Ta for the futher input:
Not sure if anyone has said this, but I don't think the school in Argyll & Bute take September weekend as a holiday?
No, they don't- but the people who would have furthest to travel would be those from Glasgow, and its a long w/e for them.
Having a bike challenge in Kintyre is a great idea and I would definitely be interested.I have done the Etape Caledonia for the last three years and that is a super bike ride.
I have a feeling though that to attract cyclists from around Scotland that the distance for the Ultimate Route would need to be longer. Why not have a round Kintyre challenge--from Campbeltown to Kennacraig to Claonaig to Carradale and back to Campbeltown a distance of approx 65 miles.Part of this route has been designated as Route 78 under the Sustrans National Cycle Network so it would be good to incorporate it in to the cycle challenge.The entry fee could be in the region of £25 for this event.The MOK challenge route could also take in the Macharioch circuit.The Family route is fine.
.....
Excellent, the Bronte challenge was approx half off-road and over the Pennines twice so 30-odd miles was deemed plenty, but I am well aware it is on the short side for serious road cyclists. I think there is scope for an 'off road' route too but will pick up on that in the future (
we could use 'bridleways' freely in England but the 'rights of access' are different here, and whilst you can get away with using forestry roads here on an individual basis I think further thought would be needed for an off-road route.)
- So we put in the 'round kintyre' route in as the
'ultimate' for the serious cylists, it'd be a good advert fro the Sustrans route as well as something for people to come 'do the whole of' on holidays?
- the
MOK ride with options to go or not to the Learside and/or the actual Mull - a kind of mix & match thing, with options to do the coast/B842 road and/or the Mull car park -
I think this can be more clearly explained better in detail later as a route which will appeal to the recreational cylists as an intermediate with harder/easier options.
Then the family ride as already explained.
....Also on at the September weekend is the Lochgilphead Triathlon and there is a Cycling weekend in Rothesay which attracts many cyclists from all over.Maybe a date in July/August or even at the October school holidays would be better. For instance the start of the Glasgow Fair as an example....
This is what we have largely been debating so far, I think given
2 clashing events we go for the October date this year, as Glasgow fair week is a bit too imminent for this yr I think.
the weather has changed by then and with families if the weather was inclement I would be less likely to take my youngest out. But earlier can clash with other things like cowal games and Music Festival here. So there is no solusion to a date,and those who can make it will!
Much as I'd like to be able to 'book' nice weather for the event, I think this is really in the lap of the gods! One of the things we did with the Yorkshire event was to always issue a 'feedback form' to the participants and read the ones that could come back, we could feed in targeted questions into this. So for now I think go for the Oct date this yr. We can if the weather is looking bleak put a question on the lines of:
would you be any more or less likely to come back next year if the event was held on Glasgow fair weeks instead of October? We did do the Yorkshire event in October one year, and it was dry but windy, so was the MOK run this yr, I really do think that you have to take the weather as it comes
Excepting the weather does anyone have ideas of any problems with the October date?
Cheers, Russ