Ride 13/07/2025

Todays ride was one Nick organised and one that was going to be a long 100 miler one for me. Given the glorious weather we are having it was decided yesterday to go for a long one today whilst we have the opportunity to do so. So the route we took was the Loch Earn one and weather wise it’s just as hot and sunny as yesterday again with little wind 😁 The group started out with 8 of us but would ultimately split once we hit Gleneagles. To start with we would be heading over Knockhill and up Glendevon to Gleneagles where 3 of the group would split to go home via Dunning Common and the rest of us would continue on to Crieff. Our first cafe stop was closed, apparently they closed down last year so we headed on to St Fillans, just at the eastern edge of Loch Earn where we stopped for some fried egg rolls, coffee and cake 😋 I had ridden nearly 50 miles at this point so the food was much needed as well as replenishing my dwindling water supply. We continued on along the Loch.s north shore before heading into the Trossachs and around to Callendar where we had our second stop for some more coffee and cake (can never have too much cake 😆) It was then onwards back to Stirling using some of the same routes as last Sunday before we hit Alloa. From here it was the usual coastal route via Clackmannan and back to Dunfermline. So, I clocked up 115 miles and a decent pace of 17 mph, can’t complain at that 😀

Ride 12/07/2025

A day belated but I still remembered 😁 8 of us on yesterday’s early bun run and boy was it a hot one 😅 The weather yesterday was perfect cycling weather, hot, no rain and not much wind around. We did the usual route to the cafe stop for my usual fuel top-up but for the route home we decided to do something completely different from the usual routes we take home. That day we decided to head back into Stirling and and take a trip up and over the North Third road and around the reservoir. Not the best of road surfaces, quite rough in places but a route I haven’t taken in a long time. We would then ride to Plean for a pit stop of water and ice cream 😋 before heading on past The Pineapple and into Airth before Crossing over the Kincardine Bridge. We then basically followed the usual coastal road back to Dunfermline with me ultimately clocking up 75 miles at an avg speed of 17 mph.

Ride 06/07/2025

6 of us on the bun run today and weather wise it was wet. It was raining a little when I started the ride but after we meet up at the start point the rain had stopped and it was dry and warm. So in the end this was a ride of 2 halfs. We decided to do an alternative route today and thus ended up doing the packers lane route into Bannockburn and beyond to our cafe stop at the Smiddy near Blair Drummond. We were going at a fairly easy pace, which was fine for me, I could do with the recovery from this week’s events. At the cafe stop soup, coffee and cake were had and what a great meal it was supplemented by the very large portion of Almond and Orange sponge cake that I had 😁 unfortunately for us the rain had come on at this point so I was glad I had my wet gear to keep me dry, for a little bit anyway. The ride home was a very wet affair, it was like riding the Wednesday TT race again, only this time I wasn’t smashing myself silly style, so it was a lot more tolerable. Of course that didn’t stop me from getting soaked again 😕 and I had upped the pace a little bit to get home a bit quicker. We basically returned home via the hill foots before going over Knockhill and back down to Dunfermline, again thankfully there wasn’t too much wind around, I was getting a little bit cold, but I did warm up a bit going over Knockhill (put the hammer down going over that) 😉 So I actually ended up doing more miles that I was expecting but it was still a good day’s ride, despite the rain, and in the end I clocked up 75 miles at an avg speed of 16 mph.

Ride 05/07/2025

6 of us on the early bun run this morning and weather wise it was damp and very windy. I did take my wet gear and winter bike this morning as it was forecast to rain, but it didn’t in the end. It’s still quite warm out and the sun did eventually come out towards the end of the ride. I’m still fatigued from Wednesday’s piss take and the hard rides I did Thursday and Friday so I wasn’t going hard today and kept at the back of the group for the most part. Usual beverage and food at cafe stop before heading back home. I wasn’t in the mood to do any extra and given Knockhill was busy with Superbikes event going on I split from the group with Rachael at Dollar and went home along one of the old bun run routes into Saline and up Saline hill to Redcraigs before dropping back down into Dunfermline and home. So 51 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 17mph and now some recovery time is required 😴

