This is an event I enter each year, and is the only event which uses the somewhat peculiar F13/25. I say peculiar, because it features pedestrian crossing traffic lights on the course. To add insult to injury, said traffic lights are immediately outside a police station in Waddesden. Other than that, the course is quite straightforward, and while not exactly hilly is sufficiently lumpy to make it one of the slower courses I ride each year. The 2012 edition of the event featured a new HQ in Ambrosden (the regular HQ in Launton having been booked), and had been altered to avoid new traffic lights. So the main A41 section turned at the new Parkway roundabout, and the section on the B4011 to the finish correspondingly extended. The day before saw spectacularly windy conditions and, while the wind had certainly lessened, it was clearly going to be a problem.As I foresaw, the outward leg was in general slightly wind-assisted, and the return leg correspondingly difficult. What I hadn't remembered (at least in how bad it was) was the poor state of the road, ranging from cracked and lumpy tarmac to downright dangerous potholes. This actually wasn't too bad in safety terms (as long as one kept a sharp look out), though I never like riding over crappy tarmac.The first climb comes about 3.5 miles from the start, but it's far from the only one. Indeed  the bending nature of the road made some sections hard even on the outward leg. Once again, I wasn't stopped at the traffic lights in either direction. Traffic was pretty light, so I experienced no real hold ups. The last section on the B4011 was a bit tougher than I expected - I went roaring off after the turn down a gentle descent, but then road turned up slightly and I was left gasping and wondering where the finish was. I ended up with 1:00:35 for 13th place (6th on standard) out of 45, which I was reasonably happy with, given that normally only just break the hour on a good day. Mind you, the winner did 51:31!  

Along with the website update, I finally got around to sorting out the report of our 2012 Summer Tour (click the Cycling menu item above and select 2012).  I suppose this was almost a Spring tour, as we had to set off quite early due to work commitments. On the other hand, I think this was 9 days of rain-free cycling, and possibly our first tour in which we had no rain. Despite the dates we cycled, we did encounter some midgies - but they weren't really much of an issue. During the nine days, starting and finishing in Oban, we visited Barra, Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Harris, Lewis, Skye and Mull. We made nine ferry crossings! Almost every B&B had free WiFi, making this our most connected tour - we took along an iPad to plan routes using Google Maps, to check weather forecasts and on one occasion find out about a road closure. The road closure was suspended because of the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

A reasonably warm evening greeted us for this week's time trial.  As readers will have noted, this was my first time trial for a couple of weeks, and came after cycle touring on the tandem. My usual experience is that several hundred miles of cycling for long days at low speed does nothing for my speed, and this evening was an example of that.The initial sections, across three roundabouts and up to the dual carriageway section seemed quite quick. I always find myself easing off to negotiate the first roundabout - on safety grounds as the surface there is rather potholed and rough. Up on the dual carriageway, I found myself losing concentration, and for a couple of spells allowed my speed to drop off. I think there may have been a bit of a head wind at points, but really I needed to keep a better focus!Once round the turn, things perked up a bit, but despite that Simon cruised past me, looking cool. Off the DC and down the hill, things kept up well, but ultimately the final section, on rough tarmac was a bit heavy. I was stopped to a standstill by a line of cars at the final roundabout, and had to heave myself up to speed. This kind of sapped my energy  for the final push for the line, and I finished in 23:10. This is a bit down on my last few outings, but maybe it's down to the post-tour effect.I'm riding the Hemel Hempstead CC '25' on Sunday - that may give a clearer idea of my form. It's on the F13/25, which isn't a particularly quick course.

