I was hoping to ride over the Campsie Hills today but luckily I decided to check for roadworks with the Cycling World Championships coming in early August and discovered the road is closed for 10 days for resurfacing works! I can't wait to ride it after the championships are over and it won't be on a weekend as everybody will be having the same idea!

So instead of heading north I picked the Clyde Valley route to the south, heading straight for the quiet back roads and avoiding the main roads as much as possible!
The first 6 miles were all uphill but then I had the awesome downhill to Allanton which I climbed recently, I can tell you its much more fun going down!

I continued on the back roads to Carluke where I had to join the main road for a mile or so before turning for the Clyde Valley on quiet roads once again! I picked a road I usually climb from Crossford in the valley so I was in for a lovely big descent, this is the start of the big drop! Its very narrow but I had the road all to myself all the way down!
I was going to just fly down the descent without stopping but I just had to stop for photos for you lot!
As you can see it was very cloudy but no threat of rain thankfully and the temp was just perfect for cycling, the sheep were being very inquisitive while I was taking this photo! They were making quite a racket, letting me know it was their territory...
One of the garden centres in the valley, very quiet today compared to the weekend!
Down in the valley now at Crossford and the River Clyde was pretty high and running fast, no surprise considering all the rain we've had recently!
I turned left at the end of the road to take the road through the Clyde Valley to Kirkfieldbank where the climbing would start in earnest again, this is the start of the beast of a climb up to Lanark!
Near the top of the climb I stopped for more photos, I love this house near the top just before Lanark and they had the Scottish flag flying high today! As you can see the flag wasn't limp, the wind was starting to pick up from the NW now and I would be heading north most of the way now...
One last picture of the valley before heading into Lanark!
Once again I had to use the main road for a bit but I was soon heading north again towards Cleghorn where the railway crossing was beckoning, would I have to stop up the big climb for any trains?
This is the flat part just before the climb started at Cleghorn!
The road drops down for a bit though before the climb up over the railway line, as I started the climb I could see a queue of cars so I knew the crossing was closed for trains! At least it meant no cars would be coming down so I could go past all the cars and trucks up the hill and hope the crossing would open before I had to stop...no luck as there were 2 trains passing so I had to stop on the incline! Luckily I only had 3 cars in front now and as soon as the barrier opened I was off up the hill with a load of cars and a few trucks probably cursing at me!
I decided to be a good guy and stopped at the first opportunity to let them all past, I couldn't have picked a better place to stop! What a beautiful home these people have and no doubt the Lamborghini was parked in the garage!
I reached the roundabout at the top of the hill and could have gone straight through towards Forth but I needed a break from the headwind so turned east towards Carstairs and had a nice downhill for a bit! The farmers are in the busy season as you can see!
This is the downhill which looks flat here but its a very fast descent!
As soon as I could I turned off this road just before Carstairs to get back on the quiet roads, yet more climbing was coming and once again it was right into the headwind! I took another big climb and reached a crossroads where I would usually turn right or left but I thought I would give a new road a try so went straight through not knowing where the road would take me! I did have an idea where it would go but couldn't be sure, it turned out to be a great road with no traffic to be seen anywhere! Eventually I could see a road in the distance which looked familiar and discovered it was the road to Forth that I use all the time, the side road is almost totally hidden from the bigger road!
I continued north into Forth and stayed on this road all the way to Whitburn where I turned west towards Harthill before turning north again to Blackridge, all into the headwind but I had lots of battery power left! At Blackridge it was time to head west for home, pretty much a straight flattish road all the way home from here! Another fantastic day on the bike, I really enjoyed this one and although I had almost 33 miles into a headwind with almost 4000ft of climbing I felt really strong today!