Tick Tack Tow – My Story of the Etape Caledonia 2009

Me at the start, contemplating what is ahead

The 17th of May started vey very early, maybe before the 16th had properly ended. We awoke at 5:15am to head up the road from Perth to Pitlochry. I didn’t sleep well that night, maybe a sign of nerves or just a strange bed.

Nicola drove up the road as I tried to eat some Muesli, I was almost sick, so gave up on the eating. Arriving in Pitlochry lots of people were already there getting ready in pretty miserable weather. We trundled up to the start to see Veli from the Granite City Race Team fall off his bike before the race had begun, more to follow on this lad.

The time came and off we went, slowly to start as people found out the gear to be in and how much grip there as, the rain kept falling. The first few miles went well and I found a really good group to ride with, averaging 20mph without too much effort and everyone taking a turn. Sadly most of this group stopped for a picnic at the first feed station so I was on my own for a fair while now, I caught site of a group up the road, so spent ages trying to get on. I got them eventually and sucked some wheels for a few miles. They slowed up, so I pursued the next group, this continued for some time, leap frogging from group to group. It was clear that a lot of people were not used to working in a group. As we rounded the head of the Loch Rannoch, I started to see a fair few people with punctures. As I rode on I saw more and more, and then someone said they had seen carpet tacks on the road, but I didn’t see any.

I crossed the timing carpets and started my way up the main climb, it wasn’t anywhere near as hard as the hills I trained on, so I managed to keep up some pace and even pass a lot of people on the way up, as I neared the summit, within site if the flags, I picked up a tack! So a quick tube change and off I went, as I got going the Black Watch Army Cadets came running down the road telling us all that the race was suspended, so I rode up to the top of the hill slowly and we were stopped at the feed station, just over the timing carpets. One of the organisers came along and told every that they were going to re-start once they had checked the remaining roads. Some people had got by before the stop so will have had some realistic times.

Everyone was bunched up into the feed station, maybe 3000 people if not more, they Highland Spring people gave out lots of water and the Power Bar people also fed and watered who they could. The Mavic mechanics ran out of spare tubes quickly and were overrun helping people. The organiser told everyone that the Police were coming t escort us down the steep descent and keep us slow. They also told us that some of the route was cut off due to more tacks. The organisers, marshalls and all helping out did a wonderful job, really worthy of credit.

The Police didn’t go slow at all, well if you think 20-25 is slow then…. I was expected a 10-15mph creep down the hill. Without the ‘slow’ down I’d have descended at around 40-50mph as the road was good, smooth and easy to read.

They had quickly re-routed the course to avoid about 8 miles and sent us on the final leg back home. I knew now it was a 15mile sprint for the end, so I gave it my all and spent most of the way home passing people who hadn’t much left. I’d shuffled to the front at the stop so as to not have a massive bunch in front of me, but was boxed in at the bottom of the decent and lost some time to that.

I had checked out the last 5-6 miles the day before so knew of the killer corner into a steep hill, I swung out and changed down and powered up the wee hill, passing the house I’d marked as the marker for the last big climb. Riding back down the hill to Pitlochry I raced to get back as fast as I could, turning the corner onto the main street, I changed up and pushed every last ounce in me to get to the line, all I could hear were cheers and claps from the hundreds of people at the finish line. I was almost tearful as I neared the finish line, a lot of time and hours has been spent to do something I didn’t think I could have even attempted this time last year. I crossed the line passing a lot of people in the finish straight to come home in 4hrs 9mins for the modified course about 73 miles, distance to be confirmed. My speedo was a wee bit out on what the Etape people had for the race.

I almost hit the barriers as they had less than 25m to slow down before turning into the cyclists village. I was given my medal, 24 carat Steel! But it’s nice to have something as a memory for the day.

Really gutted to be robbed of the full event and the hassle of it all, I hope they can still run these races like this and that they find who did this. Some people suffered a lot, they had so many punctures they had to give up and take a lift to the end. Some came off and were injured and a fair few have damaged rims. No one was badly injured, one non-tack related crash saw a guy with massive head bruise.

I started cycling again last summer as Nicola was ill with Lyme Disease and I wanted something to do for a few hours that could help me get fit, we couldn’t got walking, climbing or mountain biking, Nicola was far too sick. I started riding with the Ythan club, who were super patient with me being really unfit and being behind, they all took a turn to help me round the short courses they did. You deserve a big thanks guys! I’m totally bowled over by the support I have been given from the words to the money we have raised, to date we have £1100 pounds for LDA to help them to educate and reform Lyme Disease care.


Me at the end, Im a lot more tired than I look!

When I’ve been training in the wind and rain, pushing the pedals down when my legs screamed, riding past my house to add more miles to the circuit and especially today when I was all alone on the road and fighting to get some wheels, each and every minute I had the words, support and encouragement of a lot of people with me.