Ride 08/06/2025 DCC ToK Sportive full route

So today I did the clubs Sportive and weather wise its was quite a nice day, cold to start with, but sunny, and it did warm up eventually. I was on the back foot from the get go as I was the last one to start the long route (92 miles) this morning 😁 So I was solo for the first 20 odd miles, until I started passing other riders. I did join a couple of groups here and there but I was wanting to do the ride on my own at my own pace. Riding in groups is fine but it’s a fine line between finding a group that’s too slow to one that’s too fast, which throws off my pacing strategy. But given I was cycling into the wind for those first 20 miles I could have done with a group. Anyway by the time I got to the first hill climb, Saline, I was in a small group which was roughly riding at my pace so I stuck with them until we got to Falkland hill. But first we would have to climb over Cleish on the easy side first before cycling to Leslie and up and over Falkland hill. This was a pleasant ride as we now had a tail wind but as I was looking to ride at pace I dropped off going up Falkland hill, I knew Cleish was the final climb of the day and I didn’t want to blow myself up before then. The second feed station was in Freuchie cricket club, familiar territory for me as this is where I do most of the TT races each week, so I stopped there to fill up on supplies to get me back to Dunfermline. I ran into Alan there but didn’t stop too long so I left before he did, but it didn’t take too long for him to catch me up. It was from here onwards that I stuck with Alan down to Lindores and back up to Auchtermuchty before heading to Strathmiglo which would put us into a head wind again 😕 From here we were heading for dryside road which is a long steady climb, not steep at all, but into the headwind I was struggling now, with all the fatigue and attrition I had taken to keep pace at this point was doing damage now and I knew I was going to have a bad time going up Cleish. I kept with the group up to Cleish but I dropped off at this point. This is probably the slowest I’ve ever gone up Cleish, I was suffering a lot at this point so I was in first gear for most of the climb just trying desperately not to blow myself up or cramp up. Thankfully I did get up it without having to push my bike, that’s just not going to happen 😆 and I got a little bit of a rest going down the other side. From here it was undulating but going past the rubbish tip would mean a bloody head wind again 🙁 I struggled on alone until Derek caught me up so I tagged along with him until the end which thank God was only 5 miles and down hill a bit. So, I’m absolutely shattered now and my pace of trying to do this at an avg speed of 18 mph was missed by 0.2 mph, as when I crossed the finish line I had avg 17.8 mph, so close yet so far, and I still had to ride home 😳 Anyway by the time I got home I had ridden 102 miles at an avg speed of 17.5 mph over 5300 feet of climbing, so I’m calling that a win 😋