On Sunday 31st May 2015  I am going to take part in – The UK’s Highest Cycle Sportive

This is a 102 miles  cycle which will include 2,000 meters of climbing!

As a very keen and enthusiastic cyclist (MAMIL to those in the know!) I am undertaking this challenge to raise much needed funds in supportive of Help for Kids who support disadvantaged children living in Dundee and the surrounding area.

The Three Pistes Cycle Sportive takes you through some of the UK’s most remote countryside, past three ski centres, ascending eight categorised climbs – including the two highest road passes in the UK – then finishes by climbing the 4th highest road to Cairngorm Ski Centre in the heart of the UK’s only Arctic plateau.

I will start in Pitlochry the first 40km of rolling terrain will take me towards the Spittal of Glenshee and the start of the first monster climb up Cairnwell to Glenshee Ski centre. 

From the Glenshee Ski area its a long fast drop to Braemar and Royal Deeside from here I leave the A93 and hit three brutal rises in quick succession. 

Gairnshiel Brig will brings a smile to my face (or not!) as I leave Deeside and join the most wintery road in the UK… Sally Traffic’s notorious A939. The climb from Gairnshiel over to Donside has what will no doubt be the fast section of the course for many with a wide steep descent to Cock Bridge and the start of the toughest climb, to our second ski centre of the day, The Lecht. 

After The Lecht we continue on the A939 and rolling countryside through Tomintoul towards Speyside, where the legs get 50km of well deserved flat(ish) roads as we make our way towards Aviemore and the final climb of the day from Loch Morlich to the car park of Cairngorm Ski Centre. In its own right the final climb is not the toughest of the day, however it is still the 4th highest road in the country and with 97 miles already in your legs it will feel like trying to climb Alpe D’huez after first doing the Galibier and Glandon!

Thank you for sponsoring me!
Jim