Ride 17/03/2024 Braco Randonee

So it’s the March Randonee with 18 of us doing the Braco ride, in what would turn out to be a wet day, not windy and reasonable mild for March temp wise. It wasn’t raining hard, just that constant drizzle that soaks you through after so many hours. Thankfully I had predicted this and had full wet gear with me today unlike some of the other guys who rocked up on bikes with no wet gear or mud guards, they would come to regret that. Anyway we set off in 2 groups heading over Knockhill and up to Glendevon before descending down to Gleneagles and the heading west around the back of the Ochils. We would only get so far as there was a road block on the planned route which required us taking a detour down to Blackford, down a road I’ve never ridden before, but I have ridden through Blackford before so I knew where I was once we got there. We would then cross the A9 and head back over the Ochils to Sheriffmuir before descending back down to Dunblane, although this wasn’t the route I took 4 of us took a shortcut down to Bridge of Allen skipping out Dunblane altogether before picking the planned route back up again before we hit our planned cafe stop at Coffee Bothy. A welcome plate of soup along with coffee and cake went down a treat before we continued on to Alloa and back to Dunfermline. We would take the normal Sunday ride route back home from Alloa along the coast and back up to Dunfermline. Ken and I didn’t bother going via Inverkeithing since by this point we had clocked up 65 miles, so it was a straight shot home via Dunfermline thus clocking up 75 miles averaging 15 mph. So all in all it was a good day and although I was slightly damp the Sun did show it’s head for the last 15 miles or so, and I didn’t get drenched