Day 20 - Newton Stuart to Troon - 95 kms

A day that promised much and delivered chaos as we decided on different routes to Ayr!

The day started so well as we left Newton Stuart earlyish courtesy of a crap nights sleep at the YHA and we were soon riding through beautiful undulating scenery on a forest trail to Glen Trool.

The going got immediately tougher at this point with a long 4-5% climb - in an interesting break from tradition Team Henley missed the one and only turning pt claiming snow blindness and bitumenitis leaving Team Litchfield at the bottom of a 6km descent for nearly an hour wondering what had gone wrong

Lost in Scotland !

Having to climb another steep hill to gain mobile reception at which pt Kev had confirmed that he was now lost on another route

This was not as surprising as being approached by another cyclist fellow end to ender James Davis (see yesterday's blog) who despite leaving an hour before us had been re routed by his GPS onto an A road where he promptly suffered 3 punctures!

By this time Henley had officially reported in by text as being lost and was advised to head generally towards Troon and report in with the name of a town so
I could guide him with the
Map

Another couple of hours on I was just a little miffed to find out that while I'd been waiting and generally dicking around including a descent that tool me through freshly laid bitumen that clogged my tyres with tar and every rock and piece of dirt around I learnt that Kev was now relaxing and having lunch some 15 kms ahead of me in Ayr

I rode the 15kms at treacle speed on squelching tyres with only 1 intent - to ram the remainder of Kevs lunch up his ...

The rest of the ride while quiet was uneventful going through Ayr, Prestwick and the Royal
Troon golf club to our accommodation on the outskirts if scenic Troon

With a little luck well both end up on the same ferry to Nth Ireland tomorrow but it's
unlikely that Kev will be sitting down without discomfort for a few days!

Ps James made his destination as well despite also going through the same freshly laid bitumen - now I know why the road closed sign some 10kms before was in place!