Ride 08/03/2025

25 of us on the bun run this morning and weather wise it’s a decent day, mild, dry, little wind with some sunshine here and there. I went with the first “fast” group and boy was it fast today 😳 I was probably spared the worse since I had injured myself on Tuesday, so had taken a day off cycling to recover and only did recovery rides thereafter, so I had a decent recovery period up till today. Still although I was prepared it’s been one of the fastest rides I done this year so far, especially for a bun run. Anyhow usual fuel at the cafe stop and we did the extended route home to Milnathort, although not all the way in, we cut the “corner” a little bit to head into Kinross. It was a full gas effort most of the way round today which did fracture the group a bit here and there, but I didn’t mind as I needed the “training effect” to get back up to pace. At Kelty we all started to go our separate ways home before I split to go up to Hill of Beath and home. So 50 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 19 mph which by my terms is fast 😁

Ride 02/03/2025

11 of us on the bun run today and weather wise it’s almost identical as yesterday but a little bit windier. We went as one group doing the usual route and cafe stop only this time it was a more “sensible” ride and I could have a casual zone 2 ride today 😁 The usual coffee and cake were had at the cafe stop before we headed back home again. Nothing much else to say on the ride other than 50 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 15 mph, a good days cycling.

Ride 01/03/2025

I didn’t count how many were on the bun run today but enough for 3 groups 😄 Weather wise it’s overcast, chilly, a little windy but dry. I set out in the first group of 8 doing the usual fast pace, I was 17.5 mph avg by the time we got to the cafe stop and it only got faster after that 😅 Usual beverage and food were had at Sterling Mills cafe and once finished we decided to do a little bit extra today by skipping out Knockhill and heading for Milnathort, Kinross and Kelty instead. We pretty much hammered it from Dollar to Milnathort resulting in my avg speed increasing to 18.5 mph 😳 thankfully I had come prepared with some extra fuel so I was actually ok by the time we got there. Anyway we calmed down a bit on our way to Kinross and Kelty and by the time I got back to Dunfermline I was on my own so I did a little bit more by heading down to Duloch and then back up to Crossgates. So overall I rode 57 miles at just shy of 18 mph avg speed and got home in time to miss the rain that eventually came 😁

Ride 22/02/2025 Feb Randonee

18 of us today doing the clubs first Randonee of the year, a 61 miles route to Auchtermuchty and back over a lot of climbing 😁 Weather wise it’s a decent day for February, overcast but with some sunshine, no rain, but where was a strong tailwind to start with, which would make for a fun return. We split into 2 groups with me in the first one heading towards Loch Leven where the shorter route of the day will split from us as we then head for Leslie and up our first hill climb of the day, Falkland. This is technically the biggest climb of the day but we are doing it from the easier side, whereas when I do the hill climb race it’s up from the steeper harder side 😬😰 From here we head to Auchtermuchty for our cafe stop of the day which consisted of a very tasty scrambled egg roll and orange juice. After the cafe stop we were into the strong headwind 😨heading up our second climb of the day Glentarkie. Again this is from the easier side before heading back down to Aberargie and along the A913 heading for Bridge of Earn, in a bloody headwind. We don’t go that far as we turn off for our third climb of the day up Glenfarg, which is a gradual easy climb, depending on how hard you go up of course, which in my attempt to keep up with Paul and Dougie was flat out and as hard as I could go 🥵 Not the smartest thing to do as we still had some more climbing but I made it 😊 We then head for Milnathort via Duncrievie and into Kinross. This is where we had our first split of the group, some people were tired at this point and decided to skip out the last of the climbing and head straight into Kelty and home. I stayed with Paul, Douglie, Alan and Colin as we headed for Cleish and our last hill climb of the day, Knockhill. It was here that everyone in the group decided to go up Cleish hill instead and home from there. I did not, so I was alone from here on doing the last climb of the day over Knockhill and back home from Dunfermline. Suffice to say after clocking up 70 miles at an avg speed of 15 mph and 4500 feet of climbing I’m pretty tired now.

Ride 16/02/2025

14 of us on the bun run today and weather wise it’s better than yesterday, still damp, cold and overcast but a bit warmer than yesterday and in the last 30 mins of cycling we actually got some sunshine. Quite a mixed group of talent in the group today so we started as a single group but didn’t end that way. We were fine until we got down to Dollar when a few decided to do a sprint to the cafe stop at Tillicoultry. I missed the boat here but was able to stay in the second group that set off after the first group, hard going though 🥵 Anyway at the cafe stop it was the usual coffee and cake before we headed back but this time we split the group into 2 making for a much more manageable ride home. So 50 miles clocked up at just under 17 mph and no incidents this time 😀

