welcome to great coffee - and no rain
i'd love to say that i have been shut in a locked room for weeks on end, planning every last kilometre of the ride of the falling rain, ensuring that signing meets stringent uci regulations, that all marshals are wearing the club tie, motorcycles meet eu emission regulations, and that only the finest bananas are availabe at each feed stop. only i'd be lying if i did. the ride of the falling rain relies entirely on making sure debbie knows how early to open for coffees, and francois knows how many to make pasta and pudding for in the evening. the rest, as they say, is entirely up to you. so for all those who were kind enough on sunday evening to offer thanks for such fine organisation, i have just pulled the rug from under, and pointed out the emperor's new clothes.
and i'm really sorry that it didn't rain. heads will roll.
fifty three cyclists signed on for the ride on a particularly bright, sunny morning in bruichladdich. even the wind was in abeyance. however, since several - self included - had already ploughed through wind and rain on saturday pm, the ommission of both from sunday, really wasn't too much of a disappointment. that's an increase of about fourteen on last year's entry, bolstered by the fact that a couple of chaps from germany ventured over for the ride. highly gratifying.
due to a rearranging of the route in terms of the order in which it was cycled, most arrived at ardbeg distillery's old kiln cafe around an hour later than last year, meaning less demand on the staff at ardbeg, and more cyclists being fed in timeous fashion. clootie dumpling and ice cream has never tasted so good. as this is the ride of the falling rain, covering 100 miles is the ultimate option, and not a compulsory undertaking: there are no finshing certificates, no times to beat and no medals on offer. so if the afternoon wears too heavily on the cranks, there is no shame in missing out whichever parts of the route you personally deem to be a gravel track too far. in the words of scojo: "if we're not having fun, we're doing it wrong".
so in the light of the above, and based on the fact that no-one was checking too closely, the first 100 miler home to deb's in the afternoon, was nick hunter, fine upstanding speed merchant that he is, and probably around half the age of the remainder of the peloton. brownie points too to the family who brought the kids along, and who managed to cycle from bruichladdich to ardbeg (we'd welcome more of this). i know of only too many adults on this isle who would be hard pressed to do that on a bus.
the velo club d'ardbeg peloton had a wonderful day and eve in perfect company, and we'd like to invite you all to join us again next year (sunday, august 1st), when there might even be a healthy dose of precipitation.
there are a number of photographs here, here, and here, so see if you can spot yourself.