Thursday 30 May 2013

Day 4 - Dumbarton to Lockerbie

Another 95 miler today, we kicked off with a Dumbarton Travlelodge breakfeast box special, porridge, cornflakes, oj, pain au chocolate and a muffin - not too bad, but clearly the lads were missing the full scottish, and this must have had some effect. 


 
Tom and Sammy rode off into the Glasgow rush hour singing "You can stick your f***ing Garmin up your a***" with no maps, no navigation and only a tip from a taxi driver to see them straight through the centre of Scotlands busiest city, via Govan, no stops for them nor any pictures taken for fear of getting mugged, although looking at the size of our two lads we wondered who'd be mugging who.


The rest of us, spread out a bit, and took a more sensible route over the Ersikine Bridge on the A726, past Glasgow Airport, then climbing up through Paisley, and East Kilbride, and then shooting down hill to Strathhaven.  It was on that down hill that Andy, CJ and Hamish were flagged down by a van driver who insisted on inviting us into his bookmakers shop for a coffee, naturally we accepted. 





The driver turned out to be ex pro cyclist and cycling fanatic Norrie Drummond http://glenmarnockwheelers.co.uk , not only did he serve some great coffee's he also gave us a history lesson on cycling and racing and shared some stories of his own and from his famous friends including Wiggo, Eddy Mercx, Gino Barteli, Sean Kelly and David Millar - we were in great company!  Caffeine on baord, we batted on happy.
 
 

The quality of the road surfaces was mixed, ranging from downright shockingly boneshaking to super quality carpert.  We certinaly took more than our fair share of the rough today.

Lunch stop: Lesmahagow and Colin's van filled to the brim the pork pies, m&s sandwiches and monster munch, perfect! 


Bellies full we cycled 30 or so miles on down to Moffat, what a lovely village, where we enjoyed tea's, coffee's and ham and cheese toasties with Colin in the Black Bull.  David and Big Tommy arrived a few minutes later and ordered quite possibly the largest hummingbird cake ever seen.

The final 15 miles were wind assisted and downhill towards Lockerbie, and boy did we enjoy it.  The A Team (sponsored by Garmin) absolulty gunned it, heads down, in formation and balls to the wall, they arrived an hour up on Froomey and Wiggo & David and Tommy. It was only fitting to pay our respects at the garden of remembrance where the names and nationalities of all the Lockerbie victims along with individual funeral stones and memorials, a humbling and peacefull place.



The final stop was the RavensHill Hotel, with the sun still shining we relaxed with a drink in the beer garden, before enjoying a cracking dinner, many of the lads doubling up on smoked salmon starters. 10 out of 10 to the chef.

All in all, job done, 95 miles banked, good night and god bless.



Tip of the Day: Norrie Drummond, ride through the bonk and you'll lose a stone in weight. 

Tip of the Day#2: Norrie Drummond: Best post ride recovery meal, Smolked Salmon.

Comment of the day: Sammy D, that B7076 was like riding 50 miles across Brighton Beach, if I ever see that combination of numbers again I'm going to kill somebody.

Quote of day: Andy Walton to Lady we met at Moffat petrol station who was entering a triathlon the next week and was asking about a fitting for biclyle pump, Andy's respone "Do you need a pump now?"

Lack of investment road surfaces: Alex Salmond. 






 






 






 



 




 

 



 

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