The last day and only 41 miles to go but we had a headwind yet again and there were heavy showers forecast early afternoon. So we had breakfast early and were on the bikes by 8:30 heading straight uphill, up and across the A9 so as to avoid the A9 !
After about 6 miles we crossed back under the A9 and onto the Firth of Cromarty at Barbaraville before a difficult ride along the shoreline into a strong wind to Invergordon. We saw multiple rigs in the firth and a huge bridgeway across to a large jetty out on the firth just before Invergordon near Saltburn.
We continued through Evanton and in the woods we saw two events vans setting up feed stations and as we climbed the hill several cyclists started to pass us, by the op of the hill maybes 10 had passed but as we descended and few hundred feet into Dingwall we passed around 30 more.
From Dingwall we eventually rounded the firth at Conon Bridge and as we headed South East we had no headwind for ghe first time in 3 or 4 days. We shadowed the A9 on cycle paths down to North Kessock where we went under the bridge and up a steep rise to the cyclepath on the bridge. Once over the Moray/Beauly Firth we swung left and round past Inverness Caledonian Thistle football ground before a straight ride once more into a stiff headwind for the last 2 miles to town.
And that was it North Coast 500 Done !
Distance = 512 miles
Elevation = 31600 ft