VC Astar's Anderside Classic RR - a TRUE Classic Road Race if ever there was one.

The Anderside Classic...maybe I'm sentimental as this was the very first Scottish Road Race I rode, along with the late and great Russell Thompson, 18 years ago! And it has captured my attention every year since..
Over recent years though, due to roadworks etc, its been held on the pig ugly A77 Stewarton course. Ive spoke to organiser, Ali Ogg many a time and asked 'Whens it going back to the OLD course'  and this year....it finally did!

I spent the previous evening in typical fashion, a glass of wine and a couple of Leffes. Stirring up some banter and controversy on the Braveheart forum, trying to defend the fact that this IS a classic race and riders need to man up and get entered into it. Apparently its changed course too - due to resurfacing, we dont have to suffer up the dreaded 'Graveyard climb' after 70miles in our legs. Ive literally seen guys go backwards on this! No - we have another 12% beast to tackle instead. Great.
A very late meal. Hell, I even had chicken breasts stuffed haggis to get a bit of Scotland
coarsing back through me veins again! Bath at 1am and bed. All set.

With my teammate bailing on me at 9pm, Looks like I would be travelling alone but there was NO way was I missing this today. Lovely warm sunshine all the way up and about 16c - even at 8.30 am. And then we hit Ayrshire. Dark Clouds loom ahead. Wind picks up. Its not for just a bit of a laugh or to hack off the countrysife purists that there so many wind turbines round these parts - its bloody windy. ALL OF THE TIME. But sun was still peeking out. All good.

First 10 miles went off OK, a lap of the Drumclog circuit (of Drummond Trophy fame) which saw the recent winner of the Drummond (UK Pro - Dave Clark Five) puncture before the climb. Game over for him then. Bunch was a little edgy and nervous, knowing whats to come. 10 more miles til the Transmitter climb, a 2 mile beast of a hill. With 2 riders up the road since early on, 2 more clipped off the front. I launched the first of 2 moves to get away. Instantly chased down and caught. A mile or so later, and the bunch feeling the full teeth of the headwind on the main road, just sat up. I rode off the front in pursuit of the two chasers. Boy did I suffer to get across. Now, my last 2 races Ive felt pretty fatigued and empty legged, no real reason. But I was 4 secs of my '10' pb a week past friday and I actually did some intervals last sunday! So I convinced myself "I MUST be Fit now and Ive TRAINED for this race!" Despite both riders looking back and seeing me struggling to bridge across, neither had the sense to ease up. I put in one almighty effort which nigh on killed me. Phew! Made it. Totally goosed and made me totally ineffective at doing any turns. I knew today was race #3 of crap legs.Bunch catches us. One of the two escapees turns on me and goes "Thats it! THAT was our big chance to get away today. ALL because YOU didnt work" Rigggghhhhtttt. Now anyone who knows me or has raced with me will know, that, when able, I will graft my damn arse off to the point where I wheel home last man and barely able to speak. Ive never shirked work in all ma days....erm...apart my 15 years working for BT where again, anyone who worked with me will agree, I did absolutely bugger all except IM me teammate about cycling and go for 2 hour dinner breaks to the pub!
So - 3 distinctly average riders (I dont know what the other two have won in their days, but Im guessing its bugger all and I will be first to admit to have won naff all myself too) were
supposed to just 'ride away' from a bunch of 40 riders containing some top notch guys into
a strong headwind were they? Yeah, of course. But we didnt and it was all MY fault. Damn!
hahaha.

Priestlands is 5 miles away, the turn off for the Transmitter climb and the Anderside wouldnt be a classic if it was a nice day, so we were all mighty relieved when torrential rain started pelting at us to the point where we could barely see. But at least we nice and clean now. What a load of Horseshit! Literally...

One of the first times I rode the single track Transmitter climb, Brian Smith rode it. Then a
Pro for a US team and riding it as training. The road snakes to the foot of the climb with a
central band of grit,stones, mud and manure. I was at the tailend of the strung out bunch, but for one man. I looked behind me and was mortified to see the twice British Professional Road Champion covered head to toe by manure from my back wheel, I couldnt tell if he was angry or not due to the twin circles of dung that used to be his specs!

