Ride 27/07/2025

4 of us on the bun run today and it was a wet one. From the get go it was raining, so I had my wet gear on but on the summer bike with no mud guards, so wet arse it was 😕 The planned route went out the window due to the weather so we opted to do a loop around Loch Leven instead. We stopped at Lochend Farm shop for our cafe stop where soup, coffee and strawberry tart were had for food 😁 before carrying on. It was then over Benarty hill and down to Cowdenbeath before heading to Crossgates. I decided to carry on with the guys as I had only done about 45 miles and was looking for a bit more, so I continued on into Dunfermline and along to Cairneyhill before returning back the way I came to home. So, 61 miles clocked up at a easy pace of 15 mph and thankfully the rain stopped by the time we had climbed the hill so I was starting to dry out a bit by the time I got back home.

Ride 26/07/2025

5 of us on the early bun run and weather wise, it’s overcast, not much wind and warm. Usual route to the cafe stop but about the last 2 miles from the cafe stop I upped the pace to TT speed and eventually ended up on my own 😁 It had been fairly easy going up to that point and I had taken Friday off the bike to recover to Thursday beating… For the ride home I followed everyone up to Yetts but rather than going over Knockhill I was looking to do some hill reps up Cleish, since the hill climb race is in 4 weeks and I need to train for that. So 4 reps up Cleish was enough to tire me out and head back home again. So 67 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 17 mph, which isn’t to shabby when you include the hill reps in it 😊

Ride 20/07/2025 July Randonee Lite

Me, myself and I on the July Randonee today, and given the past few days of me getting soaked with rain, I was once again out on the winter bike with full wet gear. It started out quite foggy this morning and since I was on my own I decided to do the Randonee Lite just to keep the time down in the rain, this turned out to be pointless as the weather for today was perfectly fine 😕 as it would turn out. The route was only 30 miles long with me heading into Cumbernauld before heading towards Airdrie but not actually getting to Airdrie before I turned towards the road that would take me to Slamannan. From here the route would take you down to Falkirk and back to Denny, but given the weather was actually hot with no rain and little wind to speak of, I decided to bump it up by carrying on and going to ‘auto route’ mode via my brain rather than following my Garmin 😁 I knew all the roads around here from when I lived in Falkirk so rather than heading down to Falkirk I carried on to Shieldhill and then down to Falkirk before heading out to Polmont. I’d ridden this route a few times in the past but haven’t done this in years, so it was nice to be back to familiar roads. From Polmont it was onto Grangemouth, where I had a quick stop for a bite to eat at a petrol filling station and then it was back on the road to Skinflats before following Bellsdyke road to Larbert. Rather than take the main road back to Denny from Larbert I took the less familiar road to Dunipace which would ultimately take me to Denny and my finish. So, 45 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 16 mph, 30 miles is a bit short for a Sunday run so the 45 miles was perfectly fine for me 🙂

Ride 19/07/2025

7 of us on the early bun run and weather wise it was warm, a little wind around and dry for the time being, that wasn’t to last. I had come prepared for rain so winter bike and wet gear were on tow. It was pretty uneventful to the cafe stop, at a decent pace, wind assisted a little bit. On the return journey we decided to keep it short today because of the weather warnings, so took the route over knockhill to get home, and sure enough by the time we got to Knockhill it was raining. So thankfully with my wet gear I didn’t get soaked to the skin like I did on Thursday’s ride, still got a little wet, but my feet weren’t swimming in waterlogged shoes and I wasn’t getting sprayed with water from both wheels, now that I had put my mud guards back on. So 55 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 18 mph and not a droont rat by the time I got back home 😁

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 😴