Loch Rannoch Ride - A Taste of Etape Caledonia

The Etape Caledonia, (the 2013 edition of which takes place on the 12th of May), was the UK's first closed road cycling sportive. The event, part of the Highland-Perthshire Cycling Festival, has proved a roaring success and introduced the region to cyclists from across the UK. 

My personal Perthshire discovery came by way of seeking a ride to interrupt the car journey from Edinburgh, up the A9 and into the Highlands. What I discovered, and what thousands of others can already attest to, is some of the best cycling you’ll find anywhere in the world.

Strava Sucker

For the uninitiated, Strava is an app used by cyclists (and runners) to log their activity. Whilst you pedal it creates a map of your route, and compiles data on distance, time, average speed, altitude gained, etc.

Whether you like it or not, Strava also takes your time taken to ride “segments” (specific sections of road or their website, from there you can, “see where you rank and start moving up the leaderboards.”

A Strava Sucker in Action

trail) and then compares your results against other cyclists who’ve ridden that same segment. As they say on

I added Strava to my phone's apps late last year, mainly too see what all the fuss was about. A few uses and, although I liked that it generated a share-able map of my ride, the skeptic in me erred toward seeing it as little more than a way for show-offs to do a bit more showing off, the chance to turn every mundane rise in the road into a virtual race. The pessimist in me also began to worry about my lack of fitness.