Back on my local roads today on a very cold but sunny morning, we had sleet and snow yesterday so the sun was very welcome! The forecast was showing rain arriving around midday, unsurprisingly it came earlier but at least it wasn't heavy! All the floods on my back roads had gone at last and thanks to yesterdays strong winds the roads had dried up so no ice to speak of! The temp was hovering around 0-1C when I set off at 8.20am and the wind was a direct westerly and around 20-25mph so I decided to head SE for Carnwath! The back road to Hareshaw has been flooded for a few weeks but it was completely dry today!
I made my way down into Allanton and then over the back roads to Carluke where I turned east on the A721 and started up the climb to Kilncadzow, where I stopped for some photos!
The climb continued for another half a mile before the awesome descent down to Harelaw!
I had a nice view of the Pentland Hills on the way down so just had to stop!
Looking back up the hill I had just descended!
The road from Harelaw to Carnwath is undulating but no big climbs or descents and with a 25mph tailwind I was flying along and enjoying life!
At Carnwath I turned north and joined the amazing A70, its a gem of a road and luckily it was very quiet today! Sadly the sun had already disappeared but with the wind at my back it wasn't that cold...for now!
I grabbed a few photos along the way!
Its a very up and down road also, mostly up in the easterly direction and it peaks at just over 1100ft!
This was at the summit so I enjoyed a very nice descent for a mile or so!
I could see a road closure sign in the distance here and I was hoping it was the A70 because I was turning off at the junction at the bottom of the hill to take the West Calder road, if the road to West Calder was closed it would have been a nightmare for me but my luck was in! The road ramps up at first before descending through Harburn and downhill all the way to West Calder, 38 miles of mostly tailwind was about to change! As I turned west the temp difference was a shock to the system, most unusual for a westerly wind! At the 40 mile mark I switched batteries so I had tons of juice left for the final 20 miles home into the headwind! I made the most of it with level 2 and 3 pretty much all the way home, I just wanted to get out of that bitingly cold wind as quickly as possible!
I turned north for Blackburn and then west towards Whitburn where I took the cycle path north to Armadale, I had to look twice as I saw a cyclist joining the cycle path in Armadale wearing shorts and a short sleeved jersey!
Less than a minute later the rain started, I bet he loved that!
I took the the back road to Blackridge from here, where I spotted some lambs in the field and I couldn't believe how big they are already!
I just love this road, super smooth tarmac and I didn't meet a single car all the way to Blackridge!
50 miles came up as I passed through the village so just 10 miles more and I would be out of that chilly wind! I was sure glad to get home and enjoyed a lovely hot shower, I had 5 layers on and still felt the chill battling that headwind so that crazy cyclist must have been chilled to the bone...
What a great day though despite the cold, the amazing roads more than made up for it!
