The Day
Still, I told myself as I drove along, the forecast says it's going to get better. I still had my arm and leg warmers rolled up in my helmet in the back. I might be optimistic but I'm not stupid and I've lived in Scotland for a long time now. Right enough, the rain got worse as I drove to Dunfermline and the roads got wetter. However, when I arrived, it wasn't actually raining. And there were Vic and Carole in the car park already raring to go. Actually, that's not quite true of Vic. He was freezing having believed the weather forecast as he set out to cycle his 28 miles to the start. He was heading for an epic.
We went into the building at Fife College to sign in and Vic took shelter and got some coffee down his neck as I went out to get the trike ready for the day. I've got the fold/store in boot/unfold procedure down to quite a quick time now, but getting the seat back on is still a bit of a pain. But it went on and we were ready to depart. We were joined by Carol, work colleague of Carole for the departure. A slight issue of concern by the chap sending us off that I was too low for the timing sensors, but it proved not to be the case. I did sit upright just in case.
Carol is the local so we let her lead us out of Dunfermline towards Dalgety Bay. I'm glad we did because I would have got lost without her. Once out on the open road though Vic and I left the Carol(e)s to their speed and settled into our ride. I feel sorry for anyone on a DF trying to ride with a trike. It's not so much the average speed but the rhythm of the ride that's very different. The trike is very slow up hills, very quick down hills and somewhere in between on the rolling roads. However, Vic is a very strong rider and he manages just fine. Somehow I think it must be painfully slow for him but he does a great job at keeping pace and we manage to chat just fine.
We suffered the inevitable overtakes as I ground my way up the first real hill of the day. All very cheery though and a great atmosphere between all the participants. A real feature of the day. A lot of people cheerfully complaining about the weather which was still rather damp, if not actually raining. We did see some rain, and we suffered wet roads for the first half of the ride especially near Porters Brae. That was still to come though.
I had a slight fail at the first split in the sportive routes when I went the wrong way. I was just showing off the trike's turning circle, honest! Back on the right track another wee hill led to a fantastic descent into Kirkaldy. Chasing the roadie that had overtaken us near the summit was fun, avoiding the cat less so. Kirkaldy and Dysart provided an urban landscape and a couple of nasty little ramps for the trike. They also provided some passer-by fun. From the steadfastly not looking to the full 180 turn around there was no doubt that the trike was attracting some attention. There's no point being shy and retiring when riding a trike.
On the way to Weymss we were overtaken by some of Carole's friends while taking a comfort break. Carole at this point had turned off to make here way round the shorter 28 mile loop leaving us and Carol to the 60. Carol just kept spotting us in the distance. Now it was mostly downhill for a while and with the trike wanting to roll we made the most of it to re-pass. Not that we knew who it was at this point. The road trucked on to Buckhaven where the longer 92 mile route left the 60 mile route and we turned up to Windygates and Kennoway. It was here we had one of the two stretches of roads I'd rather not ride. Luckily it was mainly downhill so I was able to wind the trike up to reasonable speeds. Just to get it done, you understand.
Unfortunately, Windygates and Kennoway signalled a long stretch of mostly uphill work. And those we had passed earlier were able to get their revenge. Coming out of Kennoway took us on to the biggest hill to date. 1.1 miles of around 5%. Tough enough for me on the trike and fairly unpleasant in the dampest conditions of the day. We felt we were climbing to meet the clouds. Of course, getting to the top brought the inevitable descent and, although it was short and wet, the trike handled it very well. I was delighted to see later that this was my 2nd fastest time down this little hill. Well worth the effort. The road, wet and puddly and making me wish for my mudguards, took us to Cadger's Brae which should be a blast of a descent but I don't have the bottle for the steep reverse camber turns and a 90 degree left at the bottom with an ominous looking wall. Disc brakes or no disc brakes I took it relatively easily. At the junction a little further on, all this descending meant we caught up with some of those who had overtaken us. This was helped by a slight confusion over the route.
