Evans Cycle Lanark Road Ride 30/07/2017
So todays event is the Evans cycles Lanark ride and again it’s a wet windy day. I’ve opted to do the medium ride as the long one would probably got me caught in the thunder storms forecast. With a westerly wind the north south course meant it wasn’t too bad just had to deal with the cross winds and the rain was light. Last year was so much better we had great sunny weather and I was able to do the long route but it wasn’t to be the case this year
Another stupid windy day so decided to do a smaller ride. Along Carron Valley to Fintry, down to Kippen, along to Stirling and back home for lunch.
Ride 08/07/2017 Falkirk to Cupar
Well it was a nice sunny day but again strong winds making my life difficult. Decided to ride to Cupar, it’s been a while since I’ve gone there and I usually just ride through it on my way to St Andrews. It would be a long tough ride mostly for me having a tailwind to Cupar but the headwind all the way home, 45 miles in a head wind sucks but even more so since I’ve already cycled the 45 miles to Cupar. Anyway made it home albeit slightly slower that usual.
Ride 01/07/2017 Aberfeldy Loop
Well this was a tough ride! not a particularly long one but tough because of the hills and the fucking headwind. I decided I would ride around Loch Tay and Loch Earn. Loch Earn is a nice ride I’ve done it before but I’ve never ridden around Loch Tay and I may think twice about doing again especially into the damn wind. The loop starts at Creiff and head towards Aberfeldy then along Loch Tay and around to Loch Earn and back to Creiff. To get to Aberfeldy I had to ride up a 1400 foot hill which wasn’t too bad as at this time I wasn’t cycling against the wind but once I got past Aberfely I was into a strong headwind heading up hill past Loch Tay. This seemed to stretch on forever and by the time I got to Killin I was knackered and in for a large slap in the face. I didn’t know about the hill up to Glenogle which was a hard 1000 foot climb. I was in first gear all of the way and suffering because I was still fighting the frigging wind.Thank god by the time I got down to Loch Earn it was a flat ride but I was really struggling now and still had 20 miles to go. Thankfully I now had a tailwind which pushed me back to Creiff otherwise I would have been in trouble and going very slow indeed. It even had the cheek to get cloudy and start to rain a little but it didn’t last long. 74 hard miles clocked up and I’m glad to be home.
On a dull windy day, after yesterdays gale force winds, I decided to stick close to home and do a quick 50 miles before lunchtime. I basically did a figure eight going to Stirling and back where I would be riding headwind first and tailwind second on each loop. It’s always a slog into the wind and because I was trying to keep my average up my legs are knackered now, anyway I got 50 miles under 3 hours so I’m happy with that.
Well it started out as a dull windy day but has actually turned out to be a nice afternoon, warm too. So decided to cycle to Balloch, going North via Milton Campsie and returning South via Dumbarton, Bearsden and Kirkintilloch. It was windy on the out ride but turned into a nice day for the return ride. All in all 75 miles clocked up if you go by the Garmin which decided to stop at the start and I didn’t notice it until I got to Bonnybridge which would have made it an 80 mile ride
Bit of a dull windy warm day, with rain the morning I chose to ride after lunch so did a small loop around Kirkliston, returning home via Bathgate.
Overcast day with some sunny spells here and there but little wind, unfortunately rain scheduled for this afternoon so I decided to do my Forth loop today. Quick ride today due to the forecast of rain I wanted to get back home before lunch time. Not a bad time clocked up 2 hours 12 mins with an average of 18 mph, not the fastest time I’ve done it, that was 2 hours 9 mins but a third place best time for me so I’m happy with that
Well after yesterdays piss take rain today was a much better day, not as hot but it was sunny and dry, unfortunately the wind from yesterday was still around. Decided to do a loop around the Campsie Fells and then through Stirling onto Dollar and then back home over the Kinkardine bridge. Knocked out 78 miles in 4 hours 40 mins which given the wind is pretty good going for me, I even manages to get 70 miles done in 4 hours but slowed down after that as I was knackered
Bit of a dull wet day so decided to do a quick ride rather than a long one. Did a loop to Glasgow and back knocking up 45 miles, didn’t have my booties on so I got cold wet feet by the time I got home anyway here’s hoping for better weather next week.
Since the weather was better today I decided to ride today rather than Saturday, although I still had to contend with a bloody headwind on the return leg of the ride. So I decided to do an extended ‘Around the Forth’ loop to bump the mileage up from 40 miles to 50 miles and ride it as fast as I can. This was fine with the tail wind to the Forth Road Bridge but a nightmare after that on the way back to Falkirk. This was also compounded with me riding the hilly part of the ride at the end of the ride into the headwind, but saying that I didn’t do too bad I still managed to get an average 16 mph for the ride in total so I’m happy with that
Well it was a nice sunny but unfortunately it was also a windy day, blowing towards Glasgow. I decided to do my Full Ochils loop today which under normal circumstances would be a long ride but today it was a tough one with the headwind. I had headwind on the first leg out and the last leg back home. Going out wasn’t too bad as I had fresh legs but coming home was hard work on tired legs. The wind threw my speed out the window, down to 14 mph today, I’ve done this ride at 16 mph in the past. Anyway 82 miles knocked out and at least I didn’t get burnt