My brother and I are doing the full route. Not done it before and only really got serious about road riding this year. We think we’ll be slow, but it’s more about giving us a reason to spend time together away from the usual Christmas, family celebrations etc.

Who else is doing it this year? Or, if you’ve done it before, what should we expect / best & worst bits?

I’m doing it.. Have done it a couple of times before. This is the first event I’ve managed to do since breaking my collarbone and a few ribs way back in Feb.
Depending on which aspects of road riding you like.. The Wall of Talla and Witchy Knowe are the worst bits.. Talla is hella steep and Witchy is almost as steep and 4 times longer.! 🙂
Descent off of Talla to Meggat is good but take care, that’s where there were a few bad crashes last year, one guy had to be airlifted to hospital.

Weather is looking ok, dry at least (fingers crossed) but a bit windy according to current forecasts.

Oh and the descent to Traquair off of Mt Benger on the way back is good too.. super fast if you’ve got the bottle.. Have topped 80kph going down there. Could have gone faster but the road wasn’t closed and road surface was really bad in places.. I’ve noticed when I was coming down there a couple of weeks ago that the bad bits have been resurfaced…

I’m not doing it but wish I was, ‘Wall of Talla’ is fantastic, if you like climbing 1 mile of 20% gradient that you can see coming from quite a way off.

Some lovely roads round there. Enjoy

I’m looking forward to it.

a few days to go and the weather ain’t looking too good!

Wet & Windy