Yesterday Brian and I rode the Highland 100 Audax.
This Audax was put on by Velocity café in Inverness, for anyone who knows the place or frequents it, it is a great place and very much a hub for what's going on cycling wise in Inverness. This being so, I am sure we weren't the only ones looking forward to this.
Brian had mentioned this to me a while back and we quickly paid our £5 entry, which it said entitled us to coffee and cake at the end of the ride , back at the café.
I must mention as well that it soon turned out that this wasn't an officially sanctioned Audax UK ride, but that didn't matter to us and it actually just made it a bit more relaxed not having brevets to stamp and times to check etc, more just a casual ride.
As usual I didn't quite read all the small print and noted a few of the mileage points, and as like all audaxs, they were in kilometres, which I like as that's what the rest of us everywhere else in the world use and love
I mention this as there were two distance options a 100 and a 50. With Brian still getting over the problem with his leg, he suggested the 50 would be a better option. I thought, whatever, I will ride with Brian, no matter the distance, though I did think we would be finished by lunch with a 50klm. Turns out it was 54 miles not kilometres so we ended up doing about 96klm on the route and just on 100 I think by back at the car. This was good enough for me as there was a fair amount of climbing involved. It was an 8 am start at a tapas restaurant just next to the castle in central Inverness, there was free coffee and even free bacon and egg omelette for those inclined. There seemed to be around 30 riders of varying degrees of seriousness awaiting pushing off.
The weather forecast was for a cool start but a clear sunny day and I must say, it was absolutely glorious weather. The clouds cleared and the sun was still pushing out quite a bit of heat for this time of year. There didn't really seem to be anyone in charge or leading during the day but we all had our route maps etc by email so everyone seemed to know where they were going. Any tricky junctions then people would wait for people they knew or like us, just to make sure someone behind knew where they were heading.
The route left Inverness and headed south on the eastern side of Loch Ness but up on the higher inland roads. Very quiet single track roads covering the same route we had ridden in the spring. It went round several lochs and then we came over a brow and onto the road that drops down to Dores. Loch Ness looked pretty good from up here, very autumnal and very still due to the lack of wind. A couple of pics and we were off with a few others for a welcome bit of downhill as we sped down the steep descent into Dores. From there we headed south to the suggested lunch stop at Forres, which was about 10 miles further down the Loch. The majority of it was along the edge of the loch so was a nice run but it got quite cool as it was always shaded with no chance of the sun getting down into these reaches. By the time I climbed the very steep climb in Forres I was desperately needing my lunch and I think the fact that all I could think about was fish and chips, meant I needed some salt. Brian agreed with the wish for some chips but thankfully we resisted and went on to the café at the bottom of the hill on the south side and ate a very civilised lunch of soup, 1/2 sandwich and a cake with a latte. It seemed indulgent, especially as I knew that the road back inland from here climbed and ramped up for many kilometres, so thought it might be an expense for something I wouldn't possess for very long
I left lunch feeling very much revived and as this was the halfway point I knew we had a good distance still to cover with a lot of climbing involved, I was looking forward to it as I hadn't ridden these sections of roads before. Lovely roads, very quiet, some fast descents but more often than not there was some short but very sharp ascents. All were ridden, albeit some slower than others. This and a few more photo stops and the pace was a bit slower than the morning but we knew we had plenty of time, though the pace for the section with about 20klm to go seemed very quick, fairly flat and then just push on. The route then took a minor sort of road and this was a sting, just when you thought you were done. The road had a very sharp uphill bend to the left, short and steep, then a brow and once over this brow you could see the road went steadily uphill for almost a kilometre, it looked worse than it was, but it was a definite FFS! moment. Thankfully this was followed with a very rapid downhill into Inverness, where we made our way back to Velocity and enjoyed our free latte and banana cake. We certainly got our £5 entry given back in coffee and cake between the start and the end.
So after all that waffle, it was a very enjoyable ride and it was nice to meet new riders and catch up with some I know. It was such a nice day between the route, which was challenging with so much climbing in a relatively short distance, the nice mix of people, nationalities and of course the weather, combined with such beautiful scenery, it was just one of those really good days where everything aligns.
I hope everyone else has had a good one as well, and even if you couldn't get away for a ride, I hope you had some of this good weather where ever you were.
Thanks to Brian once again for, a: suggesting this b: suggesting the 50 instead of the 100 and c: for the bed and breakfast.
Jamie
(Some of the pics are Brians, not all are mine)
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