A cripple, a hipster & Keith Floyd in tweed walk into a bar

[ClarkyBoy]

SIT IT

[ClarkyBoy]

Good Morning all,

I just thought I would post a little update from the weekend's cycling antics!

We were all to meet at Bonar Bridge, have our bikes loaded up onto trailers then get shipped over in busses to Ullapool, there were around 50 cyclists and maybe 100 people overall taking part, this included walkers and horse riders also.

on Saturday night we were treated to dinner at the Caledonian Hotel, Ullapool, as you can see from the expression on the boys faces, it was truly terrible. the worst food in Scotland.

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

Not to be put off we headed to the bar instead - this was of course purely to gain sustenance for Sunday's challenge!

We were up on Sunday morning, given a full cooked breakfast, which was fine (probably because the barman from Saturday night was the chef on Sunday morning)

We all headed up to the Quarry by bus and collected our bikes ready for the challenge ahead, the weather was looking ominous, but OK for the mean time, just cold (what else would you expect!)

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

We were the second bus load, so some people had already set off, the Horse riders and walkers were to leave about an hour before us also,

Anyway, we headed off at quite a pace, which I was a bit worried about initially as we passed a lot of people in the 1st 7 miles, I had horrible visions of arriving at a huge hill and dying with everyone then passing us!

Andy had some bike issues which limited him to about 3 gears in total, we adjusted his rear mech to give him a middle gear and more of a chance on the climbs.

we continued to push on as the weather was really closing in on us, its hard to tell from the picture but that fog was a wall of really bad weather coming down the valley - and oh boy did it rain solid for about 45 mins right up to the 14 mile point, where we got some shelter, a cup of tea, soup and a dram

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

as you can see we had to cycle through ALOT of water and mud!

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

after leaving the 14 mile point and the weather not improving Andy and I pushed on ahead of woody and Ro, I was getting cold and needed to get a sweat up!

I cycled right up to the 20 mile point before I noticed that the weather had greatly improved!

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

The final checkpoint was around mile 26, 10 miles from the finish at bonar, by now it was Glorious sunshine, I waited for the rest of the guys and we all pushed on from there together right up to the 7 mile remaining mark, which was all tarred road, this was the sprint to the finish!

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

A genuinely great day out with Any, Woody and of Course Ro, who all did great - we were the first to complete it bar one woman who had started 1 hour before us and finished 20 minutes before me.

yesterday was spend cleaning the bikes.... and the muddy gear!!

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

A huge thanks to Scotty C for donating the van for the weekend, without this the return journey would have been horrid, getting changed in the back was a lifesaver, it was great knowing that we had dry towels hanging up in the van and a fresh change of clothes ready to change into at the end was comforting!

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

Thank you all for your kind donations, the just giving page is at an astonishing 1000 pounds, Double our target, on top of that we also have around 300 pounds in cash - so a great fundraising effort from everyone.

We are already planning the next challenge, with some more miles, whisky, camping and probably a hangover

Thanks to Graeme Fraser for the loan of his bike, its all clean again, im just not sure I want to give it back to him...

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

Woody is tired at the thought of it.....

17-05-2015 Macmillan coast to coast by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

[graeme]

Brilliant effort. Really well done!

[Dominic]

Well done guys! Given the state you were in this time last year, well done Clarkie!!! Given you made that bike yourself, well done Smee! Eh Woody, eh, well done mate.

Donation made.

Looks like most of it was quite hard going - not the easiest 35 miles!

[woody]

Well done guys! Given the state you were in this time last year, well done Clarkie!!! Given you made that bike yourself, well done Smee! Eh Woody, eh, well done mate.

Donation made.

Looks like most of it was quite hard going - not the easiest 35 miles!

Cheers Dom. Think the bit you're looking for is well done considering I couldn't walk on my left foot for the week before it Mostly better now & still none the wiser what was wrong

Had a great trip up and looking back a lot of fun on the cycle, even if it didn't seem like it at the time.

Thanks for all the donations folks!

[Lazydonkey]

You need mudguards

HTH





p.s. Good effort

[C7Steve]

Well done

Glad the weather improved for you all later in the day because it looks pretty wet at first.


Steve.

[smee]

Cant add much but thanks for the sponsorship and already thinking of next year.