Shakin' Shantiago digs in

It was a cold and frosty morning and the sun was shining brilliantly albeit resting lazily on the horizon as the posse set off for today's expedition.

A late call off from The Fit One due to muscle spasms (attributed to his new 'go faster' swimming stroke)meant the posse was reduced to a magnificent three with Santiago making his first cycling debut of 2010.

Bigman had to be back for 13:00 to make a charity engagement and so an early start was arranged for 08:30. The Posse pelted down the cycle track towards stirling like a bullet fired from a gun. The path was crisp yet clear of ice. Santiago maintained the pace magnificently.

Close to Clackmannan village, a number of trees are lying at 45 degrees across the cycle track and likely to give any unsuspecting speeding cycling at least a good doze of whiplash and at worst a good chance of knocking them off their mount. The Head of Holes has already responded to our report on pot holes. Maybe the Head of Fallen Trees is reading this blog today. You heard it first here.

Alloa was mere blur as we cruised through the Town Centre and out the other side. The posse felt good, the lead changing frequently to tackle the head on westerly wind on behalf of the team. With the three cyclists in 'train' formation, The Ironman resembled trains of a different era as his frosty breath created the illusion of a steam train powering through the countryside. The Flying Scotsman would have been proud of such a 'head of steam'.

The suburbs of Stirling were overrun within 65 minutes of setting off from Dunfie. An impressive pace given we were all on Mountain Bikes and Santiago was having his first outing with the posse of the year.

His pleasure at maintaining the pace was only matched by his disappointment that we had no plans to stop at Corrierri's for carbing up. The Posse Ecosse is in serious training mode. Men on a mission. After a brief stop to take on Tesco's finest toffee dried bananas, it was time to do some low flying cruising along the Ochils below radar and through Menstrie and Alva before tickling through Tillicoultry.

At this point Santiago started to get the shakes in his legs. He held the pace brilliantly, the only difference being on the hills where he faded slightly.

A senior cycling member was out on his Dawes heading for Auchterarder on a magnificent day. He tried to 'hitch' a lift with Bigamn and The Ironman however he was quickly thrown off the back only to be caught by Santiago with whom he acted like a tag along until Dollar.

The 22km from Stirling to Dollar was covered in 45 minutes at an average speed of 29kph. Impressive stuff. There was time to have a quick coffee stop before the Dunfie Cycle Club arrive en masse.

Back on the bike and 24 km back to Dunfie with the Beast of Dollarbeg to be overcome. It did not feel like a hill today and the Posse glided to the top without a drop of perspiration.

The kilometres to Saline passed in no time with the chat around plans for the rest of the day.

As we approached Saline The Ironman made a breakaway and powered up the mountainous climb and forgot to stop at the Golf Club and continued to power over to Carnock. Only an ice flow across the road halted his passage as memories of his swan like dive of last week came flooding back. A strange phenomena, however with care, easily passed by. We should not have such problems in South Africa in 7 weeks time.

Dunfermline was achieved in an equally impressive time of 24 km covered in just under the hour. Whilst the over all training run may have only lasted about 3 hours, the distance covered was 80 kilometres. This is pretty acceptable as the Posse move into the final training preparations.

Bigman had agreed to participate in a community fundraising event to raise funds for four Dunfie School Kids to have the opportunity of a lifetime to go to Canada for 4 weeks later this summer. Many people had offered to 15 minutes on a spin bike as part of a fundraising exercise. It was great to be involved and was much easier than the morning expedition. The Local Press turned up to snap Bigman in action albeit he had gone under a pseudonym, someone had briefed the press.

Another outing is planned tomorrow, with The Fit One promising to set a challenging pace. No pressure then!