 mile mark then turned a corner to see that a family had baked a lovely big tub of muffins and were holding them out to riders to grab. Really amazing to see people going to that kind of effort.

As always with the EC (only done it twice) great to see that motorbike marshalls and Mavic chaps were all over any puncture or mechanical.

 

[HLaB]

I was about 15mins off last years time but I didn't feel like I could drop my brother.

 

[Nebulous]

I was supposed to start in U but with the weight of numbers ended up in Y. It was based upon my brother's mate's (who I replaced at the last minute) expected time. We spent most of the day weaving through traffic too.
The top is the Orange and Black one, similar to the logo. I was wearing the similar bib shorts, black arm bands and silver polarized Rudy project glasses. I was on a blue kinesis Gran Fondo.

I must have been ahead of you all day then. That explains why I didn't see the accident. I did see a couple of ambulances, but I assume they were not for serious injuries. Both times the person was already on-board so I didn't see them. I also saw somebody with a puncture wrapped in a foil blanket looking very cold. There were also some very cold looking shivering people at the start. It helps having some padding and being used to Scottish weather!

 

[arranandy]

Great day. I enjoyed it more this year that I did when a couple of years ago. I was away in group B and the pace was pretty fast from the word go. Final time was 4.08 so I was pleased with that - maybe try and break 4 hours if I enter next year. Was in a good group for about the last 30 miles and the banter was good - just a pity a few of them weren't up on their group riding etiquette. Thanks to all the organisers, marshalls, etc for a great event and also a big thank you to all the locals for coming out to support us

 

[Stig-OT-Dump]

Managed to take 10 minutes off last year's time and dip under 4 hours. Couldn't get through the crowds to join my wave, so went off with the end of E. I was able to spend much longer in groups than last year and the groups I was in were going at the speed I wanted to. Bumped into quite a few pals that I haven't seen for ages so the social aspect was pretty good too. All in all it was a top weekend (but I was knackered last night).

 

[Stig-OT-Dump]

Oh, and is it true that next year's goody bag is just going to be called a "bag"?

 

[Nebulous]

Did anyone here anything about todays crash, it looked serious ? Some bloke overtook me on a bend but didn't have the power to go through and swerved into me a little bit this was just at the start of one of the really steep downhill bits. I dropped back to avoid an accident. I thought this blokes going to have an accident, I wish now I had said something like 'be careful' less than a minute later once the speed had got up to +30mph he tried it again on somebody else, right in front of my brother and a bit of jostling initiated and the two blokes came down hard right in front of my brother I don't know how he stayed up, the bikes skidded into his path but he managed to swerve round it and skidded on their waterbottles. I stopped and a mash of bikes, one wheel was bent in two etc. and two motionless bodies; they were making a sort of snoring sound! after a moment I realised there was nothing I could do other than shoot down the hill to find the next marshal, which luckily wasn't far and send for professional help!

HLaB - have you seen this?

BBC appeal

It could be your brother that they are appealing for?

 

[AuldAl]

Another gadgey who had a great day. Had hoped to beat 5hrs 30 mins, managed just over 4 1/2 hrs!! Looks like the Sportive Kinross was good training.

Fantastic event, it was tremendous to be with so many folk & some good chat along the way. Shame about the accidents. Only wee gripe was the slower competitors who blocked up the wee-er roads, but spectators fantastic, atmosphere fabulous, scenery wonderful, climb excellent & weather just about right, apart from the breeze (but it pushed us back).

 

[gmac190]

Oh, and is it true that next year's goody bag is just going to be called a "bag"?

hahaha

 

[just jim]

I managed 4hrs 31min this year - already thinking of next year too, so it must be good! Would like to have proper crack at the mountain stage - I enjoyed it more that I expected and got a 8min 50 sec time. That goody bag wasn't very good eh?

 

[zizou]

Great day out, managed to get 4 hrs 13 which im pretty pleased with. Considerably faster than last year (although strangely i was 3 minutes faster up Schiehallion then - this is going by the times on my garmin, were the official KOTM times measured differently this year?)

For the first 30-40 miles it was alot of fun but not particularly efficient riding - it sometimes felt a bit like every rider for themselves - the groups were quite big but they were not particularly organised, lots of riders losing the wheel in front causing the group to split repeatedly...i often found i was riding faster solo than in a bunch despite the headwind. The final 30 miles or so this was completly different and the riders seemed to be working together better and there was no chance i'd be able to maintain that sort of pace solo even with fresh legs. Even closing down a gap of a few metres was taking a huge effort.

Felt pretty good up until the final 5 miles or so, felt cramp developing so had to concentrate on taking it easy on the final little hills. After the final turn up the drag to the finish, the occassion got the better of me and got out the saddle to power up the wee hill and oooooooouch both quads cramp up, had to limp home but then due to the cramp i couldnt disengage my cleats. Thankfully the barrier was just in reach otherwise it would have been very embarrassing

Sorry to hear about the injured riders, hopefully a full recovery is made

 

[Gravity Assisted]

I had a great day. Riding on closed roads made it such a special experience - really able to take descents at speed without worrying about oncoming cars. I agree that there were a lot of hesitant riders making descents tricky to negotiate - but I find a good friendly bellow helps.

I was lucky to get into a few really good bunches - one along Loch Tummel and another along North of Loch Rannoch which really helped my speed into the wind (averaged about 35kmph!). The rest of the time there didn't seem to be that many organised bunches (or maybe I just missed them).

I had a small crash (I was distracted by my Dad) and ended up on a muddy bank - thanks to the several enquiries about my health - (I was more worried about my bike) and the marshall who kept me safe while I checked out me bike (all good ).

I was delighted by the hundreds of spectators cheering us on the whole way round, It seemed that there was a crowd at every village or junction and many families at the small farms. Really gave me a boost. If the organisers need an indication of the local support for this race that's what they should focus on, not one nutter with some drawing pins.

The climb seemed harder than when I did it last weekend but still not as bad as I had previously imagined.

My only criticism is that start. It was chaos! I was in wave T so held back near the war memorial and announcer as requested. When Q and R were being called I decided to head up the road but it was very hard to get through the huge crowds of people and bikes just standing there blocking the way. Lot's of people seemed to be having problems getting into the pens when their waves were called, My Dad's start group only had a dozen or so people in it.
I think that for that number of cyclists you need to get them organised into order well before they start, you can't rely on a huge crowd to self regulate. Just put signs down the road "Wave A wait here, Wave B wait here" etc. and call them forward into pens as a group. Then the people in wave T know where to wait and won't worry that they will miss their start by having to negotiate a crowd.

Apart from that - A Brilliant race which will become an annual event for me and my Dad!