Ride 15/02/2025

Well it started with 11 of us on the ride today and weather wise it was cold and drizzling for the most part. We went as one group but by the time we got Torryburn Paul had managed to snap his chain, far too much power that boy 😂 so he and Archie abandoned the ride leaving 9 of us. We made it to the cafe without incident where I was able to eat my usual fuel intake. Afterwards it was decided to do some extra miles and it was here the group shrank even more with 3 other rides going a different route. We decide to head for Milnathort but at Muckhart 2 other riders went a different route which left only 4 of us doing the extra mileage. We soldiered on but it was around Kelty my power meter battery decided to die, but I kept going with the rest. With other turning off before Dalgety bay and at Dalgety bay it was just me and Nick left and I split from him by heading for Dunfermline and he for Crossford. I made it as far as Dunfermline before I split my front tyre, luckily I heard it rubbing against my bike frame and was able to stop before it blew the inner tube out. I still had 5 miles to go at this point but stopped the ride and faced the long walk back home. It was around about this point I remembered Crush cycles were in town so a quick phone call to ascertain if they had a tyre and me having to walk back into town ☹️ (thankfully it wasn’t far to go) I was able to get a replacement tyre and cycle back home again 😁 So 60 miles clocked up with an avg speed of 15 mph, but I actually cycled 65 miles, and even walked a few hundred meters to boot.

Ride 09/02/2025

Well it started with 4 of us on the bun run today, weather wise it was overcast and wet but we missed the rain at least, just not the mucky roads 😕 Paul had his Di2 battery go flat so he abandoned the ride before we got to the cafe stop at Tillicoultry, which left me with Alan and Archie, so no chance of an easy Sunday ride today. Cake and coffee we had at the cafe stop along with all the energy bars and goodies I had in my bike bag, as I was going to be needing them 😬 The ride back home was pacey, not outrageous but enough to knacker me out after 6 days of continuous riding. Suffice to say Garmin said I needed 3 days to recover which I don’t have 😵 so next week is going to be fun… So 50 miles clocked up at an avg pace of 17 mph, about 2 mph faster than I would normally do on a Sunday 😳 and now all I need to do is clean the bike 🙄

Ride 08/02/2025

20+ of us on the bun run today and weather wise it was quite the mixed bag of a little bit of wind, rain, sunshine and snow 😐 quite frankly the weather didn’t know what it was doing. Anyway I joined the first faster group as per usual on our way to the cafe stop, it was here we got the sunshine and tailwind. After my usual roll with hash browns and sausage and orange juice we headed back home the normal route where we were hit with the wind and rain, it wasn’t raining hard or a lot but enough to be irritating. It was at the point of going over Knockhill that that rain became sleet and snow 🙁 my saving grace was I was going hard over Knockhill so I didn’t get too cold or wet and by the time I had got over it, it had stopped snowing or raining and we got the sun back 🤷‍♂️ Anyhow 47 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 16 mph.

Ride 02/02/2025

7 of us on the bun run today and weather wise it’s a bit milder than yesterday, around 4 degrees or so, but it did rain last night so the roads were wet still. Usual route to the cafe stop today but the group split so I ended up riding with David, Paul and Mark until we got to the cafe stop. Coffee and cake were had as per usual before we headed home but this time I was just riding with David as everyone else had shot off. So overall it was a good ride today I did 50 miles at an easy pace, avg 16 mph 🙂

Ride 01/02/2025

I didn’t count how many were on the bun run today and I even forgot to post last Sundays ride altogether 😣 So starting with the new month at an educated guess there were over 20 of us at the start of the ride and as per usual I joined the first faster group heading on the usual route to our cafe stop. Weather wise it was dry but cold, couple of degrees above freezing but not windy, so a decent day to cycle. 11 of us in the first group doing a decent pace to the cafe stop at Sterling Mills. I had my new regular meal of orange juice and a hash brown and square sausage roll with brown sauce 😊 The scramble egg roll has to be cooked whilst I wait and the roll they use makes it soggy 🥺 so not having to wait for my meal and getting a “solid” roll was the better option. Afterwards we took the usual route home up to Yetts and doing the full knockhill climb from Powmill, I pretty much lead the whole way with only Colin and Joe in tow 😉 So 47 miles clocked up at an avg speed of just under 17 mph 👍

Ride 18/01/2025

27 of us on the bun run this morning which isn’t bad for the middle of winter. We split into 3 groups with me joining the faster first group as per usual. The route was a slight detour to the norm, rather than going the back roads we stuck to the main roads down to Tillicoultry and our cafe stop. Doing things different this week fuel wise I still had the orange juice but changed up the scrambled egg roll for a roll with square sausage and hash browns 😀. The route home was the usual one though so 45 miles clocked up at just shy of 17 mph avg.

Ride 12/01/2025

I wasn’t cycling yesterday due to the frozen weather conditions but today had “warmed” up a bit to zero degrees which was tolerable. So 7 of us on the bun run today doing the usual route to the cafe stop. Little bits of snow and ice here and there but nothing to get worried about and the roads had been gritted so we were fine all the way to the cafe stop. Coffee and cake were had before we cycled back home again. So 50 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 15 mph, a standard bun run winters day 😊