Pedal for Scotland 2009

[Ariadne]

I got more annoyed about the food later, thinking about it. A lot of people really struggle to do this distance, and they need decent food to cheer/ sustain them.

I was annoyed at the time, having queued up (and I heard a lot of Glaswegian remarks about the east coast and 'you'll have had your lunch'), but I could just blast onward knowing I'll be home in 90 minutes and could survive on the Twix in my bag... but if I turned up there knackered, with two teenagers, say, all needing a good rest and some food... it's just not on.

Would it be Fresh N Lo/ Wiseman Dairy's fault? Who makes the call on what's on offer at each station?

 

[pickup1980]

HJ - I would be happy to join you guys in a social ride
that was my first big outing on the bike
thought the feed stations were alright but kept getting told on route that there will be pasta at the next 1 but never was.
thought the marshalls were great untill we got to edinbugh then there was no 1 about to tell us which way to go.
going to do it next year it was a good laugh

 

[gavintc]

The first time I did this ride, maybe seven years ago, I personally saw two crashes on that path and the next year I was in one in the park. I sent an email to PFS saying that I did not think it was safe to take so many cyclists down a path used by dog walkers and people out with children. I didn't even get a reply. I still think it's extremely dangerous.

I did the same last year. I had a feeling that SUSTRANS were using the event to promote their cycle paths. I complained did not hear back from them, so when I checked that the route was the same this year, Iwas not overly concerned and decided to avoid the event. I should have been taking my son to Newcastle, but he is now going next week. Instead, I had a lovely ride with ERC around E Lothian.

 

[HJ]

Flu hit us on Friday so we weren't able to go. However having read the posts I'm not too disappointed. What did the registration fee (?was it £16) buy you- wasn't this a bit steep for a T shirt, a cup-a-soup, and the privilege of cycling down a cycle path hemmed in by a few cones? (OK exaggeration but you get my point..).

So who do people think is the event best suited for? Having joined our local club, from what I have read here, I would imagine that our Sunday club runs would be more enjoyable for pure cycling experience. Our kids are too young at present to cope with the distance in PfS, but perhaps a mass participation event like this is ideal for families with older children & people getting into cycling but not at stage of joining a club?

The quality of the catering was down to the change in sponsor. The road closures at the Glasgow end were very well handled, the route problems were at the other end and are more to do with the attitude of Edinburgh and West Lothian councils to mass participation events. They like the idea but don't actually like to do anything to make them better.

Club cycling, is in my view, an irrelevance it will never get significant numbers of people out cycling and tends to reinforce the view of cycling as a minority activity. This sort of event is aimed at getting people cycle for fun, not for racing (although for those who do want to race it does offer an opportunity if you start early ahead of the masses). It is really about giving people the opportunity to challenge them selves, taking on a distance, which if you have not done it before, seams like a long way. It is very much about mass participation, and if you take it on that basis it is great fun, it is a social event, not a race.

The worst cycling I saw was mostly (but not exclusively) from people on cheap mountain bikes, I think the reason for this is that these are people who don't normally ride on the road. They drive to somewhere with an off road path and pootle along that. In this sort of event they forget that they are on open roads, they don't think of other cyclist as being traffic and tend to treat them the way they would if they were driving... There was also a tendency for some to think that they were invulnerable because they were protected by the masses, which also lead to bad behaviour, but these where only a minority.

If you treat it as a social day out, it is great fun

 

[Ariadne]

Well I hope you all enjoyed it. It was too sunny for me and I was only taking photos! I've got one sunburnt arm and half a red face, not happy...

Martyn who runs www.mybibnumber.com is on his way back from the finish and then will start going through all the shots and getting the bib numbers, and then upload to the link above. (then just click on Pedal for Scotland linky thingy)

If you could direct anyone you know who did the event to the website, we'd appreciate it, as our information is a bit hidden away on the Pedal for Scotland website (to say the least )

I don't know yet how many shots were taken in total, but I "managed" 6500 in 5 hours! An average of 1 every 3 seconds! Hence the sunburn.

Any queries, questions or advice for future events please get in touch. (and yes we are thinking of doing downhill shots , but it does open a few problems for us, and also riders going downhill tend to have their heads down more, than when going up.)

Cheers

Dave

Any idea when the photos will be available?

 

[just jim]

Well, this is an opinion from my wife, an art teacher:

The design of the medal you recieve at the end could do more to reflect this feeling of achievement. It just seems like an ad for Freshnlo. You could have a school competition to design the medal and ribbon - it doesn't seem in keeping with the event.

As for those cup-a-soups...

 

[Mr Pig]

The design of the medal you receive at the end could do more to reflect this feeling of achievement. It just seems like an ad for Freshnlo.

My little girl likes to keep my PFS medals, I thought this one was the best quality yet but my wife burst out laughing when she read it. I said "Yeah, they must've sat round a table discussing how big they could get away with making the Freshnlo logo". Pity I'm not a fan of milk, there was plenty of that on the go.

