North Coast 500 cyclist shatters record time despite near-constant rain and perilous potholes
The roads on the North Coast 500 should be maintained to the highest standards
Imagine setting off to cycle 516 miles. That’s a really long way, right? Now make it more difficult by adding in climbs that are the equivalent of more than ten Munro mountains. Oh, and if that’s not quite hard enough, we’re afraid it’s going to rain for most of the way. So, how long do you think it would take you? A week? Five days, if you really went for it?
Well, cyclist Caroline Livesey has just ridden that distance – on the North Coast 500 route – in just 32 hours and 22 minutes, breaking the women’s record by more than four hours. It was, the 47-year-old said, a “truly insane experience”. It was also an absolutely extraordinary feat of human endurance.
Given the North Coast 500’s success as a high-profile tourist route, most people would expect the one thing Livesey could count on would be the quality of the roads. And while she did say that some were “brilliant”, she also reported that others had “a lot of potholes” – a serious hazard for cyclists.
Come on Scotland! We really do need to be better than this.
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