Ride 27/06/2026

I was getting fed up riding on my own on the 08:30 ride that I decided to join the 09:00 ride this morning instead. I joined the first group of 8 and weather wise, it’s warm, a little bit windy, but mostly crosswind and some patchy spells. It was forecast to rain later on with some potential thunder and lightning but we would be finished by then. So, it was the usual route to the cafe stop, which i5 miles shorter than what we don on the 08:30 mile ride but this was fine with me. At the cafe stop the usual roll and orange juice were had, but the drama would happen on the way home. We were cycling through Dollar when a car pulled out in front of me, I was able to stop but the guys behind me weren’t and ploughed into the back of me with some hitting the deck. Some injuries were had, I was luckily not one of them as I had managed to stay upright, but unfortunately my rear wheel took the full force of the impact and I broke a spoke and burst a tyre so that ended my ride as the wheel was buckled beyond repair and the tyre was impossible to inflate. I would like to thank women called Elizabeth who was kind enough to give me a lift home in her car as I was stuck there otherwise. So, after taking the bike to Leslie bike shop I think they can repair the spoke and tyre without having to replace anything else 🤞 but it does mean I’m without a bike for a week so no riding or racing next week 😢

Ride 21/06/2026 June Randonee Lanark

So todays ride was the June Randonee in Lanark and weather wise it was a glorious hot day, with little wind. Just little ole me on my own again, this is becoming a habit now 😃. The ride started out well, I wasn’t going hard today, I had done that for the last 4 rides that I had done this week so a easy ride was in order. My first cafe stop was after 25 miles at the Cafe the Crook Inn (Tweedsmuir), so I had soup, coffee and cake, and this is when things started to take a turn for the worst. Whilst eating my food I heard a psssstt, which I thought was a puncture sound. I looked at my bike but it had been sitting against the cafe wall for 15 mins now, so I assumed it wasn’t mine. It wasn’t until I was ready to continue that I found out it was my back tyre 😠 There was a lot of faffing around to get it to seal but I was eventually able to continue on. So fingers crossed I hoped it would be ok and I would be able to do the next 55 miles of the route. Well that didn’t turn out so well, about 7 miles later it burst again 😡 Some more faffing around to get it to seal, sealed the fate of this ride. I’d had enough of that and lost confidence in continuing, the last thing I need is to get stranded out in the middle of nowhere, and it was quite a remote route I had to do, so I called it quits and headed back to Lanark in the shortest route I could fine, which ironically was still 30 odd miles to get back. What pisses me off the most here is this is one of my favourite routes to do and on a nice day like this its a joy to ride. We did this route last year at this time in the same weather conditions and it was a great ride, but it wasn’t to be this year 😔 So, 65 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 16 mph, hopefully next year I get a better ride when I’m back.

Ride 14/06/2026

Just me on the Sunday bun run and since I was on my own I decided to have a casual easy ride 😃 Weather wise it’s a little overcast with some sunny spells, but best of all little wind and no rain forecast for today 👍 I basically followed the usual Sunday route with a few alterations here and there, making it a bit shorter but ultimately a 50 miles ride. I headed for the usual cafe stop at Tillicoultry where I had my coffee and cake before heading back home. Again with no wind it made for an easy ride so I did my planned 50 miles at an easy pace of 16 mph 🙂

Ride 13/06/2026

Little ole me on the early bun run this morning and weather wise it was overcast, but dry to start with. I also had a strong head wind to contend with going to the cafe stop, so since I was on my own I took a steady pace there so as to not knacker myself out before I even got to the cafe. The usual roll and orange juice were had whilst I waited for the later group to turn up. On the way back I joined the later group of about 11 of us and thankfully we now had a tail wind to push us back home again. I didn’t bother going any further today and stuck to the normal route over Knockhill and back home again. I put my foot down going over Knockhill as the weather was closing it and it was going to rain. When I got to Redcraigs the rain started to fall heavy so I didn’t hang around too long there waiting for the others to catch up. By the time we had dropped down from Radcraigs to Wellwood the rain had stopped and the roads were dry again, so thankfully I managed to miss most of the wet stuff by the time I got back home. 53 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 17 mph for today.