This was billed as the day on which the weather would turn, with light rain afflicting our final day's cycling. But would it? As I looked out of the window when I woke, the skies were still cloud free.The bathroom window had unfortunately been left slightly ajar, admitting quite a few midgies! This was pretty minor compared to the clouds around our heads as we loaded our luggage back onto the tandem and prepared to roll off. The planned route was to cycle to the end of the loch, then cycle over Morvern to Lochaline (about 23.5 miles), catch the ferry to Fishnish on Mull, then cycle about 5 miles to catch the Craignure to Oban ferry. If we were able make the 11.55 Fishnish ferry, we'd probably make the 13.00 Oban ferry.The ride along the loch was flat and easy going, with the water pretty smooth as there was no wind. The weather b this time was cloudy with sunny spells. However, the road was single track and motor traffic was quite disruptive to our progress. Eventually the road reared upwards. The climb itself isn't spectacularly steep, bit it is quite long. And either it gets steeper nearer the top or we were flagging! Fortunately we didn't encounter too much traffic on the way up, though we did have to stop twice to let vehicles past. Between the summit and Lochaline, there isn't another major climb, and the road descends from pretty bare hillside through wooded valleys. It does undulate quite a bit and this, with passing motor vehicles made progress quite tiring.  We did reach Lochaline in time for the 11.55 crossing. The ferry is quite small, and the provision for bikes seems a bit lacking - not a problem for solo bikes, which can be stashed anywhere, but finding a suitable spot for the tandem required some originality!The crossing takes only 15 minutes, and even after waiting for the motor vehicles to disembark, we were off and riding by 12.15. The ride to Craignure is pretty straightforward, though pretty dull, as the road is lined with trees which cut out the views. We reached Craignure about 20 minutes before the ferry was to leave, and by the time we boarded (before motor vehicles), there were about a dozen cyclists of one kind or another. By this I mean some were clearly touring (like us) while others were merely using their bike as transport for themselves and quite a bit of baggage only short distances.The crossing takes about 45 minutes, and motor traffic was unloaded first. Riding out into Oban after over a week on the Isles and west coast is always a shock to the system - Oban can be a surprisingly busy and bustling town. We quickly found ourselves negotiating traffic jams as we made our way back to the garage to pick up the car. By 14:15 we'd transferred our baggage to the car, mounted the bike on the rack and were driving home from Oban.We had no rain at any point in our tour - we had 9 dry days cycling in Scotland! That's unprecedented in our tours. As we approached the Forth Road Bridge, the rain began...

The weather forecast didn't bode well for today's ride - it was predicted to become overcast with light rain. In the end, the weather improved as the day went on, and evening in  Strontian saw completely clear blue skies.After another fine breakfast, we rolled out of Mallaig, along the main road. This isn't very busy first thing in the morning, particularly on a bank holiday. Nevertheless, we always get abuse from at least one driver who thinks we should be riding on an entirely inadequate cycle path. This path is about a metre wide and is shared by cyclists and pedestrians in BOTH directions. Anyway, we kept to the road, and soon traversed the ups and downs of the road, reaching Lochailort in quick time.Loch Ailort is a lovely sea loch, and there are numerous opportunities to stop and admire the view (in common with much of the country we cycled through, Loch Ailort is seeing quite a lot of housebuilding). Indeed, we dawdled along until Glenuig, where another of my favourite road signs is to be seen (watch out for elephants). From Glenuig, the road goes up and up, until it descends to Loch Moidart. We stopped beside the road to heat up some lunch. We were much amused by watching seagulls stamping on patches of seaweed, presumably to scare tasty morsels out. From Kinlochmoidart, the road climbs once again - this is the section being worked on and about which we were warned about. Fortunately, no work was going on due to it being a bank holiday.Once over the newly rebuilt road, we descended into Acharacle, where we stopped for ice creams at the village shop, before once again climbing over to Salen and Loch Sunart. The road from there is delightful, with mixed broadleaf woodland, and stunning views. at one point we stopped to look at some seals basking on a rock. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of a whole succession of switchback climbs and descents on singletrack.Eventually, we reached the turnoff for our B&B for the night, Heatherbank. This is a really nice B&B about 2 miles up a lane. Fortunately, there's a Tearoom/restauranf about halfway up the hill: after getting cleaned up, we walked down for dinner (we had venison). Returning to the B&B exposed us to midgies, but walking briskly kept them at bay.As I type this it's hard to believe the weather will turn tomorrow, the last day of the tour!

