On Saturday we hosted a gravel ride with the aim to tackle every hard off-road ascent in the Stewartry, there were 16 in total (with 13 being “official”).
Leaving the fire-lit warmth and delicious coffee at the shop, we set off at 9:30am and after just 10km of gentle road riding we faced two stingers: Buittle Castle and Dalbeattie Mast. Straight away there were casualties and two fell away, never to be seen again.
We persevered as a group, ticking each climb off, one-by-one.
Up then down. Up then down, warranting the comment “this reminds me of my army days”.
A quick tea and coffee stop at Mum & Dad Reilly’s house for homemade sausage rolls, sweets, coca colas and fresh bread.
Onwards we rode, pushing on through a mist of fatigue until, finally, it was done.
All 16 peaks were completed.
A long group ride is ripe ground for making excuses for one’s lack of performance and we certainly heard a wide variety during the five and a half hours we rode.
They included:”I’ve been ill all week”, “I swear my brakes are rubbing”, “I’m just keeping the guys at the back company” and probably the best of all; “[my bike] has a dropper post, so the extra weight probably holds me back a bit”.
An absolute zinger.102km. 2374m climbed. 5 hours 40 minutes.
All in all, a great day.
Thank you all for coming out and taking part.
We’ll be hosting social MTB & Gravel rides in December, stay tuned.
#SVCC#Gravel#GravelRide#GravelGrinder
