RSF - The Off Road Cycling Club

The Adventure Starts Here

2010

“One of the most important days of my life, was when I learned to ride a bicycle.” — Michael Palin, British actor

 

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Sandwiched between the luxurious comforts of Crewe Travelodge and Bridges YoHo the Vagabonds made themselves at home with their usual efficiency in a new (to them) bothy not a million miles from Aberystwyth. Hilly lanes passed easily beneath the wheels under the inspiration (and admittedly some perspiration) of numerous spectacular Red Kites soaring effortlessly beside and below us as they quartered the hillsides. After Welsh delicacies at Devils Bridge a bridleway that was more like a footpath was followed up the valley and into thick conifers.
It took us three quarters of an hour to ride the five miles to Ben Alder Lodge, a large house with the main track disappearing through an archway between the buildings. Our track kept to the right up a gradual climb ridable in bottom gear. A little further on a path went off to the left across a foot bridge and was the one which would have brought us to Loch Rannoch. We kept straight on and were able to ride it all and could see Loch Pattack ahead lying in a basin surrounded by hills. There looked to be excellent tracks going off towards Cultra bothy and further into the hills but our way was straight ahead
You must be really stupid to be called a dunce. But the only living soul 1 met in Duns could well have been a dunce. Before starting my round trip of the Lammermuirs I wanted to see the Covenanters Stone on Duns Law. So 1 left the bike at the entrance to the castle. Walking up the path to the Law there came this jogger on his way down. “Hello!” “Hello!” “Going up for the stone?” “Yes” “Nothing to see there, save your energy, bye” “Bye”. Nothing to see?! Stupid man. Apart from the commemorative stone the panorama is breath-taking and much of the inviting landscape I would be cycling through today beckoned.
You must be really stupid to be called a dunce. But the only living soul 1 met in Duns could well have been a dunce. Before starting my round trip of the Lammermuirs I wanted to see the Covenanters Stone on Duns Law. So 1 left the bike at the entrance to the castle. Walking up the path to the Law there came this jogger on his way down. “Hello!” “Hello!” “Going up for the stone?” “Yes” “Nothing to see there, save your energy, bye” “Bye”. Nothing to see?! Stupid man. Apart from the commemorative stone the panorama is breath-taking and much of the inviting landscape I would be cycling through today beckoned.
 A period spent working at the University of Texas in Austin in the autumn of 2009 gave me a chance to get in a three-day tour over the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November. Central Texas enjoys a beautiful climate in autumn, not unlike late summer in the south of England, although I would not want to be in Texas in summer when, as a friend of mine put it, it is “hot as the hinges of hell”. It was bright and sunny if still a bit chilly when I left Austin at 09.00 on Thanksgiving Day, heading east. A pleasant morning’s ride entirely on tarmac saw me crossing the Colorado River into Bastrop at about 13.00
This ride was sparked off by seeing a fabulous photograph of the famous Alpe d’Huez ascent. 27 hairpin bends going up what seemed to be a vertical wall; 1000 metres of ascent, what more could a man want? I’d imagined that the views would be great and there was a little bit of me that wanted to see how I would fare climbing a Tour de France icon. The mountains on the other side of the valley seemed much higher than the one I was going up but as I slowly climbed they became level and eventually lower! Each hairpin had the name of a famous Tour de France winner painted on it.

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