- Tuesday - Mike - Finzean - 39 kms - 550 m
- Tuesday - John M - Finzean - 32 kms - 418 m
- Wednesday - me - Adelaide - 31 kms - 78 m
- Wednesday - Mike - Durris - 30 kms - 323 m
- Wednesday - John P - Milton - 17 kms - 128 m
- Thursday - Malcolm L - Finzean - 58 kms - 536 m
- Friday - me - Adelaide - 27 kms - 52 m
Perhaps if you're all so keen then you could have joined each other on some of these trips? All you have to do is put an e-mail out to the group - it doesn't have to be a Monday and Thursday only.
If you add to the above list the fact that Mike opted to go ski-ing on Thursday instead of cycling, there's been a hell of a lot of action recently. Fyi, Mike ran Strava when he was ski-ing and it shows the distance he covered was 38 kms with climbing of 3,436 m!
But Malcolm Lodge broke his own Strava distance record with a distance of 58 kms - presumably on his road bike again. Very commendable, but I wouldn't want any Freewheelers to regard this as a challenge for the group runs!
John P's match report:
"A Finzean Farmshop Foray
The two Ians, our great and illustrious leaders, ones who make the group what it is… were missing! As a consequence our discipline was wanting; Jeff was seen eating a bacon buttie, Dick, John M. and John P. partook of two cups of coffee and John P was seen doing something to the AA box which is the subject of the caption contest later on. Even the route was a familiar, comfortable loop and any suggestions of adding extra (admittedly red-card) bits were immediately voted down, especially from Ken! Now a point for the record was that the Dee Bridge at Banchory was shut today for 4 weeks of (presumably) under-pinning. following the Great Floode. Bikes and pedestrians OK, cars oh no no no. There will be an uprising of discontent in Auchattie. Still the blitz spirit prevailed and we set off from the Guide Hut across the compromised Dee Bridge, the Feugh Bridge and on up to Blackness and the Mill of Cammie. Chilly but sunny, spirits were commendably high amongst the seven “Athletes”, as Strava puts it. Oh how wrong can a term be! Our roll-call for the record: John M, Dick, Scott, Jeff, Ken P. John P and Iain
The short-cut by Templeton has been somewhat resurfaced and the pot-holes are a thing of the past, but everything was frozen so the ride was rough enough even without the added joy of pot-holes. The AA box was reached and suitably venerated, some pictures were taken in a bit of a random and compromising fashion, but our new Team Photographer (John M) endeavoured to capture the moment. Once we had left our old friend, The Box, it was a wooshy downhill to the Feughside Inn and left along towards Finzean. There seemed a reluctance to follow the gravel track in Finzean to the farm shop… the author is not sure why, but is investigating his deodorant use. The pack went off on the road, I stoically ground away at the gravel. On reaching the exit by the church, no sight of the pack… which was odd as the road is usually faster. I was getting increasingly worried about my personal hygiene. They did appear eventually, from the minor road opposite, which seemed to be a little, gratuitously added loop.
The scones were most definitely up to snuff; coffee so good, one cup was not enough and without the Ians, far too long was spent enjoying the café ambience. So much so, when back on the bikes, it felt (as Jeff offered) like a complete restart. Speaking of Jeff, he had some ‘challenges’ staying on the gravel on the way down from the church, but nothing was hit and just a mental note not to follow him down that bit next time. With the Bridge of Dee being shut, traffic was light and we made good time along the road from Finzean, through Strachan (bye Jeff) and on down to Banchory using the main road.
There was, for the geeks in the group, some discussion about the accuracy of Strava data, especially the elevation data and height climbed. With everyone trying to demonstrate knowledge of GPS and data-sampling theory, it was generally agreed that Strava under-estimates height gained (of course it does!), because it under-samples. So I offer the Strava statistics in the full knowledge they are wrong; 35km, 2 hours riding, 270m gained. Now we just need Scott’s Garmin stats and Jeff’s OS map elevation profile and we can assess the systematic errors… blah blah blah.
In summary, the sun was out and a good ride was had :-)"
The short-cut by Templeton has been somewhat resurfaced and the pot-holes are a thing of the past, but everything was frozen so the ride was rough enough even without the added joy of pot-holes. The AA box was reached and suitably venerated, some pictures were taken in a bit of a random and compromising fashion, but our new Team Photographer (John M) endeavoured to capture the moment. Once we had left our old friend, The Box, it was a wooshy downhill to the Feughside Inn and left along towards Finzean. There seemed a reluctance to follow the gravel track in Finzean to the farm shop… the author is not sure why, but is investigating his deodorant use. The pack went off on the road, I stoically ground away at the gravel. On reaching the exit by the church, no sight of the pack… which was odd as the road is usually faster. I was getting increasingly worried about my personal hygiene. They did appear eventually, from the minor road opposite, which seemed to be a little, gratuitously added loop.
The scones were most definitely up to snuff; coffee so good, one cup was not enough and without the Ians, far too long was spent enjoying the café ambience. So much so, when back on the bikes, it felt (as Jeff offered) like a complete restart. Speaking of Jeff, he had some ‘challenges’ staying on the gravel on the way down from the church, but nothing was hit and just a mental note not to follow him down that bit next time. With the Bridge of Dee being shut, traffic was light and we made good time along the road from Finzean, through Strachan (bye Jeff) and on down to Banchory using the main road.
There was, for the geeks in the group, some discussion about the accuracy of Strava data, especially the elevation data and height climbed. With everyone trying to demonstrate knowledge of GPS and data-sampling theory, it was generally agreed that Strava under-estimates height gained (of course it does!), because it under-samples. So I offer the Strava statistics in the full knowledge they are wrong; 35km, 2 hours riding, 270m gained. Now we just need Scott’s Garmin stats and Jeff’s OS map elevation profile and we can assess the systematic errors… blah blah blah.
In summary, the sun was out and a good ride was had :-)"
In no particular order, here's John M's photos and John P's route map:
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| Ignore the look on his face - Ken loves the cold and the snow really |
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| This is the caption competition photo |
I had my final cycle in Adelaide for this year this morning - our flight home leaves late tonight (Friday). Hopefully see some of you again on Monday. In case you'd forgotten what I looked like, here I am at West Lakes GC - my first round of golf since October:
I suspect I may not be coming back to similar weather.
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