This junction led to the second bit of road I'd rather not ride. Very much back on routes I have ridden relatively often the choice of riding up to the New Inn roundabout and then down to Falkland surprised me. I had assumed we would cross the road duck under the railway and reach Falkland by way of Freuchie. We did discuss this with one of the organisers at the end and apparently there had been some debate about the correct way to route this section, with the busier roads being favoured over the potentially dangerous crossings of two bigger roads. I'm still not sure, especially after experiencing the driving on the road down to Falkland. I've never gone this way before on my own rides, and I'm not persuaded by this trip. Still, it increases the roads on my heatmap, and I'm still alive to tell the tale.
The feed stop for the 60 mile route was at Falkland's community hall and we arrived with the little posse of riders we'd been swapping positions with since Weymss. “Are you the Clockwork Hamster?” said one of the women who proceeded to introduce herself as, Julie, one of Carole's friends who I recognised from Strava. Both Strava and local sportives are an excellent way to meet new cycling acquaintances. Carol arrived closely behind and we all chatted away as we partook of the lovely snacks and topped up our bottles.
Leaving Falkland I suffered a little downturn in energy that really didn't re-emerge until after Wester Balgedie, 8.5 miles away. This, and the long drag from Strathmiglo allowed our new chums to overtake us and we never saw them again. Carol, who left Falkland slightly after us, was on that bit of elastic again and she nearly caught us a number of times before finally overtaking us at Cleish. We had, however, had a change for the better in the weather. I'd taken the leg warmers off and the roads had dried out. The sun was even threatening on occasion to break through.
Before that we met up with another two blokes who traded road position with us a couple of times before Cleish where the big climb of the day loomed before us. The trike did go up it but very slowly indeed. It doesn't help that the road surface at the bottom where it is very steep is also the worst. Steep and gravelly doesn't suit the trike well but I managed to keep it going and didn't appear to suffer any significant wheel slip. Our two blokes overtook us, as did Carol, as I suffered onwards and upwards. Vic showed his strength by accelerating away to get far enough up the road to take this picture.
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| On the Cleish hill - with permission |
I was very relieved to get to the top of the second steep section and even happier to get to the actual top. It was here we made a great tactical error. The road is single track and we had a car behind us. Being nice, polite cyclists we slowed and let them through. Forgetting of course, just how fast the trike (and a bike) can go downhill. Unfortunately the car driver was not so fast and our descent was slightly hampered. I had hoped the car would be just far enough in front to punch a hole in any oncoming traffic. They parked up a little before the descent finished; here we met traffic coming the other way that was definitely going too fast but luckily the road was wide enough here.
Turning down to Kelty we could see our “companions”. And we started to reel them in. The road into the centre of Kelty is a very steep straight road which is ideal for letting the trike roll. As long as a 4x4 doesn't pull out in front of you that is. They got up to speed ok in the end though and by the time we were turning south in Kelty we had almost caught Carol and one of the blokes, who appeared to have lost his mate.
From here to Kingseat saw more swapping of position as the tarmac rolled along. Vic and I had the ascendancy as we topped out in Kingseat only for me to miss the turn to the finish. As I turned Carol and our cycling chap took full advantage to finish in front of us. This small diversion may also have cost me a sub 5 hour finish in the event, which is a shame. All that remained was to drop back into Dunfermline and Fife College for welcome hot food and drink.
Regardless of results (sportives are not races) and goals it was a great day out. I was superbly supported, as ever, by my wingman Vic and we met lots of good company along the way. My thanks have to go also to Dunfermline Cycle Club who ran the event. The organisation was superb, the feed stop excellent. I would query the exact choice of route but that's something up for debate. I'm not forced to ride in these events so I can decide next year if I want to take part or not. The question is, which device will it be next year, bike or trike? And which route?
The Ride
Postscipt
Our friend Carole had her own epic on the 28 mile route which turned in to a 33 mile route and more climbing than she'd bargained for. A great effort though and I believe she had as much fun as we did!
