It’s been another fine day for the Etape Loch Ness, with thousands of people cycling the 66 miles round Nessie’s home!
I’ve done this race each year since it started in 2014 and with a record entry this year the closed roads were well used. It’s great to see the city and the villages around the loch bustling with people early on a Sunday morning, supporting all the riders.
One lady spoke to us on the way home afterwards asking how far we’d all cycled. She looked astounded when we told her, and congratulated us all.
The ride went well for me and I felt strong on the climb, and even had plenty of power left in the legs to push on at a decent rate through Foyers and Dores.
I took five-and-a-half minutes off my time from last year, finishing in 4 hours, 7 minutes and 32 seconds. (King of the mountain time yet to come…) Full times here.
You can see the full route on the official map below:
I’ll be writing a bit more about my Etape experience in Active Outdoors in this week’s newspapers.