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.

Ride 24/05/2025

5 of us on the early bun run and weather wise it was wet and windy but still warm. We were into a strong headwind most of the way to the cafe stop this morning with some showers here and there. Thankfully I was prepared, maybe a little too prepared, it was warmer than I had thought but I kept my cool 😎 usual food stop at Stirling Mills cafe with the 09:00 group a couple of minutes behind us. Thankfully it was a tail wind most of the way home, again with some showers here and there. I wasn’t doing any extra today, still a bit tired from this weeks efforts and the weather wasn’t conducive to long rides today 😉 So I followed everyone else over Knockhill today and back down to Dunfermline, so 55 miles clocked up at 18 mph avg speed. Tomorrow looks dire weather wise so may skip that or just use the turbo trainer…

Ride 18/05/2025 May Randonee

12 of us on May’s Randonee which would take us to North Berwick. Weather wise it’s as sunny as yesterday 😎 so out with the Sun Cream today, given the distance and time it would take. We would be crossing the Forth road bridge and heading through Edinburgh along the coastal route for Musselburgh where our first stop of the day would be at Cafe Kaffeine. Coffee and cake were the order of the day before we headed on for Prestonpans and out into the countryside for quieter roads. I had scheduled a cafe stop at North Berwick but we didn’t need this so soon, so we pressed onto Gifford for our second stop at the Lanterne Rouge Cafe. Some more coffee and toasties, which were very delicious, we were then on our leg back home via Pencaitland and Ormiston before heading north back into Musselburgh and Edinburgh. We took a different route through Edinburgh using some of the cycle paths and quieter roads before heading back over the Forth road bridge. I was doing some extra again today to get over the 100 miles mark, and in the end I ended up doing 115 miles in total 😀 In fact I was riding long enough to flatten the Rally power pedals, so the last few miles have no power data, and the Garmin Edge was down to it’s last 5% and the Di2 was warning me also of low power, so made it in time to not run out of power completely 😁 Anyway 115 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 16 mph and because it was a good pace I was the only bit that wasn’t running out of power so by the time I got back home I felt pretty good and not totally knackered 😅

Ride 17/05/2025

10 of us on the early bun run and on a cracking day, sunshine and warm with little wind 😀 Since I’m doing the Randonee tomorrow I wasn’t going hard or an extended runtoday, so decide to stick to the back of the group mostly. Usual food and drink at the cafe stop today but I would be returning over Knockhill rather than going with some of the other on the longer Milnathort route. About 6 of us were going this route and it was at this point that I stepped up my game a little bit and went for a fast one over Knockhill. Not my faster ever climb, but only 20 seconds off my pb. So 55 miles clocked up, and even though I wasn’t going hard today I still managed to do 55 miles at an avg speed of over 18 mph, I’ll take that 😁

