It was a battle between our bikes and our behinds. Thankfully, our behinds saw off the challenge surviving the pain and torture. Team Lycra won this war.

Last Sunday, four of us set out from Dalgety Bay to cycle across Scotland (and back!) to raise funds for VSO who Claire and I are going to Cambodia with. During Christmas I decided that I would cycle from the east coast of Scotland to the west coast, and back again. 

I shared this plan with close friends over a pint and full of Christmas goodwill and maybe  a little alcohol, Mike Gow, offered to join me in this venture. Gowser is a mate who does not always reply immediately to texts, but you know he's one of the best mates you can have when he volunteers to cycle 160 miles during freezing weather just to keep you company and help raise some funds.

Two other friends (Emma and Stuart, both in yellow, Mike, and me taking the pic) decided to cycle the first leg (east to west) with us too, so when we set off from Dalgety Bay at 8am on 29th Jan, Team Lycra was four. You may not see this in the picture, but Emma cycled in knee high boots. Style.


We pedalled over the Forth Road Bridge, joining the canal at Linlithgow and it was all quite pleasant. Except for the mud. Without mud guards, Mike and I were caked in it. So when we arrived at Falkirk Wheel for sandwiches, we were probably rather unwelcome guests for the people getting ready for a wedding. Still it was nice munching away to the sounds of a harpist.

We bade farewell to Stuart and Emma at Glasgow, and Mike and I toddled on towards Dumbarton. Now, the end of the cycle route is a little place called Bowling. But I decided that it would be better to sample the nightlife of Dumbarton and stay there. Gow was fine with this when I told him it was only an extra mile, but less so when we had cycled another four and had still not arrived at the B&B.

However, we did manage to beat Claire, who was bringing fresh clothes etc, to the B&B. Yep, 8 hours of cycling and we still managed to get there before Claire.


We set off the next day to a gorgeous sunset in Dumbarton. However, this inspiring setting was soon destroyed by constant aching in our bums. I have been told child birth can be pretty sore and I know getting a ball kicked in the private parts can too, but wowsers this was bad. Hours and hours of agony. If pain is weakness leaving the body, why did it all have to leave in the one place?

Eventually, we made it wearily back to the East coast and crossed the Forth bridge once again. We were nearly home.


As of now, we've raised £1750 which is unbelievable. People have been ridiculously generous. In fact stupidly so. People who I've not seen in years have donated, in fact people I've not even met have sponsored Mike or donated because of Claire.

During the worst of 'The Agony' (kind of like 'The Terror') I tried singing to take my mind off the pain, which only added to Mike's. What did work was thinking of all the people who had sponsored us. It made me realise, not for the first time, how very lucky we are to have friends like the friends that we do.

There are more pics on our Just Giving page but I'll leave you with a video of the true hero of this cycle ride, who had only done 25 miles training on a bike before this. Cheers Mike.

Gordon