The cycle paths from the outskirts of Edinburgh to the park were not even marked, which is outrageous. In previous years they painted arrows on the paths to keep you going the right way but this year, sod all.

 

[goo_mason]

Well, this is an opinion from my wife, an art teacher:

The design of the medal you recieve at the end could do more to reflect this feeling of achievement. It just seems like an ad for Freshnlo. You could have a school competition to design the medal and ribbon - it doesn't seem in keeping with the event.

As for those cup-a-soups...

It's still a better, more solid medal than the lucky-bag effort we got last year!

I agree though; if you ran a marathon you'd get a medal with "Edinburgh Marathon 2009" or suchlike on it. But I suspect that there's not much cash to go round when you think how much it costs to run an event of this size, so perhaps we shouldn't really complain and just think of the charity that benefits from the day.

Talking of the cup-a-soups, does anyone know WHY there was no pasta or sandwiches available at the lunch stop at Linlithgow Palace? Was it just a case of the sponsors being cheapskates?

 

[marooncat]

I always drive very cautiously when I have the bike carrier on the back, limited rear view and that. Looked out my drivers wing mirror and saw something flapping at the back of the car and then dropping off and realised that we had lost one of the bikes. Managed to stop failry quickly on the hard shoulder, 50 yards, and get the bike of the carriageway before any cars hit it.

Really really embarrassed about this incident and so sorry to have spolied Marooncats day

I am willing to bet that when you saw it flapping the saddle was dragging on the road as that is really worn down. At least sorted now and I am getting a shiny new bike out of it (and only one email from within C&W regarding flying bikes this morning )

However I have to confess, not sure if i will put my bike on a cycle carrier again and be able to trust it totally!!

 

[goo_mason]

My little girl likes to keep my PFS medals, I thought this one was the best quality yet but my wife burst out laughing when she read it. I said "Yeah, they must've sat round a table discussing how big they could get away with making the Freshnlo logo". Pity I'm not a fan of milk, there was plenty of that on the go.

The cycle paths from the outskirts of Edinburgh to the park were not even marked, which is outrageous. In previous years they painted arrows on the paths to keep you going the right way but this year, sod all.

I'm sure I saw lots of markers on the paths from Edinburgh into Leith; it's either time to go to Specsavers or the local Neds had nicked them by the time you got there

Of course, I might have been hallucinating due to lack of a decent lunch...!

 

[goo_mason]

If you treat it as a social day out, it is great fun

Agreed. I really enjoy the days out with the CC folks, whether it's PfS or one of the group rides.

As we were discussing in the pub later, the PfS CC ride last year was the catalyst for many forum rides being set up. IIRC, there was some jokey jealousy about the Scotland lot getting together for a ride last year, and from that lots of other group rides were started across the country.

PfS is a social day out. Just ask Magnatom - he loves to talk, and this gave him the perfect excuse to start accosting harassing chatting to other cyclists around him.

 

[viniga]

I'm sure I saw lots of markers on the paths from Edinburgh into Leith; it's either time to go to Specsavers or the local Neds had nicked them by the time you got there

Of course, I might have been hallucinating due to lack of a decent lunch...!

Well at 10am there where 0, none, zippo, nada signs on this stretch. You could of course try to follow the Sustrans signs. But after 43 miles of scanning succesfully for big bright yellow signs with black arrows they all suddenly stopped. After two wrong turnings I asked and was given the correct directions from other path users.

Now I could mbe just about excuse this as we were quick and possibly they were still putting them out... very doubtful or maybe neds nabbed them... possible... but we specifically told the event organisers when finished about the problem. It seems from others comments they did nothing... at least for a while - well at least until you came through

Don't want to fixate completely on this. I enjoyed the event. I wanted a fast time, so I turned up early. I had fun racing another guy. We didn't see any problems with the feed stations as we didn't stop. I assume most people at the opposite end of the spectrum also enjoyed it.

Could it be better, yes. If it wants to maintain popularity and grow then some changes will have to be made.

Even if you treat it as an event were you want to push yourself, you can and you can have fun doing it too.

 

[HonestMan1910]

Talking of the cup-a-soups, does anyone know WHY there was no pasta or sandwiches available at the lunch stop at Linlithgow Palace? Was it just a case of the sponsors being cheapskates?

I heard from the guy who was doing cafe2u that the suppliers for Linlithgow had gone belly up on Friday owing 11k to the event organisers and that they were desperately trying to get something in place for Sunday but obviously they had no joy.

 

[ACS]

The last sign I can recall seeing was 3 miles to go.....being carried towards the finish area by one of the organisers about 2.30 in the afternoon.

The Glasgow end of the traffic management was excellent, the last 10 miles in to Edinburgh was follow the BSO infront. Pathetic.

 

[HJ]

Well, this is an opinion from my wife, an art teacher:

The design of the medal you recieve at the end could do more to reflect this feeling of achievement. It just seems like an ad for Freshnlo. You could have a school competition to design the medal and ribbon - it doesn't seem in keeping with the event.

As for those cup-a-soups...

Aye, and the medals were better last year as well, another good reason to boycott FreshnLo