After an excellent night's sleep, we woke to brilliantly sunny conditions. By the time we'd had breakfast, loaded up the bike and paid the bill, it had clouded over a little. The first 11 miles were the toughest of the day, featuring the south Loch Carron road - road which as assumed mythic proportions in hour collective mind. It is, if truth be told, quite a hard road for the loaded tourer. Within a mile of leaving the hotel, we were grinding up a 15% gradient, with several climbs following, including a hugely long climb that takes one past the famous "Stromeferry (no ferry)" sign. We paused for a snack when that was done, then began a fast descent to the main road to the Skye bridge.There was a huge volume of traffic heading for Skye - I wondered whether the island would be big enough to absorb them all - and this, together with pretty atrocious road surfaces made the ride to the bridge rather a hassle, particularly as our mobile phone rang at that point! The Skye Bridge is surprisingly steep, but not difficult to negotiate, and once over, we made good progress despite several photo stops. Eventually we turned off towards Armadale. The road initially takes one over some bare moorland, despite this we decided we had time for a stop for a snack and a cuppa.Remounting, we hastened on to catch the 15:20 ferry. The road to Armadale is rather varied - one minute one's riding through bare hillside, the next through attractive woodland; one moment grinding up a surprisingly steep bit of road, the next roaring along at a fine lick.We reached the ferry terminal in good time: I bought a pair of Island Hopscotch tickets to cover the remaining ferry crossings. The guy at the desk alerted us to roadworks and consequent road closures on the road between Glenuig and Acharacle. This caused us a bit of concern, but when we reached the B&B we did a spot of Googling and found that the roadworks wouldn't be happening tomorrow as it was a Scottish bank holiday (prior to the additional Jubilee bank holiday on Tuesday).After arriving at the Western Isles B&B and cleaning up, we wandered into town and had dinner - cullen skink followed by crab wrapped in lemon sole (Carol) and scallops with cauliflower bhajis (me). After dinner we wandered about, were nosey-parkered at by a couple of seals in the harbour, then returned to the B&B.So all looks well for our penultimate day in the saddle tomorrow. That sees us cycling from  Mallaig to Strontian. According to my iPad weather app, we may see our first rain of the trip tomorrow, though I'm hopeful that we can avoid it.

This was to be the longest day's mileage - around 68 miles. I'd phoned the previous evening to book a double at the Strathcarron Hotel, so at least we knew we had somewhere to stay. After breakfast, we set off out of Ullapool, along a whole series of tough old climbs. Actually, the road didn't get at all easy until we'd reached Loch Glascarnoch (very depleted of water after a long dry period). I was concerned about my sore neck, so we stopped every ten or twelve miles to stretch and eat snacks. This section of the day's cycling was pretty bleak, with no obvious wildlife to be seen bar a few red deer carcases on the road side. Mid-way between Loch Glascarnoch and Gorstan, we stopped at a hotel with tearoom for tea and scones. Rather exorbitant, however!From Gorstan, we were on the road to Achnasheen, where we planned to stop for refreshments. The cycling was pretty easy, as we'd picked up a tailwind. The countryside became barer as we proceeded towards Achnasheen, with very little in the way of accommodation, so we were pleased to have planned ahead.There's a gift shop and tea room by the rail station at Achnasheen, where we stopped for a  (very nice) capuccino. We also admired some motorcycles being refurbished ouside! Actually, from past experience, they do a rather nice smoked venison salad. But we didn't linger, and set out on the final 21 mile leg to Strathcarron.From Achnasheen, the road rises through bare landscape, then descends to more wooded countryside as it approaches Loch Carron. At times we were exceeding 30 mph, though the road reverts to singletrack. We arrived at the Strathcarron Hotel at about 4.30, to a warm welcome. After cleaning up a bit, we had a beer (Red Cuillin), before retiring to our room to plan the last two nights' accommodation in Mallaig and Stontian. After that, a rather good dinner in the bar - monkfish and salmon kebab washed down with McEwans 80/-, followed by crannachan.

