Sat 15th May 2010 - Day before Etape Caledonia
Set off on Saturday at around 8am, picked up Jackie from the CTC in Aberdeen, set off south to Pitlochry. On the way down we passed several cyclists around Laurencekirk, they were doing a time trial on the A90 ! The A90 is a road that is so busy that I try to avoid it on my bike at all costs.
We got to Pitlochry at around 10:30 and it was packed, eventually Hilary got parked at the side of the main street, all car parks were full. We ambled our way down to the registration point, which wasn't too busy. Managed to register and get our goodie bags, which contained a couple of zipvit energy bars and gels, packets of gouji berries, our "race" numbers and "widget", which attached to the front wheel hub and electronically registered our start and finishing times.
After registration, we drove to Aberfeldy where there was a "cycling festival day" going on, there were children racing round a grass track, mountain bike cycle stunts and various stands. Graeme Obree opened the fete and was presenting the prizes, we spoke to him and he had his road bike there which he built himself, it was painted pink ! It had very narrow handlebars but it only weighed 16 lbs, which is about the same as my Scott CR1. I don't think I'll be overtaking him tomorrow.
After a coffee and cake at a cafe/bookshop we headed back to Pitlochry and soaked in the atmosphere as more and more cyclists were arriving, not sure if all 4500 were there yet. Late afternoon we headed to Kirkmichael, where we were booked into the Kirkmichael hotel, about 12 miles east of Pitlochry. Trying to book anywhere closer was deemed impossible.
The Kirkmichael hotel was very nice, the food and beer was good, although I only had 1 pint, due to my newly found health conscious "sportsman" status and it being the night before the big event. They also made us a packed breakfast next morning as we would have to leave around 6:15 to be sure to get to the start in time.
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