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 😁