Islay already has many events, festivals and other festivities and yet there is still room for more. There are always the weeks in between the festivals and other celebrations that can be used for something new, or should I say something recycled. I use the word recycled on purpose since the succesful Ride of the Falling Rain, organised by brian palmer and his partners from the velo club 'd Ardbeg, now has a one time spring edition due to the fact that the Ardbeg Committee celebrates its tenth birthday. For those of you unaware of its existence: "In 1999, the Ardbeg Distillery started a "fan club" of sorts by creating the Ardbeg Committee. The Ardbeg Committee was officially founded on The First Day of the First Month in the Year Two Thousand AD. That's "fancy speak" for, 1/1/2000. According to Rules and Regulations: Page 4, Section 2, the Committee is established to "promote the advancement of general knowledge and enjoyment of Ardbeg." You can say that they were very succesfull since they currently have around 80,000 members. There are certain benefits of being a member and one of them is the opportunity to buy committee bottlings not available to the general public. When you consider membership is free as well as the other benefits it's worth signing up yourself. Continue reading....

Now back to the reason of this post. As part of the celebrations brian palmer, mr. Islay cycling, is organising a fantastic pleasure ride of 100km (60 miles) over the island with start and finish at Ardbeg. Now this is not only a bike ride as you might have guessed by the name. The day starts with breakfast at Ardbeg distilleries' Old Kiln Cafe and ends with a three course dinner there as well. The food alone would be a good reason to join the ride as the people who have been to the restaurant know. The Old Kiln Cafe is famous for its quality food and when you consider that there will be a light lunch halfway at Debbies Minimarket you know that this will be a great day. And as said, in between the food and drink stops there is some pleasant cycling with other likeminded enthusiasts. In my opinion a day not to be missed and on top of all this there will be a very special guest present both during the ride and at night when he will speech for all present. His name is Graeme Obree and he is a Scottish racing cyclist who twice broke the world hour record, in July 1993 and April 1994. He was known for his unusual riding positions and for a bicycle he built which included parts from a washing machine. Is this perhaps the connection with brian's washingmachinepost blog? Join the ride on Saturday the 19th of June and find out yourself. The costs of this exclusive gourmet ride will be somewhere around £30 - £40 per rider and this includes the food and perhaps a dram or two. The ride is restricted to 50 riders so send brian an email soon to tell him that you will join too!

Tag: cycling ardbeg old kiln cafe events