Ride 07/06/2026

Just me, myself, and I on the bun run this morning and weather wise its overcast, a bit windy and wet. I was lucky with the rain holding off until I got to the cafe stop but the roads were wet so I still got sprayed on. Given the weather conditions I decided to do a slightly shorter route and skip out Knockhill, so headed straight for Saline instead. This would allow me to get to the cafe stop on a more direct, shorter route and miss most of the rain. I had the usual coffee and cake at the cafe but on the way home it did start to rain a little bit. I was cycling between showers for the most part but about 10 miles from home the rain became persistent so I was glad for the wet gear I was wearing to get me home. I was also glad for the tail wind on the way home as this allowed me to get there faster. So, 45 miles clocked up today at an avg speed of 17 mph, a decent ride given the weather conditions 🙂

Ride 06/06/2026

No one had signed up for the 08:30 start today so I joined the 09:00 ride instead. 18 at the gates this morning and weather wise it was overcast, little wind and although it was forecast to rain it didn’t for the entire ride 😁 I joined the first group as we headed for the cafe stop with a slight tail wind which made the journey there a fairly quick one. The usual roll and orange juice were had before we headed back. Given the small group I was in and I didn’t want to chance my luck with the weather, I stayed with the group over Knockhill, rather than doing extra miles today. So it was a shorter 47 mile route at a good pace of 18 mph.

Ride 31/05/2026 DCC ToK Sportive

I forgot to write about the clubs sportive last Sunday so a belated update for today. This year’s Tour of the Kingdom had a slightly different start this year compared to last year. Rather start at the club house we started at Queen Anne High School, not that it made much of a difference to the distance, but a difference nonetheless. I rode with the guys this year, which meant a 05:30 start 😫 to be at the start line for 07:00 but made it was a couple of mins to spare. There was 6 of us doing the long route of 92 miles and weather wise it was wet to start with. Not heavy rain but enough to make us damp, thankfully it didn’t last all day and eventually turned out nice and sunny which eventually dried out the roads as well. The route has a lot of climbing in it over 5000 feet of it with 3 major climbs with the last one at mile 87, which makes it pretty hard on tired legs 😩 The start is our chain gang route so that’s fine as it’s mostly flat until you hit the climb out of Saline which takes you to the first feed stop. I only stopped for water and a toilet break before heading on to the first climb of the day over Cleish, the easier side to begin with. We will visit this climb again on the way back, but for now it’s onto Leslie and our second big climb of the day over Falkland hill, again the easier side, I race up the harder side when I do the hill climbs in September, but this side although longer is an easier climb, so all fine with me 🙂 Once over Falkland we head for Freuchie Cricket club (race headquarters for me in the Fife TT season) and our second stop for food and water. I was also able to oil my squeaky chain thanks to the rain washing it out at the start before we continued on. By now the sun was out and it was warming up but we also now had to deal with a head wind most of the way back to the finish line. Before that though we would head to Lindores and another climb back up to Auchtermuchty, Dunshalt and Strathmiglo, but before we got there we had an unscheduled stop at the Pillars of Hercules for toilet break and fuel. We then headed for Strathmiglo and Dryside road into a head wind heading back to Loch Leven and Kinross. We were now heading for the last climb of the day over Cleish, the harder side (the side I race up) and by now we’re all pretty tired. Thankfully the harder side is quite short and sharp, a 7 min effort when I’m racing up it but today I took a leisurely 10 mins to climb it 😁 From here it’s a steady ride back to the finish line for a medal and a well earned cup of coffee for me. So, by the time I got back home I had clocked up 100 miles at an avg speed of 16 mph.