What’s it like to participate in Ride to the Sun: Mackenzie Barker

How far could you ride your bike in just one day? Well in this episode listener Mackenzie Barker recalls his experience of a huge ride he completed which also included taking in the 2024 edition of Ride to the Sun. This is an annual event held on the Summer Solstice in Scotland.  But Mackenzie extended the riding distance by also riding to the event from his home.  A total distance of 343kms.  He shares what it was like on this day.

Now be sure to give Mackenzie a follow to keep up with his future adventures - you can find him on instagram @rekrab82 and if you happen to be in Edinburgh be sure to check out @BikeTraxEdinburgh as well.

Want to be featured for an episode of Cycle Shorts - send me a DM on instagram - @SeekTravelRide 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hello everyone, it's Bella Malloy here, host of Seek Travel Ride. Welcome to another episode of Cycle Shorts, our midweek mini episodes where I happily feature one of our listeners sharing what it was like during one day of their trip. Now, this week's a little bit different because the trip wasn't one that spanned multiple days, but it did take a whole day. So this story is being told by listener Mackenzie Barker, and McKenzie is going to talk about Ride to the Sun, one of those events that has taken off in popularity and is held in Scotland on the summer solstice. But Mackenzie's twist on this event was that he wasn't just riding the event himself, he was going to ride to it and then finish off. So he sort of doubled up the distance. Without any further ado, let's listen to Mackenzie talk about what it was like on one day of his trip.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Hi Bella. I'm here to talk about my one-day ride of the Scottish summer classic Ride of the Sun. If you're a Scottish road cyclist, you will at some point find yourself riding Ride of the Sun. It is a flattish, 100-mile ride through the night on the longest day of the year, from Carlisle, just south of the English border, to Crammon Beach, part of the North Shore of Edinburgh. The goal is to reach Cramon to catch a sunrise around 420 in the morning. The ride is modeled after the Dunnish Dynamo that leaves from Hackney in London. I had ridden Ride of the Sun before back in 2022, in the traditional manner from south to north. This time, for a challenge, I thought I would have a crack at riding it from my house down to Carlisle and then back up to Cramon with the other thousand plus participants. To make it a touch more challenging, I was going to ride my track bike, which is just that. A bike with no gears and no brakes, just your legs to speed you up and slow you down. I planned my route so that I found a shop approximately every 50 kilometers on the way down to Carlisle. So I didn't have to carry any food and could travel fast and light. On the morning of the ride, I left my house at nine and headed southwest into a pretty standard Scottish headwind, which was going to be in my face the whole way down to Carlisle. I met up with another cyclist in West Linton who wanted some company on the way down to Carlisle. We chatted, but he was way too fast for me, and I ended up pushing a bit harder than I should to have to keep pace with him. We took a really nice scenic route down south, doing a climb called Patty Slags, then along St. Mary's Lock, past the Grey Maristail waterfall, to Moffat. Here we joined the traditional route where approximately a thousand plus cyclists would be heading northbound in just a few hours. I had originally expected to arrive in Carlisle around seven PM, but we arrived at five, which meant if we were to get to Cram at around four thirty, I could have almost a two and a half hour break before heading back up north. I had some fish and chips, a couple of cups of tea, some ice cream, and relaxed on the grass. It was a lovely atmosphere with a familiar face arriving every couple of minutes. Finally, another chap named Andrew and I headed together back up northwards around 7 p.m. As I mentioned before, twelve hundred to thirteen hundred people take part in this ride. It has no real set-off time, so there is just a constant steady stream of people and bikes heading up north, and you can see the flickering of taillights ahead of you the entire time. We quickly crossed the Scottish border again and stopped for a photograph at the famous Welcome to Scotland sign. When we hit Lockerby, I came off the route because I needed to get some food at the shop. I then texted Isa Murtaugh to see where she was en route before heading to my next stop, the halfway point, a town called Moffat. Isa was there because her husband had earlier in the day taken the train south to Lockerbie and was planning on joining the ride of the Sunroute there, but he was going to run the 73 miles to Crammon Beach. I quickly found her in Moffat, harassing a fellow cyclist who had a PBP jersey on. I grabbed Isa, we found Andrew, and we headed up the only real climb on the ride of the Sunroo, the Devil's Beeftub, which usually takes about thirty minutes to get up. As we were climbing, we are passing cyclists and chatting, following the constant stream of flickering red light snaking the way up into the darkness. At the top, the organizers have a person playing bagpipes to signify the route being halfway over and the top of the hill. Now comes the bit that I wasn't looking