Gerdoosh! less than ¾
of a mile up the road, and still inside JOG the puncture repair skills were
called into action, Sammy’s back tyre had gone, a 5 min tube change later and
we were back on the road eating the monster headwinds and wondering what on
earth we gotten ourselves into, Andy especially with his Deep Dish rims was
being blown all over the place!
We headed down A99 to
Wick for our first stop of gels bars and energy drinks, thirst quench we cycled
on down towards the almighty Berriedale Braes which put hairs on the chests, the
13% up hill was our first real test, that had the legs pumping and caused the
air to be filled with multiple expletives.53 miles in it was time for Lunch and La Mirage in Helmsdale which had come highly recommended, on closer inspection it had some pretty hairy looking locals but some world class Fish and Chips!
Down through Brora the group was splintering out into several mini pelotons, and with the wind easing off a little we got into our rhythm as the miles clicked past. Our afternoon refuel of tea and scones was well received as a shower came and went we were glad to be in out of the rain.
On the home stretch down
to Tain we wound the legs and got some speed up and knocked out the last few
miles over the Dornoch Firth and into Edderton Inn.
1st Day
done, 86 miles travelled, tired but happy, time for bed.
So I was wrong when I said Craig had set his way points on pie shops, he's actually using chip shops. Harry Ramsdens, here we come!
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