Ythan
CC conquer the beast of Bealach
Figure 1 - Ian " It's my fault for organising this" Adams
The weather forecast to be foul, with strong
winds and driving rain expected for much of the extremely hilly 90 mile route
which takes in the 6 mile climb from Tornapress to Applecross (the pass of the
cattle - apparently?! I never saw any cows, they were all too sensible and
decided to spend the day inside watching TV)
A team meeting was held at the Team Ythan HQ (bar at the hotel) the night
before. The general feeling in the camp was, 'why are we doing this again?'
Though everyone agreed to work as a team, pull together and encourage each other
- to get another round of drinks in.
The day dawned as predicted - pishing with rain and freezing cold with a
westerly breeze (hurricane).
Ewan, followed by Colin, Dave and
George were first off in the new 'dib whenever you want' style start, at
Kinlochewe. Bob, Ian, Andy and Fiona decided to delay their start as they didn't
want to reach the bottom of the climb too early in the day as they might have to
wait for the road to be opened.
Their wait was made all the more nerve jangling by the sounds of ambulances
racing to a stricken rider who had come off at the first cattle grid, not even a
mile from the start line. They started soon after and saw the poor soul being
loaded onto a stretcher with a nasty looking head wound - hopefully he is ok and
back on his bike soon.
The chase was on to reel in the Ythan escapees and good progress was made by Ian,
Andy and Fiona in the early stages. The Ythan 'blue train' was in full flight
pulling along a string of other riders as the road swung into the wind towards
the first proper climb at Loch Carron.
The speed was high in places and Ewan was passed (as
he was wearing a high visibility yellow jacket?!) as he must have been passed,
by the fast moving trio, though George offered words of encouragement as the
train picked up speed on a descent. The haunting words of “stick in” can
still be heard echoing round the peninsular.
Figure
3
- George "Stick In " Clements
The first climb saw Ian, Andy and Fiona meet
up with Dave and Colin. They looked comfortable enough on the sharp but fairly
short ramp. Pleasantries were exchanged but it was down to business for the
Figure 4 - Andy and Fiona Duncan in full forging mode
The forging soon turned to grovelling on the
long steady early stages of the monster climb. Photographers were stationed on
the lower slopes and many a facial expression was pulled to make the rider look
mean and racer-like. Others plumped for the cheery smile and wave,
Andy and Fiona look like they were towing caravans - such are their pained
expressions in the photos captured and proffered for sale on the photographer's
website. Looks a bit weird when others are pictured wearing woolly jumpers,
bobble hats and riding children's tricycles,
with a look on their faces like they had just won the lottery! - perhaps they
didn't realise the horrors still to come - like the descent to Applecross and
the remainder of the peninsula which resembles a miniature relief map of the
Himalayas.
Figure
5
- The weather closes ominously over the hills
Everyone managed to drag their sodden and weary carcasses up the big climb
before plummeting down the other side in torrential rain with near zero
visibility (why are we doing this again?). Dave McIntosh would have posted the
fastest time for the ascent in a Pantani-esque flight of fancy from the lower
slopes leaving lesser mortals trailing in his wake - however he decided to
remove his jacket, quaff his hair and queue up all the right tunes on his I-Pod
for the climb
Figure 6 - Dave "Marco Pantani" McIntosh
(Colin’s
note no 1 – The first few miles of the climb were fine and I was beating out a
nice steady cadence and crawling along. Just as I turned a corner the wind
hammered into my frail body and with no momentum I just managed to unclip before
I hit the deck. Then began at least 10 minutes of trying to get back on the
bike. When I finally realised that this was going to be impossible I decided to
go with the flow and walk a bit. I’m glad there were no photographers at this
point as the combination of high winds, wet ground, steep slope and Look cleats
make walking a ridiculously silly thing to do. Eventually I managed to get back
on the bike and eventually reached the top. At last, I thought I would get a
decent descent to Applecross. However being not able to se anything in the rain
and wind caused me to pull on the brakes hard and crawl down the slope only a
few miles an hour faster than I had climbed it)
Figure
7
- Colin "Coppi" Allanach
The next treat was a flapjack at the bottom of
the descent to steady the shredded nerves, at which point Andy pulled out the
secret weapon (a sinister looking plastic pouch of white substance - 'this will
see me get to the end' he declared). Suspicious glances were thrown by several
other riders, probably thinking, 'to have ridden so well up 'til now, that guy
must be on something'. A diet of bridies and fish
suppers is the answer to that quandary - but the contents of the wee bag will
remain a closely guarded secret, or until Ian tells everyone it was just salt to
stop Andy getting cramp.
The absolute hell which is the remainder of the Applecross peninsula dragged on
for the next couple of hours and Fiona, who had been going quite well succumbed
to the 'bonk' - not as good as that might sound, I was too busy riding my bike
anyway - she just hadn't eaten enough and was fading badly in the final miles.
Andy pressed on alone in the last 15 miles and with a now following wind raced
home in 5.32.37 which put him in the top 100. Fiona came in a few minutes later
at 5.37.31, she was 4th woman home, some 15 minutes behind Katrina Brown of
Deeside Thistle, who was first.
Ian arrived next in a total time of 5.48.43. These were times which were all
faster than their efforts in last year's event and so they had to be satisfied
with their rides in such atrocious conditions.
Dave came home in 6.35.36 and Colin in 6.35.48. Bob was next with 6.56.40 and
George with 7.09.53.
Finally Ewan came home with a smile on his face - surprising as his bike weighed
a metric tonne and he carried a camel back round the course which weighed
approximately the same as an actual camel. He finished with 8.39.37.
Figure
8
- Ewan "I'll carry a real camel on my back" Black
Everyone seemed to enjoy the event in some
shape or form, despite the weather and the sheer pain of the whole thing.
So who's up for driving up to Applecross next year and asking ourselves - 'why
are we doing this again?'
