Ride 27/08/2023 Aug Randonee

Today was the clubs Aug Randonee down in Galashiels with quite a good turn out with 12 of us doing the ride this morning. We would be doing a 70 mile “loop” to Broughton and back, although we would be riding on the sames roads there and back again for the most part. We stopped at Broughton for lunch where I had Mackerel fillets on ciabatta, cake and coffee, although there was a mix up with the ciabatta and I ended up eating Chic’s ham and cheese ciabatta since no one said what was in the ciabatta when it was served, so I ended up eating his and mine and he had to order again. Weather wise it was a bit chilly to start with but the rain stayed off with some mixed sunshine and light winds. So all in all a good days ride for us all with me clocking up 72 miles at an easy pace of 16 mph.

Ride 26/08/2023

7 of us on the bun run today and weather wise it was quite pleasant, chilly to start with but once you warmed up not bad, and best of all little to no wind. We had a few sunny spells here and there and it didn’t rain which was another bonus, but a good day for a ride. We started with the usual route to the cafe stop for scrambled egg roll and orange juice before motoring on. Some of the guys wanted to do some extra and that was fine with me, so rather going up Knockhill we went for a loop around Loch Leven before returning via Ballingry, Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath. So overall 63 miles clocked up at a decent pace of nearly 19 mph avg, all in all a good days ride

Ride 20/08/2023

So today Ken, Nick and I were going to be doing a 100 mile ride along to Dundee and Perth and back to Dunfermline. Today was pciked because weather wise if was the best day of the weekend, with sunny spells and no rain. Although there was some wind around which meant we would start with a tail wind to Dundee but a head wind to Perth. It was an early start at 08:00 when we set off heading for Kinross and Milnathort before going down Glenfarg and along to Abernethy for our first cafe stop. Actually the cafe stop was just pass Abernethy in Carpow where we stopped once before coming back from a ride to St Andrew, it was the usual scrambled egg roll and OJ. We then continued on to Newburgh and the road the parallels the river Tay before down on to the A92 to Newport on Tay and crossing the Tay bridge. We would now be following the north side of the River Tay staying on quiet roads before heading north over the A90 and up and over Kinnoull Hill and down to Perth. One in Perth we headed south to Bridge of Earn and our second cafe stop at the Earn coffee shop where I stocked up on some coffee, cheese and ham paninis and caramel cake We were then on the last leg of our ride back up Glenfarg and back the way we came to start with only this time we went through Cowdenbeath and Crossgates. I decided I would do some extra as well since I was feeling good still, so I followed Ken down to Dalgety Bay and then headed for Cairneyhill then up to Oakley. It was at this point I decided I would try to beat my current distance record of 133 miles, so I continues on heading up to Blairadam and down to Kelty and doing a quick loop around home and Cowdenbeath thus clocking up 141 miles making this my new distance record It has been along day in the saddle though to achieve this, nearly 9 hours but I still managed to do that at an avg speed of 16 mph and not feel completely shattered by the time I got home, so all in all a good days ride

Ride 19/08/2023

5 of us on the bun run today and it’s quite windy, thankfully it’s blowing towards the North so we were mostly crosswinds, which can be tricky if strong gusts get you, and it’s still quite warm given said weather. We took a slightly different route today and instead of heading towards Muircot for our cafe stop we headed down to Tillicoultry and Tilly’s tea room. Afterwards we headed towards Dollar, Crook of Devon and down the 10 mile TT road that I did for this years TT’s. I then split from the group at this point as I wanted to go up Cleish hill and the rest went the flat route home. Once over Cleish I headed down to Kelty and over Hill of Beath and home myself, thus clocking up 50 miles at an avg speed of 17 mph.

Ride 13/08/2023

For a Sunday bun run there were 13 of us which is a lot more than usual, I’m guessing the weather yesterday kept a lot of people of their bikes Weather wise we were far better than yesterday, it’s still warm but the rain held off for the most part, just a few spots of rain here and there. I had my rain jacket with me but never actually needed to use it. I started early again just to get some extra mileage in, since I did none yesterday, I decided I would go over Cleish, little did I know we would do that again with the group. Once over Cleish I headed for the meet up for the bun run, only to find we were doing a different route, said route was over Cleish We would still head for Muircot for our cafe stop, just in a more round about route than going the normal route over Knockhill. So back over Cleish I went and we headed north until we hit the A91 which we would follow all the way down to Dollar where we would pick up the usual route to the cafe stop. Coffee and cake as per usual before heading back home the usual way. Ken and I headed for Dalgety Bay before I swung north up to Crossgates thus hitting my target distance of 75 miles at an avg speed of 17 mph.

Ride 12/08/2023

5 of us on the bun run today and it pissed it down all the way wet, wet, wet. I was on the summer bike with only a rain jacket with me but that only gets you so far before it’s water logged, I was a drownt rat by the time we got to the cafe stop. Usual scrambled egg roll and OJ but I was not looking forward to getting back onto the bike. Thank God it’s not cold today but getting going again after the cafe stop was horrible, putting back on a soaking wet rain coat and having to ride with squelchy shoes is just the worst, the rain I’ll tolerate but squelchy shoes I hate >:-( Anyway given the weather conditions I was not doing any extra, in fact it was a dash for home after the cafe stop to get dried off. So 50 very wet miles clocked up at an avg speed of 17 mph and that was enough for me.

Ride 05/08/2023

So today the club had organised a little ride out to Culross to watch the Men’s Elite UCI world championship race. We got their with about a 30 min to watch then shoot by in like 30 seconds but worth doing. I’ve been lucky enough to be in Paris for the Tour de France final stage and watch the men race around the French capital, so as quickly as they go by it’s always a spectacle to watch Anyway after the riders had gone through I still wanted to do a “normal” Sunday ride so we basically followed the Saturday bun run route to Muircot cafe where I had cake and orange juice, I had already had a cup of coffee waiting for the race so didn’t want another one. We then fallowed the usual route over Knockhill where I parted ways to do some extra. Normally on a Sunday I would go over Knockhill before meeting up with the club so I headed for Cleish hill, went over that, along the road to Knockhill and over it again. Of course Sod’s Law dictated that it would rain as I hit the hill a second time, so I got soaked as I had no rain gear this time around, but thankfully I’m only 5 miles from home at this point so didn’t worry about it too much. Besides the second I hit Dunfermline the rain had stopped and the sun was out and the roads were dry. So I knocked up 60 miles at an avg speed of 17 mph which will do me nicely for a Sunday.

Ride 05/08/2023

6 of us on the bun run and what a wet dull day it was, well at least until the last 5 miles anyway I was in wet gear for most of the day but on the summer bike, so very loud squeaky brakes time. We kept a decent pace given the wet conditions until the cafe stop where I had the usual foods. Andy split from us after the cafe stop so there were only 5 of us on the return run and given the weather I wasn’t looking to do extra so we kept it to the usual route over Knockhill. Ironically it was going up Knockhill that the weather cleared up and by the time I got down from the hill the sun was out and the roads were dry, typical… Anyhow 50 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 18 mph.