Ever on the lookout for a reason to justify another bike (n+1 and all that), the inaugural Cowal Way Chase gravel bike race provided an ideal opportunity to add to the stable or at least convert my cross/Commute bike to an all road race machine. Hunt wheels and Clément tyres transformed the cheap Giant into what felt like a very different beast but, even after a couple of shake down rides on the Borders and Pentland trails, I still didn’t quite know what to expect come race day.
Last minute training on Majorca went as well as could be expected given the Carnethy beer drinking company and the Scombroid tuna fish poisoning. Bumping down into Turnhouse in the tail end of Ophelia set me up nicely for the forecast Storm Brian over the Cowal Way weekend.
The advertised 70km was shortened to 60 when the final route was released and, by race day, last minute trimming due to weather and forest operations brought it down to not much more than the parallel ultra-run which kicked off half an hour ahead of the riders. The A to B course called for bike drops at the Glenbranter start on the Friday evening and a bus from the finish at Portavadie to the start early on race morning. The course was on forest roads with some short link sections of single track, none of it technical but enough boulder sized “gravel” to make the high speed descents “interesting” and a bit of a puncture fest for some.
Bike and tyre choice was a hot topic before the start with everything from high end full suss MTBs to cross bikes and the odd hybrid not to mention every nobble shape and size imaginable on a huge range of skinny/chunky tyres. Many favoured the mysteries of tubeless but, not having quite got my head around this approach, I went tubed with bone-shaking pressures. I must make a tubeless setup a project for this winter.
The relief of the start after all the traditional endless faffing and waiting in the run up to the event was soon replaced by everyone settling into their own heavy breathing pace on the long first climb. The eventual winner shot off leaving a handful of us to exchange the podium positions for most of the rest of the event and there isn’t much to be done when £5ks of full sus MTB floats past on the final descent so I was happy enough with 3rd. I might have fared better had the original longer course stood but as an introduction to the new trendy “gravel racing” (aka another way to market and sell more bikes), it was a good blast and rekindled the idea of a Carnethy Southern Upland Way bike relay attempt… May 2018??
Results (bike & run)
http://live.sportident.co.uk/home/multistage/stage/results.html?multistageid=fa761db7-0714-47e8-b8da-8a025e9372ec
Andrew Patience