Ride 11/05/2025

I organised another ad-hoc Sunday ride today for Ken, Nick, Davy and I to do a ride around to Caldercruix and back. Weather wise it’s the same as yesterday, Sunny and warm, but a little overcast as well. The ride was 70 odd miles but again I was looking to do 100 miles again 😄 We headed along the usual coastal road to Kincardine bridge where we crossed and made our way into Falkirk and Larbert. This ride is a little different in that I hadn’t organised any cafe stops, the route is on quiet roads away from most towns and cities, so we would need to stop at local shops for supplies. Speaking of the roads we really lucked out today as most of the road we road on were new tarmac, which I was not expecting, given the condition of them the last time I rode them. Once through Larbert we were heading west for a while along to Bonnybridge and Allendale before we turned south and up the first climb which would take us to the south side of Cumbernauld, away from the town centre, which is far too busy these days. Once past Cumbernauld it was onto Upperton, Greengairs, Wattston and out into the wilderness along some more quiet smooth roads before we dropped down into Plains and the A89. Now it was my plan to only ride this until we hit Caldercruix and then head North for Avonbridge which would ultimately take us back to Falkirk and the Kelpies which was the only place we could at an actual cafe, but the best laid plan of mice and men and all that, this didn’t happen. Ken was struggling a bit, due to not stopping so we changed the route and continued along the A89 along to Armadale where we stopped at a local garage with a Spar shop that we could get some food and coffee and rest a bit. So some sandwiches, orange juice and cake later we were back on the road again (one that I hadn’t ridden in a number of years now since moving out of Falkirk) and heading north towards Linlithgow. Once in Linlithgow we would follow the 2 bridges road that would take us back over the Forth river via the Forth road bridge and back into Fife. I had clocked up about 75 miles at this point so I bid my goodbyes to the rest of the guys and continued on my travels to make up the 100 miles. I decided I would ride back to Carineyhill and head to Oakely before heading down to Saline and back home along our chain gang route to Redcraigs. Today was the Jack Murray road race which was using this road as well but I thought it would have been finished by the time I got there, it hadn’t so I ended up passing a lot of riders racing around this route as I headed for Kelty. I did think about stopping to spectate but decided to continue on, time was a ticking 😋 Once into Kelty I headed up to Kingseat before dropping back down into Dunfermline and back home again. So 100 miles clocked up at what I’m calling 16 mph avg speed which is what it said a 99.9 miles done, in actuality it was 15.9 mph 🙄 but all in all a great days ride 😁

Ride 10/05/2025

14 of us on the early bun this morning which is a lot considering the avg group size is about 8. Weather wise it’s a cracking sunny day 😍😎 and warm to boot. I was able to cycle with 2 layers on and my arm warmers, which did come off after the cafe stop. WIth such a large group we were keeping a pretty fast pace up all the way to the cafe stop and thats with some headwind thrown in, but not too windy. The usual consumables were had at the cafe stop before we started our leg home. We decided to take the route to Milnathort home today given the great weather so that lightened the group to about 8 of us, the rest were going the route that took them over Knockhill. Even with just 8 of us we were hammering it along with a slight tail wind before we hit Milnathort and then headed for Kinross were we were back into a slight cross head wind. This didn’t bother me I was feeling good today so kept my foot down a little bit all the way to Kelty. I then followed the rest up to Kingseat where some of us split from the group whilst I and a couple of others heading down into Dunfermline were I split from the remaining riders and headed on my own for home. So 60 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 19 mph which is fast for a bun run ride but I’ll take that 🤗😁

Ride 04/05/2025

8 of us on today’s ad-hoc ride that I organised and weather wise it was cold and windy to start with, although the sun did eventually come out but unfortunately the wind did not abate the whole ride round 😬😡 which made this tougher than needed. The route I had chosen was over Knockhill, up to Yetts, through Glendevon and Gleneagles and on to Crieff where we had our first stop. Scrambled egg roll and coffee were the choice of the day. We then headed for Comrie and up and over the moors to Braco before heading round to Dunblane, Bridge of Allan and Stirling where we stopped at Corrieri’s for our second stop of the day. I had soup, coffee and cake which was much needed 😁 before we headed back to Dunfermline via Alloa, Kincardine and along the coastal road to Cairneyhill where we split to go our separate ways home. Normally I would just head back into Dunfermline from here but I was looking to ride 100 miles today so I opted to head along to Rosyth and Dalgety bay before heading back up to Crossgates. I was still about 10 miles short at this point so I did a little extra along the road before heading back home. So 100 miles clocked up at 17 mph avg speed which is a decent pace for me on a 100 mile ride, so I’ll take that as a win 🤗 but I’m pretty tired now so thank god tomorrow is a rest day.

Ride 03/05/2025

7 of us on the early bun run and weather wise it was a little chilly to start with, overcast, and the wind didn’t know what it was doing, I felt like I was in a head wind all the way round today 😕 The usual route to the cafe stop today where the usual culinary delights were had before heading back home. I wasn’t looking to do any extra today, that would come tomorrow, to I just followed the rest up to Yetts and over Knockhill where the sun finally came out and it started to warm up a little bit. So, 55 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 18 mph, the standard affair 😀