My wife knows the area well as she is half Scottish and has often told me of her lovely holidays there as a child, but there was one thing that she had mentioned to me that had stuck in my mind - Cairn O'Mount, a mountain just north of Brechin, with very steep sections of road which her family had driven up many times when they were children.
I love climbing mountains on my road bike...... I can't exactly say why but I just do. My wife says that it is because they represent such a challenge and I can't resist trying to get the better of them - she may well be correct.
My mind was made up - I wanted to cycle up Cairn O'Mount come rain, wind or shine (or probably just the first two knowing how the Scottish weather can be!).
So on the Thursday morning, myself and Amanda set off on an 80 mile round trip, designed to take in the Cairn, and to visit some relatives along the way. The wind was blowing from the north, so the climb would be directly into the teeth of the wind and this toughened it up making it very hard going. Add to that, the fact that the climb has two very distinct steep sections - 16% right at the start and 14% through a hairpin at the end - making it a formidable proposition. You can see the profile here courtesy of climbbybike.com.
I enjoyed the ride so much that I went and did it again the following day - this time though, the northerly wind was much stronger, no place to hide. Once over the top, I got down the far side and to the bottom I turned round and came back up the north side, which proved to be considerably easier, as the climb is longer and therefore less steep - not to mention the wind helping from this side.
On the decent I hit an unbelievable 53.4 mph, the fastest I have ever been on a bike and beat the car down by about three minutes - totally exhillerating, but don't take my word for it, here's the screen shot from my GPS.....
Please have a look at the video below as Amanda recorded some of the day while she followed in the car.
Alex was initially mad keen on football and was on Nottingham Forest's books as a junior, but a knee injury curtailed his hopes of becoming a professional player.
ReplyDeleteHe then took up golf and became the Nott's Junior Champion.
Over the past few years he has become tremedously keen on cycling.
As you can see he is very determined to succeed and this latest venture will be no exception.
We have personal experience of both Alzeimers and Parkinsons disease in our families and I feel his charities are well worth while and hope others will too.
Fred Hawkes