Ride 29/06/2025 June Randonee Lanark

3 of us on this month’s Randonee in Lanark and what a great day for it, Sunny, hot and not too much wind around. We were doing a 85 mile loop around South Lanarkshire, starting In Lanark itself before heading south as far as almost reaching Moffat but turning North again before we hit the town. This route is very much on quiet roads in the middle of nowhere, which did present a few issues for stops, but meant we had very little traffic to deal with. Our first and only cafe stop was at the Wee Crook Cafe at Tweedsmuir which was only after 25 miles of cycling, which we got to pretty quickly. Some coffee, cake and ham and cheese toasties were had before we continued on. Unfortunately the only other place I could route the ride was to a motorway service station just north of Abington, which was another 45 miles from the first stop and this would require a 5 mile divert off the route but was required. I was down to 1 water bottle so needed to stock up and also had an ice cream whilst I was there 😁 The last 20 odd miles flew by as we were now with a tail wind and were bombing it along some of the sections. In fact a lot of the route had these fast paced sections where we were doing over 30 mph, either on the flat or going down hill, it’s thanks to these sections that our avg speed was kept quite high by the time we got back to Lanark. We were even cycling over 4800 feet of climbing but most of this thankfully was low gradient or over long steady climbs with only a couple of head kickers to climb up, the worst being the last climb back up to Lanark in the last 5 miles of the ride. So, overall it was a really good ride for me, 85 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 18 mph and thats with me leading all the way around the ride, and my legs are still in one piece 😊

Ride 28/06/2025

6 of us on the early bun run this morning and just like last weekend I’m on the winter bike with wet gear on. Weather wise it was raining when I left the house, very windy, head wind as usual 🙁 but also quite warm. Having ridden 4 hard days of cycling now I was still pretty tired today so I was going to take it easy and short, to the point that I took a shortcut to the cafe stop whilst the rest of the group did the full route. Thankfully by the time I got the cafe it had stopped raining and the sun had come out which only made me sweat more that I was already, wet gear good for keeping you dry, not the best for cooling. Anyway after the cafe stop I was only going to be doing the normal route over Knockhill where pretty much everyone else, probably around 12 other riders, bar me and 3 others, were going onto Milnathort. To be honest I was glad to do the shorter route, give me a little bit more recovery time and less energy used overall. So I still knocked out 50 miles at an avg speed of 17 mph so I can’t complain there 🙂

Ride 22/06/2025

5 of us on the bun run this morning and weather wise we were in for some rough weather so I was coming prepared with my winter bike with mudguards and wet gear. It’s still quite warm out so to start with the ride was pleasant enough, with some sunny spells here and there, we even got to the cafe stop without getting wet, although I did divert a little of the route to go up Dollarbeg before descending back down to the cafe. Coffee and cake later we were back on the road heading for home, with a few spots of rain here and there but still nothing too dramatic, this would come later 😕 I was beginning to wonder if I could have got away with my summer bike and normal gear when we were about 5 miles from home when the heavens opened up and I got soaked cycling the rest of the way home 😩 Thankfully I didn’t have far to go otherwise I would have potentially got cold, as at this point we had a tailwind blowing us back but the second I turned back into the wind it got pretty chilly for me. Anyway 51 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 17 mph and thankfully a hot shower when I got home 😀

Ride 21/06/2025

There were about 14 of us on the bun run this morning and weather wise it was very misty to begin with, which was a bit bizarre given how hot and sunny it was yesterday. A little chilly to being with it soon warmed up though and got sunny later on but we would be starting with a tail wind, not very strong but enough to make me a wee bit faster 😉. Having not raced this week I had some energy to spare so I decided I would be giving it some beans today 😋 so I lead out to being with and stayed there either at the front of the group or on my own as I dropped the group a couple of times. I was going fast enough to get the cafe stop 5 mins before it was due to open, and I had already extended the route to compensate for us getting to the cafe before it opened a few weeks ago since we start at 08:30 now 😆 Anyway the usual roll and orange juice were had before we headed back home again. This time I was leading into a head wind and we had decided to do some extra, and why not it was turning out to be a warm nice day. So, we decided to head to Milnathort and do a loop around Loch Leven as well. I was still giving it some beans at this point but starting to pay for it as I was getting tired, so once we got to Milnathort I took a back seat and got towed along a bit. Once around Loch Leven we would be following the exact route I took in yesterday afternoon’s ride and head up and over Benarty Hill and back around to Kelty before heading back up hill to Hill of Beath and home. So, 63 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 19 mph, which is getting on the fast side for me but manageable at this distance, although I am pretty tired now 😊

