I had tried to sign up for the Tour de Lauder earlier in the year but there were no places left, so when Trevor emailed telling me that some places had opened up due to people pulling out I signed up immediately. This did however mean I had no time to arrange other things so had to ensure I was back in Edinburgh for 5pm.
Turning up at Thirlestane Castle in Lauder I was grateful for clear skies as opposed to the previous week’s Tour o’ the Borders maelstrom. Finding Trevor and some of his friends we set off out of Lauder and onto the first climb of the day. At the first climb of the day, with Trevor’s friend taking it easy, chatting to other riders and me feeling I had things to prove to myself and others, I left the others for a hard day riding by myself, trying to get to the end by 4pm and in time to get myself home.
Fortunately the weather held out for the day making the riding somewhat easier. Was pleasantly surprised at one section when I picked up two other riders who were kind enough to let me ride with them for a while, the three of us riding as a chain. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to keep up with the two other obviously far better riders than myself, even taking my due turns at the front. It all came to an end however with the return of my nemesis, another long hill. I kept pace for a while, but soon enough started to drop away. Shouting my thanks to the other two I let them ride off at their own pace and faced up to the rest of the day again on my own.
The ride back from the final food stop seemed endless and within the last 10 miles we had a 15% climb just to test the legs stamina out a bit more before the end. It was then just the ride back into Lauder to the finish. 15 minutes later, after a very quick coffee and cake I was heading off home feeling reasonably content with my ride, over 140 km with 2100m of climbing.
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