Thursday splits

The clocks had changed and chaos reigned. With the advent of BST, a number of Freewheelers take part in a regular Wednesday night golf competition, but the first week of the season was rudely interrupted by a freak hailstorm, covering the course in white and making further play impossible. As a result, round 1 was carried over to Thursday and a number of us then decided we didn't fancy a tough early morning cycle but instead preferred a short afternoon cycle immediately prior to golf.

So it was that 12 (or was it 13?) Freewheelers ventured out - 7 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. Here's John P's report of the morning run:

"A relatively refined group of nutters arrived at the Guide Hut at 9 o’clock, after Obersturmbannführer Sharp had pushed for an early start now the clocks had gone forward - so really it was like meeting at 8 o’clock in 'old money'. OK enough whinging, it was a cracking morning, if a bit chilly, and with no wind (apart from those still processing last nights dinner); Scott, Dick, Jeff, Peter, John P., Robin and Ian S.

There was a bit of reluctance to head-off by the river, because of the state of the track at Blackhall, beyond Glenbogle Lodge, so it was agreed we would head to Finzean via the AA box and on the return would see who wanted to take the Blackhall route back and who would continue on to Strachan. As the peloton hauled itself up from Bridge of Feugh, Dick demonstrated he still had his teenage-years ability to whistle loudly; in the process trying to signal to Les as we passed his house. There was no response, and it was generally agreed the whistle was plenty load enough, but that Les was almost certainly still in bed. It was an unremarkable transit to the AA box apart from some ‘bold’ overtaking by cars and vans on blind corners. As we stood and blethered by ‘The Box’, there was plenty of traffic darting hither and thither; I guess it was early enough for it still to be commuting time (OK OK I’ll stop whinging).

Down the hill to Feughside Inn and left along towards Finzean. For some of us our usual approach is to pick-up the gravel path just beyond the junction in Finzean, but today there was clearly a surveyor, surveying. It did cross my mind whether he was lost and really belonged to the Peripheral Route, or maybe the PR was also carving through Finzean… As we neared said surveyor, Ian said in a startled voice, “That surveyor is a lady”, as if that were in any way surprising… I don’t think she heard…

At the farm shop our table for six downstairs awaited us, with the addition of a seventh chair we were set up for a lengthy conversation. There is always the slight stress as to whether there would be enough fruit scones, mitigated today by two folks ordering bacon rolls, shock horror, but not really as Jeff regularly enjoys a bacon butty on a Thursday. It was also unsaid, but noticed, that Peter had bought 4 fruit scones to take away; would we have to distract him and purloin them? I suspect by the time we had clanked through Blackhall, said scones had de-constituted themselves back to their cooking ingredients.
So it was that five of us did indeed turn up the hill by the Feughside Inn to Shooting Greens and then on through Blackhall. The track by the river is scuffy in places but passable. Jeff and Robin took the more direct route back to their homes. We stopped briefly to look at the Bridge of Dee and the work that has been done to reinforce the south-side pillars. Again and again, you just realise how high the water got and the power it brought at New Year, especially now that the river is back where it usually is."

Here's their route map and team photo:

l-r: Scott Hunter, Robin Brodie, Peter Seago, John Perry, Jeff Dickens, Ian Sharp & Dick Taylor

Strava reports a distance of 40 kms and 448 m of climbing.

Mike Reilly had apparently planned to join the morning group but obviously ignored all the previous e-mails about an earlier start and showed up at 9:30 am, only to find everyone had long since gone. Undeterred, he headed off on a solo ride which, coincidentally, took him out to Finzean, then round Potarch and Craiglash - a total distance of 42 kms with an impressive 541 m of climbing:

The afternoon B team went on a gentle Myrebird loop to introduce Malcolm Grigor to the delights of the Freewheelers. His bike is a bit of a vintage model - not quite as old as my former 42 year old model, but similarly suspension-less:

This preamble to golf ended up at Buchanan's, where Les and Malcolm opted for the soup whilst the rest of us had the excellent raspberry crumble cake. The obligatory team photo:

l-r: Ian Stewart, Ken Page, Keith Gray, Les Gray & Malcolm Grigor

Malcolm became the 28th person to record a Freewheelers ride this year. A very modest 21 kms with 121 m of climbing was ideal preparation for our golf. Keith opted out so the rest of us had a nice fourball match.

Elsewhere, other rides since the last report were:

• Tuesday - Mike - Finzean - 38 kms - 366m
• Wednesday - John M - Finzean - Aboyne (road bike) - 36 kms - 359 m