Day 12

Glencoe to Loch Ness

We woke to the sound of rain outside and the mountains shrouded in mist. The forecast of light rain showers proved to be optimistic. We left the Glencoe YHA fueled with the breakfast of champions -porridge and powdered milk.

The first coffee stop was Fort William after 17 miles of easy riding. To make sufficient progress we try to make coffee and cake stops every 20 miles. Our shortest intervals between stops have been less than 10 miles and our longest approaching 30 miles. On the whole we have got the right balance between stops and riding, only once have we finished after dark. The route to LEJOG can be done in less time than we have taken, but a quicker schedual inevitably means cycling busy A roads and less coffee and cake stops.

Ten miles out of Fort William we were overtaken by two young cyclists on racing bikes attempting to cover the LEJOG route in 11 days. They overtook us 200m from the brow of a hill and passed us with a quick greeting of "Hi". Realising that we were approaching the end of the hill and we were both feeling strong we gave chase. We quickly caught them and passed a few pleasentries when the younger of the two raced past Pete on the downhill section. The young cyclist made the mistake of overtaking Dad on a downhill section not realising Dad has been undefeated in the Vetenary Cycling Club's down hill competition for the past 5 years. Being shaped like an egg, combined with being short and heavy makes for the perfect downhill aerodynamic package. After a few pedal strokes Pete sped past him. However, when the hill began to flatten out we still hadn't shaken him off. We both knew we were getting close to the next coffee shop and this was our chance to show the young cyclist our turn of speed. We both selected our largest gear, stretched out for the lower reaches of the drop handle bars and put the hammer down! The young cyclist must have thought we were completely bonkers as we employed the drafting technique of taking turns at the front for 1 minute then dropping behind and letting the other take a turn. We were touching speeds of 25mph on the flat and after a mile our challenger started to drop behind. Not wanting to be caught on the next hill we continued our high tempo straight to the next tea shop where we celebtrated our victory of experience over youth with more tea and cake.

On leaving our lunch stop we were met with rain fall of Scottish proportions. A dreadful hour of cycling in the rain with heavy traffic and poor visability followed.

We arrived at the foot of Loch Ness where we bought food for our evening meal at Fort Augustus and cycled to the Loch Ness YHA in more rain, in another record finish of 4pm. Almost as soon as we sat down the clouds began to break and we now have unbroken blue sky over Loch Ness.

The forecast is for heavy rain tomorrow as we get nearer to John O'Groats.

Stats
2229feet climbed
59.4 miles

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