This year was no different, except the downpour had watered it down a bit. You couldnt just
smell it, you could actually TASTE it. Lovely. And how nicely brown our arms now looked. And then the climb. Now this year, I have noticed that I can at least still climb a bit. Usually on climbs lasting about a minute or so. Today was no exception - I was climbing comfortably. After 90 seconds, not so much! First time up here in 96 I was 3rd over
the top and made it look easy. Every year Ive ridden it since, its seemed longer, steeper and caused more and more swear words to be uttered. Im passed and dropped by Stu MacGregor and Dave Clark Five. "Go on Madmicky" shouts Ali Ogg over the top. I'm now on me own. Race over. Its a solo slog for 60 miles now. But I forget how many riders cant seem to descend or get round corners and this is a fast, twisty and technical descent. I Pass two guys who have come off on bends and holding blood spattered limbs at side of the road. Proper race this is! And by the bottom Ive caught 7 riders back up again.

Dave Clark Five is keen to race and hammers away on the front, some of us dig in and work with him. Fair play to the lad as quite a few of his ilk would have punctured and just gone home in a huff.

The 20 miles between Sorn and Strathaven has to be one of the finest stretches of road racing in Britain. Windswept, quiet roads, moors, single track climbs and stunning scenery. We turn left onto what MacGregor describes as the 'Dreaded moor bypass climb' - a hilly singletrack road of stones, gravel and potholes. Class
But whats this? Resurfaced!? No potholes, no stones? Our Pro boy has whittled our group to just 5 and I find myself off the front for a while with Mr Five, but my legs aint liking it so much so I decide to go easy on him today and allow him to ride off. The 4 of us remaining drive, big ring over the moors past HM Dungavel prison and Im convinced my back tyre is going soft. I stops and watch as the group, now swelled to 7 disappears. Sure enough -
a slow puncture. At EXACT same place where I punctured and 'borrowed' a tube from 'Michael from East Kilbride' in the Drummond a few weeks ago. Remarkably the puncture is so slow it manages to get me a full 6 miles to Strathaven when I hammer after 2 cyclists
before they turn off at the junction. Its 'Can I borrow a tube' time again. 'Is that Micky?'
asks Guto Williams of EKRC! 'I was in the break with you at Crieff a few years back' - buggered if I can remember, but Im thankful of yet another puncture saviour. Continental have started doubling their shifts as my list of tubes I owe now is starting to worry them.

A slow slog down the main road and I spots about 50 marshalls at a right turn off - keep going they say (They were on the return to the main road junction) "The turn off is another mile, before Priestlands and Garvel" Im told. I picks up Nicky Cronin from Glasgow Wheelers - he had got lost looking for the turn off too...we knew we'd gone too far when we ends up in Darvel. Clearly having rode past the correct right hand turn. But.. I knew my way back over towards Loudoun Hill I told him. As we climbed up past the Graveyard climb, I couldnt help but laugh. Several detours over recently resurfaced roads later, we eventually retrace the main road having shoved in an extra 5 miles, just for a bit of a laugh. We've yet to find the REAL route.

A chat with Nicky, a fellow 3rd Cat shows just what kind of attitudes that SHOULD be taken  "I know I aint gonna win, and at some stage I know I'll get dropped, but there NO WAY am I gonna just climb off - how can I go back and tell ma wee boy and my wife, who Ive left behind all day that I just binned it. Plus - If I dont ride this race again, at least I can say "Ive done the Anderside - and Ive finished it"
This is the attitude that is lacking nowadays - its a hard sport. Riding round crappy circuits and contesting bunch sprints aint no fun at all (unless you're a sprinter!)  You will get far more benefit riding 30-50 bloody hard miles of an 80 mile race before being punted than you will from sitting in a bunch all day for 50 mile. Plus - you gotta have a bit of horseshit to keep things interesting.

We return back to the hall in Strathaven, having placed 22nd and 23rd (last two finishers) to a round of applause, a plate of sarnies given to us by Ali's wife and our £20 entry fee returned just for finishing. Love it.

So today Ive drove 5 hours, got me ass well and truly kicked, lost out on a top twenty due to a puncture, got rained on, shat on and me legs battered to bits. Do I regret it? No. Cos for the same reason why Ali Ogg and the Anderside lads and lasses have put this race on for 20 yrs, cycle racing is a passion which even I (thankfully) struggle to put into words, its in the blood and today was road racing at its absolute finest. Yes, it was hard - but its bloody MEANT to be! And hey - I got me entry money back and the lines on me arms and legs show I topped up me suntan a bit too...at least I THINK its a tan...it does smell a bit "manurey"!

madmicky