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 😊

Ride 04/01/2025

Well first bun run of the year and it was a cold one, to get out of my estate I had to walk the bike given the roads were just sheet ice since they don’t get gritted 😕 But thankfully once I was on the main roads, which had been gritted I was fine. So 5 of us on the bun run today and weather wise it’s bloody cold 🥶 negatives numbers to begin with so the ride to the cafe stop was with frozen fingers and toes. I had coffee and cake today, I won’t be cycling tomorrow given the atrocious weather tomorrow, so went with Sundays fueling strategy 😄 Thankfully the trip back home was a far better experience since the temperature had risen a degree to Zero so I wasn’t frozen anymore. We decided to take the same route back home given the conditions as we weren’t sure what sort of condition Knockhill would be in so we took the safer option of riding the roads we already knew were ok. So 48 miles clocked up today at an avg speed of 15 mph, next weeks weather is even worse so I’ll be sticking to the smart trainer next week 😳

Ride 28/12/2024

15 of us on the bun run today and weather wise its overcast, mild with some wind but thankfully no rain. Doing the usual route today would of course mean a head wind to start with so I lead out with Colin for the first 10 miles before we peeled off and let someone else lead. We took a slight detour to the cafe stop to skip out some of the hills, basically following the reverse of the Sunday run to get to the cafe stop at Sterling Mills. The usual scrambled egg roll and OJ were the fuel of the day. Afterwards we headed along the hillfoots to Dollar and Yetts o’Muckhart before swinging South to go over Knockhill and back down to Dunfermline and home. So 47 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 16 mph which puts me at just over 9500 miles for the year, a little bit down on last year, but given the health issues this year thats not too bad and I’m now bad up to my previous performance so all looking good for next year 😀

Ride 14/12/2024

9 of us on the bun run this morning and weather wise it very cold with patchy ice here and there but dry, no rain, and little wind with some sunny spells mixed in. We did the usual route today with some minor detours to stick to roads that had been gritted but still ended up at Sterling Cafe for our coffee stop. I had the usual orange juice and scrambled egg roll before we headed home again. The route home was over Knockhill, done at a fare pace but I was happy with it as I can keep up now, before descending back down to Dunfermline. So 46 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 15 mph, and there won’t be an outdoors ride tomorrow due to the bad weather conditions.