Ride 17/09/2023 100 miles Dukes Pass

So today we decided to do a 100 miles ride out to Callander and over Dukes Pass and back again. 6 of us elected to do the ride but 1 had to turn back at Callander due to punctures. Weather wise it started out ok, a little chilly, but given it’s Autumn thats to be expected, but by the time we got to Callander it was raining, not hard, quite light actually, but it stayed on for the rest of the ride and thus resulted in me getting soaked through even though I was prepared for it. Anyway out first cafe stop was Callander but in the space of leaving Dunfermline and getting there Andrew had 3 punctures and when we hit Callander for our first cafe stop Andrew decided to call it there and heading back to Stirling and home. Soup, cake and coffee were the order of the day at the first cafe stop before heading on and tacking Dukes Pass. I didn’t go up the hill at a particularly hard pace, but enough to get a PB anyway and then waited in Aberfoyle for the rest to catch up. I then lead the pack all the way to the second cafe stop, just outside of Blair Drummond Safari Park, where egg sandwiches, coffee and cake were the order of the day there I then lead the pack all the way to Kincardine where I called it a day as I was getting tired of riding into the wind, we had a tail wind on the way out but a head wind all the way back. Although not very strong, but cycling into it along with the pissing rain, was a real drag so I was glad to get a rest after Kincardine. We headed for Cairneyhill where we split up and Ken and I headed for Dalgety Bay and the rest for Dunfermline. I was glad to get home and into a hot shower, I was turning into a cold wet prune by this point, so was glad to get dried off and warmed up. So 106 miles clocked up today at just over 16 mph avg speed, not a bad days ride given the not so idea weather