The Courier is media sponsor of this year’s Etape Caledonia cycling sportive and has a five-person team taking part. In the weeks leading up to the event on May 8, Team Courier will be posting about our preparations for the big day.
81 miles, with a mountain in the way?
To those who never or only very rarely cycle, it might seem an impossibly long way to ride a bike.
Starting out (or more likely returning to cycling after years of driving), even 10 miles can seem difficult.
However, to those who have caught the cycling bug it can pretty quickly become the kind of distance done for pleasure at the weekend.
So, like a pre-election Ed Miliband, I find myself asking: Am I tough enough?
The Etape Caledonia could well be the furthest I’ve cycled in one day.
My hope is to exceed this during my pre-event training so I know I can go further than required on the day but as things stand the furthest I’ve cycled in one go is just short of 70 miles in Ireland and I’d be lying if I said I had much more in me then.
I collapsed into a chair when I reached my destination (a pub, naturally) and the only speed record I challenged the whole day was the time taken to down a cold pint of lager.
All packed up: panniers and bags aplenty for my 70-mile trip in Ireland
However, that trip was all done on a touring bike with a weekend’s worth of clothes and other gear packed into panniers.
I’m expecting being on my much lighter road bike and not having to carry too much will make a big difference.
However, the thing I’m really relying on is not anything to do with cycling at all.
One of the other events The Courier supports is the 54-mile Cateran Yomp, and I’ve been lucky enough to take part in that a few times in recent years.
While it’s not the high-intensity cardiovascular test of climbing Schiehallion on two wheels, it does require you to find reserves of energy and determination you don’t know you have.
I’ve shown myself I can keep going even when every part of the body is saying to stop.
So it’s that, more than anything, that gives me confidence that I can make it to the finish line.