Andy and Fiona Duncan, Bob Hill, Ewan Black, Ian Adams, George Clements, Dave McIntosh and Colin Allanach travelled to Kinlochewe for the 2007 Bealach Na Ba Challenge on Saturday 1 September 2007.
The weather forecast to be foul, with strong winds and driving rain expected for much of the extremely hilly 90 mile route which takes in the the 6 mile climb from Tornapress to Applecross (the pass of the cattle - apparently?!)
A team meeting was held at the Team Ythan HQ (bar at the hotel) the night before. The general feeling in the camp was, 'why are we doing this again?' Though everyone agreed to work as a team, pull together and encourage each other - to get another round of drinks in.
The day dawned as predicted - pishing with rain and freezing cold with a westerly breeze (hurricane).
Ewan, followed by Colin, Dave and George were first off in the new 'dib whenever you want' style start, at Kinlochewe. Bob, Ian, Andy and Fiona decided to delay their start as they didn't want to reach the bottom of the climb too early in the day as they might have to wait for the road to be opened.
Their wait was made all the more nerve jangling by the sounds of ambulances racing to a stricken rider who had come off at the first cattle grid, not even a mile from the start line. They started soon after and saw the poor soul being loaded onto a stretcher with a nasty looking head wound - hopefully he is ok and back on his bike soon.
The chase was on to reel in the Ythan escapees and good progress was made by Ian, Andy and Fiona in the early stages. The Ythan 'blue train' was in full flight pulling along a string of other riders as the road swung into the wind towards the first proper climb at Loch Carron.
The speed was high in places and Ewan wasn't seen (as he was wearing a high visibilty yellow jacket?!) as he must have been passed, by the fast moving trio, though George offered words of encouragement as the train picked up speed on a descent.
The first climb saw Ian, Andy and Fiona meet up with Dave and Colin. They looked comfortable enough on the sharp but fairly short ramp. Pleasantries were exhanged but it was down to business for the Duncans as they forged ahead to get to the bottom of the big climb.
The forging soon turned to grovelling on the long steady early stages of the climb. Photographers were stationed on the lower slopes and many a facial expression was pulled to make the rider look mean and racer-like. Others plumped for the cheery smile and wave, so Andy and Fiona look like they were towing caravans - such are their pained expressions in the photos captured and proffered for sale on the photographer's website. Looks a bit weird when others are pictured wearing wooly jumpers, bobble hats and riding children's tricycles, with a look on their faces like they had just won the lottery! - perhaps they didn't realise the horrors still to come - like the descent to Applecross and the remainder of the peninsula which resembles a miniture relief map of the Himalyas.
Everyone managed to drag their sodden and weary carcasses up the big climb before plumetting down the other side in torrential rain with near zero visibilty (why are we doing this again?). Dave McIntosh would have posted the fastest time for the ascent in a Pantani-esque flight of fancy from the lower slopes leaving lesser mortals trailing in his wake - however he decided to remove his jacket, quaff his hair and que up all the right tunes on his I-Pod for the climb - by which time Colin had had time to ride half way up the climb, covering double the distance of any other rider by wildly zigzagging across the road, either bouncing off the armco barrier or teetering on the brink of certain death (or at least a nasty graze on the knee) by falling down the drainage ditches.
The next treat was a flapjack at the bottom of the descent to steady the shredded nerves, at which point Andy pulled out the secret weapon (a sinister looking plastic pouch of white substance - 'this will see me get to the end' he declared). Suspicious glances were thrown by several other riders, probably thinking, 'to have ridden so well up 'til now, that guy must be on something'. A diet of bridies and fish suppers is the answer to that quandry - but the contents of the wee bag will remain a closely guarded secret, or until Ian tells everyone it was just salt to stop Andy getting cramp.
The absolute hell which is the remainder of the Applecross peninsula dragged on for the next couple of hours and Fiona, who had been going quite well succumbed to the 'bonk' - not as good as that might sound, I was too busy riding my bike anyway - she just hadn't eaten enough and was fading badly in the final miles.
Andy pressed on alone in the last 15 miles and with a now following wind raced home in 5.32.37 which put him in the top 100. Fiona came in a few minutes later at 5.37.31, she was 4th woman home, some 15 minutes behind Katrina Brown of Deeside Thistle, who was first.
Ian arrived next in a total time of 5.48.43. These were times which were all faster than their efforts in last year's event and so they had to be satisfied with their rides in such atrocious conditions.
Dave came home in 6.35.36 and Colin in 6.35.48. Bob was next with 6.56.40 and George with 7.09.53.
Finally Ewan came home with a smile on his face - surprising as his bike weighed a metric tonne and he carried a camel back round the course which weighed approximately the same as an actual camel!! He finised with 8.39.37.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the event in some shape or form, despite the weather and the sheer pain of the whole thing.
So who's up for driving up to Applecross next year and asking ourselves - 'why are we doing this again?'
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