Day 6 Braemar to Blair Atholl

As ever, the morning started with a search for food, readily found in Braemar’s excellent CoOp. Then we were immediately into the main climb of the day - the Glenshee pass, which at 670 m is the highest main road pass in the UK. Those of you who have followed our previous rides will know that we laugh at such puny climbs, having previously managed the Puy Mary climb at 1600 m and, most notably, the Timmelsjoch Pass at 2500 m. That said, it was pretty knackering, in part due the periodically very strong head winds that we encountered. Still, the sky was clear and the views fabulous. We actually reached the top in fairly good time even so, and surprised the waiting support team when we arrived. We were pleased to find that the cafe at the top supplied hot chocolate and cakes, so we decided to do a statistically valid study of their quality (excellent). It was also nice and warm, as the wind was quite cold.

After the brief stop we continued. The first part of the descent from Glenshee is quite exciting, being a nearly straight 10% slope. Most of us reached 40 mph and Roy’s helmet lifted off his head. After this initial excitement, the descent became a bit more level, with sweeping ups and downs. At this point, we started  seeing more and more cyclists coming the other way. It turns out that today, a big cross-Britain sportive was coming north as we cycled south. It was really nice to see the range of people coming the other way, but by the time we turned west towards Kirkmichael, we were quite released as we were getting ‘royal wrists’ from all the waving.

Turning west exposed us more directly to the increasingly strong winds, but the route across to Kirkmichael, where we had lunch, was lovely. After lunch, it became a bit more of a struggle with the wind, but the fabulous views of fresh mountain-scapes boosted our spirits as we came over the top of the climb into the Tummel valley. We had a slightly terrifying descent, mostly from its steepness, but topped off by the tractor that appeared suddenly round a corner. We’ve noted that tractors have got a lot bigger and on single track roads don’t leave much space. Fortunately we all managed to squeeze through the small gap with only minor loss of rubber. It was pure coincidence that we stopped briefly in Pitlochry for new brake blocks. Pitlochry is a very busy, touristy little town, tourist tat interspersed with high class hotels; a steakhouse incongruously juxtaposed with a Vegan hotel. Now following the fast-flowing river Garry, we covered the last 7 miles to Blair Atholl in good form, with a light spattering of rain, in plenty of rime to pitch camp.