Bit of a dull wet start for today’s ride but 7 of us still turned up. I’m still on call so I wasn’t going to go too far today so I just stuck to the normal bun run route today with a slight detour at the end to get a little extra miles in.
It’s a nice day today, a little chilly in the morning but it soon warmed up when the sun came out. No rain or wind today so it was a good ride. About 23 of us today doing the bun run and since I’m on call I wasn’t going for a long one today. So it was the usual route to the cafe stop and after we crested Knockhill I headed for Kelty and a small ride by Loch Leven to Lochgelly and Auchtertool and then home again clocking up 60 miles at just shy of 17 mpg avg speed.
When left the house this morning it was wet and misty by the time I got home it was glorious sunshine, so it turned out to be a good day to do 100 miles It started with 5 of us doing the usual Sunday bun run up to the cafe stop. After that I parted ways at Kincardine bridge and headed towards Falkirk, I wanted to do some hills and also to ride on some of my old stomping grounds when I lived in Falkirk. As after lunchtime the sunshine came up it was quite foretuitous to cycling these roads as they are very scenic ones once your outside of Falkirk. Your cycling all of the back roads between Edinburgh and central Scotland which can be quite hilly at times with me going up some 15% climbs, but ones that I am familiar with so it was nice to do that again It was a bit of a zig zag route going from Torphichen, Linlithgow, broxburn, Kirkliston, Winchburgh, Threemiletown, past Hopetoun House onto South Queensferry but it was a nice day to do it. Anyway to get the 100 miles I wanted I headed to Oakley before heading back to Dunfermline and home. All in all 101 miles clocked up with over 5000 feet of climbing at and avg speed of 16 mph, I won’t complain at that
Another very wet one today. There were 11 of us today and this wasn’t a surprise given the weather. It rained most of the way around the ride with a few dry patches here and there. I was a bit more prepared for this with my overshoes and wet weather gear. Unfortunately after the cafe stop I decided to do some extra miles as per usual, not that many given the weather, but enough to get me over the 50 miles mark and this was when the heavens opened up The last 10 miles or so it was raining cats and dogs and I was getting soaked through again, at least the overshoes were taking the brunt of it, my feet stayed mostly dry but the rest of me was wet through. I was very glad of the hot shower when I got home, although it wasn’t cold today, I was starting to get a bit chilly and I was covered in muck from all the spray i was hitting. Anyway 58 miles clocked up at a slightly sedate pace of 16 mph, it wasn’t even windy, so not sure why that was, i must be getting old
5 of us today on the bun run and we couldn’t get up Knockhill due to traffic backing up a few miles from it due to the racing that was going on at Knockhill racetrack, so we headed downhill to Saline then to Dollar and Tillicoultry and then backup to the cafe stop. After the stop we carried on the usual route back to Dunfermline, because we missed out Knockhill I wanted to get some extra climbing done so once the group finished I carried on and headed for Falkland hill. It’s about the same height as Knockhill but not as long to climb although doing this pushed my millage up to 90 miles Once over the hill I was into the headwind most of the way home and although it wasn’t as strong as yesterday it was still painful to ride in due to all the effort I put in going up hill Anyway 90 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 16 mph with a decent amount of elevation climbed.
Mixed bag of weather today only made worse by the bloody high winds We had mostly cloud with a few spots of rain but I did get some sunshine on the way back home until I hit crossgates where it started to rain a bit again but since I was nearly home I didn’t care I did the start of the bun run as per usual up to the cafe stop with the club but after that I was on my own to do some extra mileage. I wanted to ride up to Carron Valley and then head home from their which would get me about 70 miles, 75 miles by the time I got home. But the friggin wind was in my face all the way up to Carron Valley, in fact it was like that all the way from home when I started the ride but I was hiding in the group until I was on my own At least once I got to Carron Valley I would have a tail wind all the way home and it was good! Mostly a flat route with a couple of bumps in the middle but a decent ride of 75 miles at an avg speed of 17 mph
Well suffice to say it was a wee bit wet today. The ride started in the rain but stopped after the first 30 mins and was a little sunny after that, so for most of the ride I was dry, but the last 10 miles were just wow! We did the usual route to start with but decided at the cafe stop to do a little extra so after the cafe stop we headed into Stirling and then doubled back on ourselves and headed home the normal route. I wanted to do 70 miles today but given the weather I knew I would be pushing my luck a bit. When I past my home heading towards to Auchtertool I could see the black clouds and new I was in for a soaking but not as bad as the one I got. The second I hit Lochgelly the heavens opened up big time. It was like I was back in Vietnam cycling in the monsoon rains, crater sized rain drops hammering down so hard I was soaked in an instant. It was hard to see where I was going so I had to slow down as I tried to clear the rain from my eyes. No point wearing glasses at this time as they were useless, so I just soldiered on. By the time I got to Cowdenbeath it had eased up a little bit to the point I could see where I was going but this had caused flash flooding and was still chucking it down. Heading along the road to Hill of Beath the road was now flooded and there was no way around it so I just ploughed through the floods which turned out to be a lot deeper than I thought! I was now riding through water deep enough to submerge my feet, a wee bit concerning, hoping I didn’t run into a pot holes or get stranded in the middle of it Anyway I made it home thoroughly soaked, feet swimming in the water in my shoes but thankfully it wasn’t cold otherwise I would be in trouble. 72 miles clocked up and a hot shower to dry me off, so to speak
Bit of a mixed bag of weather today, some sun, some rain, some wind but overall reasonably warm especially when the sun came out. The usual bun run today but with us going up Saline hill rather than Knockhill with a little bit added towards the end for me as I had to be home by 13:00 so not long distances today and only an avg speed of 16 mph.
Today was the clubs second 100 Km ride heading towards Stirling, Gargunnock and back but a few of us planned to make it 100 miles, mainly because the rest hadn’t done a 100 miles ride this year. All the 100 miles rides I’ve done this year were mainly me on my own so it would be nice to have some company. The club would split at Yetts to head over Knockhill but we would continue on until Milnathort and head around Loch Leven. We stopped at the Loch for our second break and then continued on Kinglassie and through Cluny heading towards Kirkcaldy. Before hitting Kirkcaldy we headed west towards Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath. I wasn’t at a 100 miles yet so I continued on with the others down to Aberdour and along the coast to Dalgety Bay were we hit the 100 miles mark. I was still feeling good at this point so I continued on with one of the remaining guys through Rosyth and up to Crossford where he finished. I decided that I would continue on to 120 miles as I was feeling fine still so I did a loop to Kelty and back through Cowdenbeath and onto to Crossgates and home. If I had the time, it was getting late at this point, I think I may have carried on to see how far I could get before tiring myself. Anyhow 120 miles clocked up at an avg of 17 mph, another record for me