Everesting and Strava Series Round 3 – Tour of the Alps 2019

Hills, hills, and some more hills. This seems to have been the overriding feature of the last few weeks for The Burners. 

Our annual Everesting pilgrimage to the Nic o’ the Balloch took place last month. What’s Everesting ? It’s when you choose a hill and ascend it until you’ve equalled the height of Mount Everest, which in our case was 36 times (740ft at 7% average gradient for 1.9 miles) .

12 bodies turned out to share the load with everyone doing at least 3 ascents, some four, and some five…. Job done !!!

Next up was round 3 of our 2019 Strava Series – The Tour o’ the Alps – a ride out around the Ayrshire Alps with 4 categorised climbs thrown in for the group to chew the bars over. 

Unfortunately, series leader Harry couldn’t make it (exam time) so it was an opportunity for the mere mortals to claw back some points. The parcours for the day would include Knockgardner, Black Cock, Hadyards Hill and Glenalla South Side. Cold and windy conditions ensured a war of attrition with rider numbers slowly whittling away as each segment was ticked off. By Glenalla only the hardened few (4 from 14) remained ….

Chris J showed us how it’s done, winning 3 from 4 of the timed sections and thus takes top spot in the overall 2019 standings – more to come ! 

Last but by no means least, Jo and Janet made the trip North to lovely Coupar Angus for the Belles and Buns Sportive – 65 miles with 3500 feet of climbing in and around the fantastic cycling terrain of Meigle, Airlie, and Abermyte….

Big thumbs up ladies 👍