Ferry Interviews - Lindsay McCrae (cap 142)

On Monday morning I cycled out to the IJmuiden ferry to interview the first few riders as they headed south. I'll be publishing some of them over the week. This is the second interview to be published (but 1st to be recorded), with Lindsay McCrae (cap 142). You can listen via soundcloud below, or there is a transcript below.

https://soundcloud.com/user-135119035/ferry-interview-with-lindsey

J: Can you say your name and your cap number.

L: Lindsay McCrae, 1 4 2

J: Cool. Do you realize you're in 3rd?

L: No. (both laugh)

J: You are in third place.

L: OK, I thought when I left the café this … last night, I thought I was in 6th or 7th, cos I took a couple of hours at the café.

J: Everyone slept.

L: OK, so I’ve passed them in the night

J: Yeah. … You have 131, sorry 121, and 31 are ahead of you. Ah, behind you, about 20k, is number 5 and number 1. So 1 is Bas from last year, 31 is Daan who came second last year. So you’re 3rd.

L: So I expect the two behind me to pass me at some point.

J: Unfortunately. The … er … so … Bas slept for about six hours, and he’s storming it down the coast.

L: So he will catch me then.

J: Unfortunately.

L: Have the two in front of me stopped, d’you know?

J: Yes.

L: Okay. Oh well. … So … fifth.

J: Have you stopped … during the night?

L: I had an hour and a half at the café. And that was it.

J: How much have you slept since the start?

L: An hour and a half.

J: It’s Monday morning. You’ve been going over 48 hours, and you’ve had an hour and a half. … Incredible.

L: Well. Yeah, it just go till … the plan was just to … I’ve got a bivvy and stuff so just go until I was sleepy, so … the rain and the wind helped keep me awake … first night … ehm … and I was a bit drowsy this morning but again that big heavy shower and stuff …

J: What’s the weather been like for you?

L: Ehm … the first half of Saturday was really good, and then, we kind of turned into a headwind, and then there was a bit of rain, ehm, but finished off ok apart from the Garmin problems, ehm, and then this morning was nice, and then just an hour or two ago ehm just heavy … heavy showers and it got really cold really fast … and … so I’m wearing most of my clothes now.

(J laughs)

L: But if it … I think it’s to improve the rest of today, tomorrow … so, I’ll see how far I get between now and then if I need to …

J: Bike working ok?

L: Eh, yes, apart from the fact that I’m no good at making U-turns on small roads in big gear

(J laughs)

L: I think I’ve been over about three times

J: Oh, blimey!

L: So eh … yeah that’s, eh, a new skill I need to learn. Cause the garmin just stopped … stopped giving me cues … so I was just trying to have to follow the map … ehm … which is no good at night … ehm … so I, I was overshooting quite a few times, ehm, and eh, yeah. And then yesterday I don’t know what I did. It just, it kind of just froze my track, I wasn’t moving, like my wee dot wasn’t moving at all, so … I was all through the bluebells, as they say … and just after you come over the big bridge … so between there and the café I was just everywhere, I was …

J: Ah, yeah.

L: Oh, it was, I was all … though parks and … the, the the surfaces here are brilliant, but if you get lost, it’s just a rabbit warren of bike paths (laughs, snorts) just … I want

J: Is this your first time cycling in the Netherlands?

L: Yes. Yes. I’ve cottoned on to the wrong side of the road and the, you know, the roundabouts and the kind of basic strategies of things, quite quick, but then, as I say, in the parks and stuff, when you’re trying to navigate, it just … wasn’t happening, yeah.

J: How’d you get on with the sheep?

L: The sheep … are a bit like they are in Scotland … you just kind of let them know you’re coming and they just turn round and look at you with disdain … ehm … so yeah that was fine. That was ok. Ehm, yeah, no near misses. I got hit in the face by a bat

(J laughs)

L: … aye, we did a bit of a tangle with an owl this morning, I thought, there’s a kind of … just out the side of the light, I thought there’s like an egg-shaped rock beside the road … which then turned its head and looked at me and then took off and kind of came up through there, so there was a bit of argybargy and then it left –

J: He’s pointing at his armpit there.

L: Eh. But then I saw … lots of cats, some big … big hares this morning … an otter …

J: What? You've hit all of these as well, or …?

L: No, these were just visuals, so, I think it, I’m pretty sure it was an otter, eh, crossing in front of me … yeah no it’s been quite eventful.

J: Cool.

L: Playing leapfrog, as you do with, eh, a couple of the guys … ehm …

J: What’s your strategy for the rest of the day? Or the rest of the race?

L: Just … plough on. … See how it goes.

J: You’ve got … more behind you than in front of you, so …

L: That’s it, it’s just, it’s … it’s … ticking down the numbers now, so

J: Yeah.

L: And … and if I can get through today ok, and keep fed and watered quite well … I think most of the remote areas have gone.

J: Just remember there’s bugger all in Zeeland

L: How … how far where away from …

J: Zeeland’s about thirteen hundred kilometres form the start – that area

L: Ok, ok

L: Well I, I think, I can usually carry about enough for, if I stock up, from there on I can get about ten hours on the bike, so … I’ve just been, because all the gas stations now, are generally shut, or no shop, I eh, I just, if I see somewhere open, I just tend to …

L: Yeah.

L: … fill the bike up and … take it from there.

J: Favourite food so far?

L: Eh, this morning was salted cashew nuts, ehm, and I hit … it’s not a, ehm, I’ve been a bit disappointed with Jumbo in terms of fresh ready meals, but there’s one with a blue, blue red, two words with blue, haas something, they made a, this eggs and like kind of, we would call them, kind of pies and bridies kind of thing back home, just … fantastic, that was last night and I was needing it at that point.

J: Is this your first race?

L: Eh, my third.

J: What were your others?

L: Biking Man Portugal and Biking Man Oman. Eh, last year in February.

J: You want to get to the front there because that’s about to open, and, er, I will get out of your way.

L: Right.

J: Cool!

L: Good to see you!

J: Thank you very much!

Thanks to dotwatcher Ben Hemmens for transcribing this interview.