This was a pretty easy day, fortunately, with only 15 miles or so to the Stornoway ferry terminal. Reaching the ferry terminal, we left the bike, and went to investigate Stornoway. We picked up some bananas and fruit and nut mix from the Co-op (along with a couple of bottles of chocomilk). A visit to the Library cafe dealt with lunch (toasties and apple pie with capuccinos). After wandering around, we returned to the ferry terminal and waited for the ferry.The man loading the ferry was keen to get us on the ferry before the cars, which was good, as it meant we could get good seats on the observation deck. On the crossing, which is about 2h45, we actually saw some dolphins and gannets going after a shoal of fish. Despite the sunny conditions, it was getting a bit cool, even in the ferry. It was quite a relief to get off the ferry - the bloke organising the unloading was very helpful, and got us off before the majority of motor vehicles.Once off the boat, we circulated, looking for a B&B - the one we settled on was a little 'eccentric', and not en suite.  But we both slept well enough. For evening meal, we went to the Ferry Boat Inn. Carol had cajun monkfish, which was great, while I had a mountain of grilled langoustines. For dessert we both had Ecclefechan tart.And so to bed.

This turned out to be a day of two halves - and both suffered from strong head winds.We completed our stay at the Lochedge B&B with an excellent breakfast, and selected our packed lunch. This armed, we set out for the next arranged B&B - up on the west coast of Lewis. First, however, we had to scale the absurdly steep road from Maraig to the road across Clisham. We accomplished this with some style, and set off on the main cycling out of Harris and into Lewis. The weather at this point was rather overcast and cool.We quickly realised this was not going to be easy cycling, as we had a nagging head wind. After about 20 miles, we made a left turn to Garynahine. For eight miles we had anice tail wind! We paused to eat our packed lunches (ham and mustard & salmon and cucumber sandwiches) in the sunshine - by now, the sunny spells were longer and more frequent. Unfortunately, from Garynahine, things got a lot harder as the head wind ad begun to swing and become more northerly. We cycled past the famous Callanish stone circle (and Callanish III, a secondary circle nearby) and pressed on to Carloway.At Carloway, there's a great view of the famous broch from the road. Once again we decided not to stop, since we'd visited the broch before. A little further on, we made a short detour to the Gearannon black house museum, but only because we knew they had a good tearoom, and by this time we desperately needed a pit stop. Tea and scones fortified us as we rejoined battle against the wind, with 15 miles or so to go before reaching the B&B. The cycling remained really tough as the head wind strengthened, and we were getting a bit fractious in the last few miles.Once in the B&B we showered, and pretty much collapsed! Plans to go out for a walk fell by the wayside as we decided to just take it easy.Fortunately, tomorrow should be an easy day - according to Google, we will have a mere 15.1 miles to cycle, and this should have a stiff tail wind. The ferry to Ullapool leaves in the early afternoon. We still need to plan how we return to Oban in detail.

This was to be a slightly shorter mileage today, estimated at around 40 miles, plus the ferry from Berneray to Leverburgh. our destination was a Bed and Breakfast at Maraig, on the shore of Loch Seaforth in Harris.It was quite chilly as we started (though it was another brilliantly sunnydays and quite hot later), and we were a little later leaving than intended (mostly due to chatting to the B&B lady!), so we had a bit of a dash to make it to the ferry - which we did with about 10 minutes to spare. Once again, there were quite a few cyclists. The crossing takes about an hour as it zig zags around various obstacles. Once in Leverburgh, the cyclists dispersed along the road. We didn't ride for much more than half an hour before stopping by a fabulous beach to make a coffee and eat a snack lunch.Our progress to Maraig was quite leisurely due to frequent photo stops, and two major climbs. The first of these was before Tarbert, and features a climb from the golden sands up through the weird rocky landscape that Harris is renowned for. We didn't stop in Tarbert, but did (for a drink)  just below the second big climb of the day, over Clisham. We have memories of this climb from earlier tours, and it was just as hard to get a tandem over as we remembered! At the top, we stopped to stretch, as my neck was feeling a bit stiff. Just over he crest of the hill is the turn off to Maraig. We met Richard (the owner of the B&B) coming up the steep road to meet us, as he'd heard the tandemists he was expecting were looking a bit lost!Lochedge B&B is in a spectacular location. It's also the most lavishly set up B&B I think I've stayed in (more on this when I do the final write up of the tour).  Dinner was excellent (vegetable soup; local mackerel; gin and tonic sorbet). Very good company from other guests, and from Richard. Highly recommended accommodation.Nature points: a seal seen basking, a variety of wading birds, more geese with goslings, loads of dragonflies whizzing about. And at one stop, many sundews.