Friday 9 June 2017

Capital Trail 2017, words pics and a wee film...

Event;
Another superb weekend organised by Markus of what has already proved to be a superb route taking in a great selection of SE Scottish trails..

Weather;
It was a bit on the warm side on Saturday but cannot complain with big blue skies and small fluffy clouds drifting by...

My ride;
5 Days on from finishing the Capital Trail and i know now why i was struggling to ride during the weekend and had no leg strength and weezy breath on hills and sweating on an unhealthy scale that i have not recovered from until the last few days as i have now been down with some lergy that left me short of breath and lacking strength when cycling last weekend and this week walking on a weeks holiday in Argyll with Jeni.
I rode the entire route with friend Ben and Jehtro until Peebles where after i opted to skip the Glentress route.  This was favoured also by Ben and also Lewis who had now rejoined us and the three of us rode for home, also skipping the new Granton loop.

Today has been the first sign of improvement but my own health  did not damper what was an ace weekend with friends old and new cycling a superb route around the Scottish Borders...

Our distance;
Ben`s Garmin read 91 miles for Saturdays riding,  and 140 miles total once back in Edinburgh

To finish is to win...
The complete Capital Trail is a real challenge for your average Joe Bloggs rider to complete in 2 days. To some it`s fairly easy, but for your average rider it`s a big challenge. Well done anyone who enters and pushes there own fitness and strenght outside their comfort zone.
And there is no shame in skipping some sections of the route to finish at a sensible time on Sunday.

Some friends will not enter with the distance of 250km to try complete in 48 hours with the combined climbing, and would rather ride it over 3 days with 2 nights camping, and i think this would be a great option and i too would rather do this and see more of the local scenery and it`s history and err night life with more time to stop and sample local beers etc...


Any hows here is the pics i took and where needed some words...


8am Portobello and were off!...


First major climb up and over Lammer Law into the Lammermuirs...








The old Roman road towards Melrose




Eildon hills...





Selkirk...



Climb to 3 Brethren...







Day 2 and climbing up to Kailzie hill...





Breakfast time!...


Glentress loop skipped it was north to west Linton via the old Droving route...


Monks Rig  climbed and on top of the Pentlands...




Granton section also skipped and we rode into Portobello...


Happy to get back!...


And sleep...

Was a warm one...



Some  film,
Song is `New Seeds` by Boards of Canada


Capital Trail 2017 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

More soon...

2 comments:

  1. An epic ride. I have just had that bug too with similar symptoms to yours. All the best.

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  2. Hi Dave, yep even tougher with that bug!, feeling a bit better now, the beach is calling... :)

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