Ride 15/06/2025

Due to the horrendous weather yesterday there was no bun run for me so a session on the smart trainer was the alternative. As for today the weather was much better, dry with a few sunny spells but still a bit of wind around to make life interesting with the leg out to the cafe with a head wind I had to deal with. With 14 of us on the bun run it was quite a big group but meant that I didn’t have to sit on the front for too long, and after yesterday’s session on the smart trainer, which was a hard one for me, I was looking for a steady ride today. Nice easy pace to the cafe stop for coffee and cake before we headed home with a tail wind, so things did pick a bit towards the end. I followed Ken and Chris along the coastal route through Rosyth and along to Dalgety Bay but we didn’t go into Dalgety Bay as we headed north up the hill to Crossgates. By this point I had clocked up 50 miles but I was looking to do 3,500 of elevation today and I was a 1000 feet short, I was also running very low on the Di2 battery, so rather than taking my changes at doing extra to make up the elevation I first stopped at home to give the Di2 a little bit of a charge before I continued on. Once I had some more juice on the Di2 battery I continued on my ride to do some reps up Goat Quarry, 5 was enough to get my elevation target and a little bit extra. So 63 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 16 mph and I got my target of 20,000 feet of climbing in the week, not something I’m making a habit of as it’s bloody hard to do 😁

Ride 08/06/2025 DCC ToK Sportive full route

So today I did the clubs Sportive and weather wise its was quite a nice day, cold to start with, but sunny, and it did warm up eventually. I was on the back foot from the get go as I was the last one to start the long route (92 miles) this morning 😁 So I was solo for the first 20 odd miles, until I started passing other riders. I did join a couple of groups here and there but I was wanting to do the ride on my own at my own pace. Riding in groups is fine but it’s a fine line between finding a group that’s too slow to one that’s too fast, which throws off my pacing strategy. But given I was cycling into the wind for those first 20 miles I could have done with a group. Anyway by the time I got to the first hill climb, Saline, I was in a small group which was roughly riding at my pace so I stuck with them until we got to Falkland hill. But first we would have to climb over Cleish on the easy side first before cycling to Leslie and up and over Falkland hill. This was a pleasant ride as we now had a tail wind but as I was looking to ride at pace I dropped off going up Falkland hill, I knew Cleish was the final climb of the day and I didn’t want to blow myself up before then. The second feed station was in Freuchie cricket club, familiar territory for me as this is where I do most of the TT races each week, so I stopped there to fill up on supplies to get me back to Dunfermline. I ran into Alan there but didn’t stop too long so I left before he did, but it didn’t take too long for him to catch me up. It was from here onwards that I stuck with Alan down to Lindores and back up to Auchtermuchty before heading to Strathmiglo which would put us into a head wind again 😕 From here we were heading for dryside road which is a long steady climb, not steep at all, but into the headwind I was struggling now, with all the fatigue and attrition I had taken to keep pace at this point was doing damage now and I knew I was going to have a bad time going up Cleish. I kept with the group up to Cleish but I dropped off at this point. This is probably the slowest I’ve ever gone up Cleish, I was suffering a lot at this point so I was in first gear for most of the climb just trying desperately not to blow myself up or cramp up. Thankfully I did get up it without having to push my bike, that’s just not going to happen 😆 and I got a little bit of a rest going down the other side. From here it was undulating but going past the rubbish tip would mean a bloody head wind again 🙁 I struggled on alone until Derek caught me up so I tagged along with him until the end which thank God was only 5 miles and down hill a bit. So, I’m absolutely shattered now and my pace of trying to do this at an avg speed of 18 mph was missed by 0.2 mph, as when I crossed the finish line I had avg 17.8 mph, so close yet so far, and I still had to ride home 😳 Anyway by the time I got home I had ridden 102 miles at an avg speed of 17.5 mph over 5300 feet of climbing, so I’m calling that a win 😋

Ride 01/06/2025

Well given the weather conditions I wasn’t surprised it was just me and Mark this morning doing the bun run 🙄 It was pretty horrendous to begin with, it was pissing it down and pretty windy to being with and given it’s a head wind it was just blasting into me 😫 It didn’t let up until we had climbed over Knockhill and were down into Powmill at which point the sun decided to come out for a little bit. Anyway we carried on to Tillicoultry and our cafe stop where I had coffee and cake before we cracked on with the rest of the ride. Thankfully the rain held off all the way home so I did get a small chance to dry out but not by much. So 50 miles clocked up at over 16 mph avg speed and I was glad to get home for a hot shower and some dry clothes.

Ride 31/05/2025

4 of us on the early bun run, weather wise it was wet roads but it didn’t rain, thankfully, but it was still muggy out. The wind seemed to be blowing from all directions but given it wasn’t strong it wasn’t a big deal. Given it was just the 4 of us we decided to go to Tilly Tea rooms for our cafe stop, this would still be our normal route, just a different cafe in Tillicoultry. Some cake and coffee we had at the cafe stop before heading home over knockhill. Once back in Dunfermline I did a little extra to get me to my 55 miles before calling it a day with an avg speed of 17 mph.