forward to. It's a 23 to 25 minute descent down to the next checkpoint, the crook in. Organizers have set up a cyclore rave with loud techno music and bananas. It's the last real stop before the finish. Twenty-five minutes on descending on a track bike is horrible. Cadence is very high and relentless. About 120, 130 revolutions per minute. Isa and Andrew could freewheel, so they disappeared down the hill, and I tried to manage my descending speed the best I could so I could still perform an emergency stop if required. I reached the bottom of the crook in, and it turned out it was hot in their heels the whole way down. They hadn't gotten too far ahead, maybe only half a kilometer. We had a short break, some bananas, we topped up bottles, took selfies with other riders we recognized, then continued northbound into the night. By now, Isa and I kept checking Tom's GPS tracker to see when we were running to him, as he was still running to Edinburgh and was only a short distance ahead of us. The three of us continued riding north through the night, and we eventually hit Pennycook around 1.30 in the morning and finally spotted Tom. He was still running towards Edinburgh, and he was about six or seven miles from the finish. Isa asked him if he needed anything, and he said, Edinburgh. We cracked on and entered Edinburgh around two in the morning and got to Cramot around half two in the morning. We sat and ate bacon rolls and chili and a cups of tea, and it was so nice how we kept adding one chair after another to our table as friends and friends of friends joined us and everyone was smiling. We checked Charles' tracker and he was approaching, so we headed down to the beach and waited for his arrival. At 3 41 in the morning, he ran down onto the Cramot promenade. With everyone together and more and more familiar faces arriving at Cramon. At 4 20, the sun finally cracked the horizon and the organizers gave their annual thank you speech. I'm so glad I stuck around this time to catch a sunrise and soak up the post-ride vibe.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Thank you so much, Mackenzie, for sharing your story with us here on Seek Travel Ride. I love the idea of this event, and I especially love the idea that so many people are taking new twists on it, that the event itself isn't just the thing that's getting people to it, but the extra adventure that you took on to actually ride that extra distance. And look, I'll be honest with you, I think you're a little bit nuts for taking your track bike, but full power to you, and wow, I can't even fathom what it would be like to ride a track bike just for a kilometer, yet alone what it would have been like down that really long descent, spinning such a high cadence, keeping everything in control, and as you said, at a speed where you would still be able to perform an emergency break. Kudos to you, you certainly have all the mad skills. I also really loved hearing about you sharing some of the ride with previous guest Isa Murth as well. Hello, Isa. And what an incredible adventure her partner Tom was on. Running that distance absolutely blows my mind. I guess one of the things that I especially loved hearing was everybody sort of staying around after the event had finished, and that notion that as the sunrise got closer and closer and more people came in, more and more chairs were added to the table, more people came in for a cup of tea, maybe a bacon buddy, and just great chat there waiting for that sun to come up. Sounds like an incredible event, and I think I might need to add it to my bucket list. Now, if you want to be featured for one of these episodes, the best way to do so is to get in touch with me and send me a direct message on Instagram. Our account there is at SeekTravel Ride, so it's pretty easy to find. Get on Instagram and send me a DM, and I'll give you some more details about how you can share an audio file for a future episode of Cycle Shorts. As always, I'd just like to take this opportunity to also say a big heartfelt thank you to all of my super fans who have once again bought me virtual coffees to help fund the running costs of Seek Travel Ride. Here's a shout out to Jesse's Expedition who says, Woo! I love this podcast series, and as I've been undertaking my first bikepacking trip, it has been lovely to listen and get inspiration and ideas from. I hope it continues for a long time and maybe I can contribute one day. Well, Jesse, maybe you can. Definitely keep in touch with me. Let me know about these adventures that you're taking on your bikepacking expeditions. Keep drawing on that inspiration. Be careful of which episodes you listen to. You never know, you might be lining yourself up for a round the world trip before you know it. Jenny says, Thank you. I love the stories and insightful questions. Thanks so much for doing it. Well, Jenny, it's a pleasure to bring the episodes to you each and every week, and I'm really happy to hear that you're drawing some inspiration by listening to the stories of our guests as well. Thanks for supporting the show. Now, listeners, once again, if you want to support the show, the easiest way to do so is to hit the Buy Me a Coffee link in the show notes, and you can show me some appreciation for the work that I do putting these episodes together for you each and every week. Until the next episode, I'm Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening to the bigger.