S10 Ep141: Explore | Tour d'Écosse stage 1: Gretna – Castle Douglas
The Cycling Podcast
The Cycling Podcast
4.7 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Starting from Gretna's Raydale Park ground, it's a ride of just over 75 kilometres to Castle Douglas. They tick off the first two football grounds – Annan Athletic's Galabank and Palmerston Park, the home of Queen of the South.
Lionel sets out alone because Simon has some last-minute mechanical issues that require professional assistance. On the way, they meet Giancarlo Rinaldi who explains the history of Scotland's Italian immigrants and that the bicycle was invented in Dumfries, and Lionel proves to be quite handy at curling... although Simon insists it's just beginner's luck.
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The Tour d'Écosse routes were created using the Hammerhead dashboard and Lionel and Simon followed the yellow line and the Karoo 2's turn-by-turn directions from Gretna to Dingwall. For a limited time, listeners to The Cycling Podcast can get a free heart-rate monitor with the purchase of a Hammerhead Karoo 2. Visit hammerhead.io and use promo code CYCLE at checkout when you've added both items to your cart.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Tour de Cours, a series for explore. The beautiful game on two wheels, supported |
| 0:09.0 | by the cycling podcast title sponsors Super Sapiens. |
| 0:12.9 | The Scottish FA Cup 4th round, Freakens City Nile, the United One, Clyde Bank against |
| 0:19.6 | Bernan is a league kick off, the D1, Medibank Tissle, one. |
| 0:24.6 | Allower Athletic, Airdrianians, Heart of Midlothian, Hamilton Academicall, Queens Park, Queen |
| 0:32.4 | of the South. |
| 0:35.7 | These are names I associate with the Saturday T-times of my childhood. When I'd sit down |
| 0:40.8 | to watch the football results on BBC's Grandstand programme, and the mention of Stenhouse |
| 0:45.9 | Muir and Sterling Albion would conjure up images of, well, images of what exactly. I really |
| 0:51.8 | didn't know. They sounded exotic far away places, with a touch of romance and mystery that |
| 1:04.7 | the Muir familiar English club seemed to lack. |
| 1:08.9 | I'm Lionel Bernie, and I grew up two doors down from Simon Gill. As children, our two |
| 1:18.2 | obsessions were football and then a little later cycling. We played and watched football |
| 1:23.3 | together, and we'd head into the Hertfordshire lanes on our bikes, pretending we were riding |
| 1:28.0 | the Tour de France. |
| 1:31.3 | When the pandemic put life on pause, we talked about what we'd like to do when we could |
| 1:35.2 | travel again. I said I wanted to do a multi-day bike ride of some sort. Simon said he wanted |
| 1:41.5 | to visit and photograph every Scottish football league ground. We looked at a map and realized |
| 1:47.6 | we could combine the two ideas. The Tour de Coss was born, the beautiful game on two wheels. |
| 1:55.1 | There are so many questions to be answered over the course of this series, when we make |
| 1:59.0 | it as far as four far without falling out, why a cowdenbeath called the Blue Brazil, |
| 2:04.4 | what actually is Iron Brew, and do my ancestors really hail from Bernie? |
... |
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