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Glen Clova Bike/Hill Race
15th June 2002

Willie Gibson

Stewart and Angela try out the tanndem

This year there was a bit of a questionmark over the LAMM. Moira had had a few injury problems and was a little worried about entering the "A" class. I had left the entry till late, but in the end decided that the weather was not making it look all that enticing.
While talking to Lyn earlier in the week she had mentioned the Glen Clova Challenge, it sounded interesting and I wondered if Moira could be persuaded back onto my tandem after last weeks East Linton Cycle to and from the Traprain Law Race (she had complained somewhat about the saddle).
On the friday I phoned Moira and talked her into it (it didn't take too long). The registration was at 9am , which meant an early start after my birthday meal on friday night. So at 6:30am Moi and I headed for Glen Clova.
The rain teamed down all the way up and the thought of doing anything that day was pretty intimidating, but as we reached Glen Clova the rain went off and the weather improved.
We registered out joint entry (the only tandem) and we decided to stay together through-out the run too. Stewart Angela and Lyn were already there and we compared bikes and pumped up tyres ready for the start.

The Elite cyclists started about 200 metres up the road and the rest of us were at the back. There were about 60 entries in all. Moi and I were a little worried about our control on the tandem and decided to stay at the back.
The hooter fired and we were off. As we cycled along we were surprised to be overtaking most people. The speed we managed to get up to was quite impressive. My last minute adjustments to Moiras saddle had made life a bit more comfortable for her too as she powered the boiler house of the machine up the hills.We got quite a few strange looks from the other cyclists as we breezed past and soon we reached the turn. No one had passed us and we were still closing on others. By the end of the cycle we had gone up to 5th place. Quite a surprise to us but it goes to show that even on an old tandem 2 people pushing one machine is a lot more efficient.

As we got off the bike and were about to start the run we saw Lyn still trying to tie her walsh laces. She had badly cut 2 of her fingers the day before (her birthday too) and was finding the laces impossible. A couple of lads from outside the Hotel rushed to help her and were over heard to say "That's my kind of girl" as Lyn sprinted off up the Hill.
Moira and I ran behind Lyn up towards Loch Brandy. The route was up to the Loch and 2 complete circuits then back to the Hotel. It was a hard climb and we saw Lyn disappearing into the distance. The weather was really good by this time and the views were wonderful but the climb was hard work (legs dont seem to take too kindly to running after a cycle). By the end of the first circuit we had lost 3 places but at least the legs had started working better. The last descent seemed to go on for ever and was slippy and rocky. At the bottom I looked back and saw that we had a reasonable lead over the next person, so I took Moira and my bum bags and joined them together and ran in in Tandem to finish 7/8th. Stewart thought that we had done the whole route tied together "did you not have trouble on the descents".

We had a wash and a pint in the sunshine with Dave Hunt (the Carnethy support) and relaxed while watching the others finish.

It was a good fun, well organised race and well worth the trip, maybe it would be worth a Carnethy weekend next year staying in the Bunkhouse.

Willie and Angela
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Willie and Moira
Showing off the medals
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