Our bitterly cold NE winds have finally gone to be replaced by 30mph SE winds, at least its so much warmer! There was some rain hanging around this morning and the forecast for the afternoon was looking more promising, so I headed to Callander Park in the car for a morning walk and managed to get all the way round the park without getting wet! I was also treated to this youngster who walked right up to me, most unusual as they normally never approach people!
Sadly a dog appeared and it shot up a tree at the speed of light!
On to the afternoon and I had a route planned in my head to take advantage of that strong SE wind, my plan was to head straight into the wind at the start which meant riding south towards the Clyde Valley! I used the main roads this time but didn't have any problems at all (well not until later in my ride), unlike
@Prairie Dog and his wife who had a scary moment with a moron seemingly unhappy about them using public roads and trying to scare them with a close pass! Glad you guys were ok mate, what is wrong with these people?
I arrived in Overtown and had a brilliant descent down into the Clyde Valley at Garrion Bridge before heading along the valley road through Rosebank and continued towards Crossford, grabbing these photos on the way!
Its such a fun road to ride and luckily it was pretty quiet, unlike the weekend when the hoards head for the garden centres! The road is mostly smooth like this!
As I was riding through Crossford I decided to tackle the big climb to the south out of the valley, I don't know what possessed me to do that as its a beast of a climb and directly into that 30mph wind! Thankfully the start of the climb is well sheltered though so it wasn't too difficult! I stopped part way up for a couple of photos looking back down into the valley!
A short time later I crested the climb and felt the full force of the wind here, then a little Fiat 500 passed me and as I turned a corner it was coming back towards me! That's when I noticed a road closed ahead sign in the distance, I decided to just continue in the hope I could get through on the bike! As I got closer I noticed the sign said it was just a temporary closure so I asked the guy how long it would be and he said it wouldn't be a long wait! I said I was glad of the break anyway after that big climb into the wind!
Within 5 minutes a van appeared and he passed through the closure and I was waved through, then I enjoyed a nice descent and reached the bottom of the road where they had it coned off to stop the traffic! The guy moved a cone to let me pass through and it was time to climb again, as I was riding along the road I saw a sign for the Blackhill Viewpoint and thought about taking that road but then I remembered about the scary descent at the top of the climb which would have been even more scary due to a 30mph crosswind! So I just continued towards Dillarburn where I turned NE and the wind was helping me for the first time! It starts with a climb and then its a cracking descent back down to the Clyde Valley at Kirkfieldbank!
Just as I started the climb I noticed this young foal having a nap in the sun, I just had to stop for a photo or 2...
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I decided to try to get its attention and felt a little guilty as it jumped to its feet, but I was glad to get this photo!
I then enjoyed the descent which was a little scary at first due to a crosswind, I stopped for this photo before enjoying the tailwind down to Kirkfieldbank! Its such a steep descent and not one you want to mess with as you gain speed at an alarming rate, I soon feathered the brakes to bring my speed down to not scare myself too much!
Then it was time to tackle the Kirkfieldbank climb up to Lanark, thankfully sheltered from the wind all the way up! Before I started the climb I grabbed a couple of photos of the River Clyde!
At the top of the climb I knew I was going to have the wind at my back for many miles now, 20 miles in fact which is why I picked this route! From Lanark I headed due north passing over the railway crossing at Cleghorn, its quite a climb up here and I could see the lights flashing meaning a train was coming! It seemed to take forever for the train to pass and eventually it did but the gates remained down so I knew there must have been a train coming from the other direction also, thankfully this one passed quickly and I got going again along with all the traffic which had built up behind me! I pulled in a short time later to let them pass and continued north!
I stopped for a snack and more photos before continuing north towards Forth! Always a nice view of the Pentland Hills here when its clear, which it was today!
From here its a long straight road for a few miles and it can be busy with trucks, at least I had a 30mph wind pushing me on until a truck passed in the opposite direction at high speed and it caused a big surge of sidewind which scared me a little! Thankfully it was the only one and only cars and small vans passed after that which didn't cause any problems! I then had the big climb up into Forth and a gradual climb for a few miles up to almost 1100ft before plunging down the awesome descent to Breich, 42.3mph today and what a buzz that was! I would have been faster but I spotted a truck coming the other way and didn't want to take any chances even though it was going pretty slow up the big climb!
At the bottom of the descent there's another huge drop down into the valley, after passing through the traffic signals on the main road at Breich! As I was waiting for the signals to turn green a massive truck pulled up behind me, my first thought was I hope he isn't going my way! Of course he was and I didn't expect him to pass me hurtling down the big descent but the idiot was impatient even though I was nudging 40mph!
As he passed I got hit by a big sidewind again and it threw my bike into a speed wobble, thankfully the road goes straight back up so my speed had dropped considerably and I got it under control again!
Luckily that was the last of the trucks for the day, I headed up the big climb through Longridge and enjoyed the descent down into Whitburn which was another 40mph descent! Here I took the cycle path up the climb to Armadale and as I was going up the climb I saw a council van taking up the whole path, as I got closer he eventually decided to make space for me which he didn't seem willing to do...then I enjoyed yet another fast descent down into Westfield! This is where my 20 mile tailwind ended as it was time to turn west, it was time for some crosswinds! I was on the road from Westfield to Avonbridge and I had a brainwave, there's a back road which leads to Avonbridge which takes you down into the valley and its sheltered from the wind! Its a big descent also and I had the wind at my back going down, its a bit rough though so no high speed this time!
This is at the bottom of the descent, the farmer was busy ploughing the field in the distance!
Its a fun road in the valley with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns!
I arrived in Avonbridge and headed SW towards Limerigg where I turned north to take the descent down to Slamannan to avoid the crosswinds on the road to Caldercruix! I turned on to the back road for Longriggend instead of going through Slamannan, another fun road with little to no traffic! The lambs were enjoying a nap this time!
The view to the north with the Campsie and Ochil Hills in the background!
At Longriggend I took the awesome descent down to Upperton with the wind at my back once again and then I turned west towards Greengairs where I turned south on the back roads to home directly into the wind for a few miles, thankfully I had lots of battery power left so I cranked the assist up to level 3 to counter that wind! I arrived home pretty tired and although I had 2 scary moments it was such a brilliant ride, once again my bike was spotless so no cleaning required!
I managed 586 miles this month, just slightly less than last month and it should have been more as I could have ridden to the motorcycle racing at Knockhill on Sunday but decided against it due to the bitterly cold NE winds! I would have had the wind at my back almost all the way home but I didn't fancy standing all day watching the racing in the cold...
This took me well over an hour to type up, it took forever to upload my photos and its usually pretty quick! I'm not sure if my internet is at fault or the forums are running slowly!
No photos today, it was all about riding my bike and enjoying the fresh air!
