Perhaps the summer of 2015 has been specially sent to test Scottish event organisers. I have seen numerous race directors at sportives and triathlons this year looking aghast at the cold rain threatening to wash away their carefully built infrastructure and half their competitors. Last Sunday, Charlie Milarvie of Maximise Sport had a similar look as gales blew heavy rain showers over the start line of the Flying Scotsman Sportive.
This was midsummer's day in Ayrshire, and even by local standards this was pretty bad luck. Coupled with the storms, a number of nearby events on the same day had cut the field to a disappointing 150 or so riders doing the Old Faithful (47 miles) or Beastie (77 miles) routes. Apparently local authority permissions had restricted the event to this weekend, and Charlie's intention is to find a later date next year.
The Flying Scotsman is of course local cycling hero Graeme Obree, who was there in person along with fellow celebrity Sir Chris Hoy to lead off the first riders. The routes - both named after Obree's home-made bicycles - were devised in conjunction with Graeme to reflect some of his famously masochistic training rides, for which I was thanking him through clenched teeth by the end of the day.
Many participants appeared to be familiar with one another and the route, although, even for nearby Glaswegians, riding in Ayrshire can be a slightly baffling experience. We left Loudon Academy in Galston and followed a main road for a few kilometres before turning abruptly up a steep lane, then down an equally steep and narrow road, then up again. And so it went on. The route climbed high into the hills, twisting and turning until all sense of direction was lost. Signage and marshalling was excellent fortunately because otherwise I could not have navigated the course without GPS or compass.
At the first feed stop in Catrine after 20 miles the weather looked like it might relent a little. Volunteers were serving hot drinks and handing out gels with tremendous good humour at the local community centre and spirits seemed generally high.
The climbing began again at once, as did the rain. After a few miles there was a division where the short route turned back to the start (although I would never have guessed it was that direction) and the longer Beastie route turned east. The rider I had hooked up with after the feed stop rode for a kilometre this way then stopped, looked up at the sky, looked at his watch and turned back. I pedalled on alone as the rain started coming down in heavy unrelenting waves. At least the wind was at my back for the exposed moorland riding up and over to Strathaven.
There didn't seem to be many of us on this route by now and I saw virtually no one for the next twenty miles before the next feed stop. Here there were a few riders huddling for shelter behind vehicles in appalling conditions. More gels and cold water didn't really hit the spot in the circumstances. Sir Chris looked like he might be thinking about indoor velodromes.
We all set off again in ones and twos heading west, into the rain and wind this time. Once again we were soon on the back roads, climbing through farmland then moors then forests. Passing the wind farm at the high point of the route, the temperature was apparently 6C. From here though it was mostly downhill and there was even a little blue sky before we emerged suddenly at the finish at Galston again (but from the opposite direction to the one I had expected).
This was undoubtedly a tough route, regardless of the weather. Charlie Milarvie had said his intention was to have a route with a flavour of a Belgian cyclosportive, constantly technically challenging and with no "easy" sections. I would say this is what you get. The roads are steep and narrow with surfaces that are sometimes very poor, but there is virtually no traffic. The scenery is fantastic, whatever the weather. It is a shame that the field was so small but on a different date, with slightly better conditions, there would no doubt be many more. On the day, a better equipped second feed stop with some shelter from the rain would have been very welcome.
Overall I would highly recommend the event. It is certainly at the upper end of the difficulty scale and deserves to be better attended. Facilities at the start and finish were excellent and the marshalling was amazingly good humoured in the circumstances. First stop at Catrine had gels, bars, water and hot drinks with indoor shelter, toilets and hot drinks. Second stop at Strathaven had water and gels only with no shelter or toilet. Start/finish had changing, toilets, mechanics and free home baking.
I opted to ride on my winter training bike because it had mudguards and lights, for which I was grateful. Gearing was a 50/34 compact with 11/28 cassette, for which I was also glad.
With any luck the Flying Scotsman will return in 2016 with better weather. In the meantime, those interested in Obree's story can look forward to the release of "Battle Mountain", a documentary film recounting his quest to break the world land speed record at Battle Mountain in Nevada. Safe to say the obstacles on that particular ride did not include torrential rain...
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