Day eleven

The most spectacular day of the trip.

I'm not sure what James had for breakfast but I'm guessing  rocket fuel or something similar. I spent the whole day riding flat out with James... the ride of our lives.

We set off in light rain which soon passed. Continuing up the west side of Loch Lomond with the Loch to our right, hills to our left, under a canopy of bright green trees. The roads were not flat, but gentle undulations made for some impressive speed. With 25 miles knocked off in an hour and a half we stopped for tea and cake, meeting up with Mary at the Green Welly Cafe.

With a bit of bike tinkering going on, the riders left the cafe at different times... Lizzie first, then James, Chris and tom then finally Yorky, Andrew and myself. (I'm always last to leave!)  The remainder of the hill took us to the highest point of the day, and the first proper view of what was to come... Glencoe.

A breathtaking view demanded a photograph so five of us stopped and faffed about with a camera for a few minutes. Keen to catch James, I set off before everyone else. A gentle downhill slope allowed me to run between 30 and 35mph for what felt like forever. I was riding as hard as I could, but so was James and it took me about 30 mins to catch him. When I caught him, he didn't let up the pace.

"James, what the Hell have you had for breakfast?" I asked... "nothing special, I'm just inspired by the views" he replied. I'm convinced he would have failed a drugs test, it was all a bit 'Floyd Landis' - amazing pace from nowhere. Free from his knee support for the first time in a few days, James was well up for it. We were pedalling hard, the others surely left for dead. The pace was the fastest of the trip. I was letting James ride at the front, let him maintain that inspiration. Occasionally I'd pull alongside "what are we doing? Are we planning to let the others catch up?" James would just say "dont know, but I'm loving it..." and we would both burst into laughter. This type of riding was unheard of.

James had been on this road before, whilst driving through the area. He kept telling me... "wait till we drop back down into the valley". We motored on, through open moorland, bright greens, browns everywhere snow topped peaks on the Grampian Mountains up in the clouds, bluebells providing the only splash of colour. Eventually the valley came, at about the same time the heavens opened. The rain was falling hard but took nothing from the ride. The landscape down in the valley was spectacular... really quite incredible. The pace was still electric, the riding was scintillating.... beautiful views.

If anyone is looking for a bike ride in the UK, this is it. Loch Lomond to Fort William. I would rather do it in bright sunshine .... maybe I'll come back...

James and I pressed on, heading for Fort William for a pit stop. We stopped briefly to take on food. Was quite surprised to see Yorky pull up alongside us (how fast had he been going to catch us?!) The three of us pushed on, meeting Mary again for tea. The other four arrived just as we had finished food and drink. The seven riders finished the last ten miles to Spean Bridge, where we found our very well deserved bed for the night.

We had covered 80 miles, in a little over 4 hours. The power of cake had got me through. The legs will be weary in the morning. Just a short day tomorrow, 65 miles to Dingwall, traversing over to the east side of the country. We'll be riding along Loch Ness... I'll be on the lookout for the fabled monster, unless I've got my head down trying to catch James again...