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My fifth consecutive imperial century on my e bike, our weather has just been crazy so as soon as a decent day comes along I just have to make the most of it! The forecast was showing light winds from the SW and a less than 5% chance of rain, they got the rain part right but the winds certainly weren't light! I set off at 7.15am with just 2 batteries this time to stop me going crazy and doing another monster ride...
![Face with tears of joy :joy: 😂](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/7.0/png/unicode/64/1f602.png)
I headed south for the Clyde Valley and then SW towards Strathaven, so I had a headwind all the way! At Strathaven I took the awesome back road down to Muirkirk, its one of those cycling roads that just makes you smile!
![Big Grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
It rises and falls and twists and turns all the way to Muirkirk and the scenery isn't too shabby either!
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I just love this twisty descent!
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A little further and I had lovely new tarmac to enjoy!
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At Muirkirk I joined the main A70 towards Lanark, an other amazing road with some stunning views!
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Glenbuck Loch!
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The road is pretty much like this all the way to Lanark!
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This is the start of the big climb up to Rigside!
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I looked back to see if any trucks were coming before starting up the climb and the road was clear, as soon as I reached the steep part I could hear a truck approaching, followed by a bus and more trucks...I bet they were happy with me!
![Face with tears of joy :joy: 😂](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/7.0/png/unicode/64/1f602.png)
I did pull over at the first opportunity to let them pass and got a thumbs up!
![Thumbs up :thumbsup: 👍](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/7.0/png/unicode/64/1f44d.png)
Just after Rigside 50 miles appeared on my gps and my first battery had over 30% left, pretty impressive given the headwind for 35 miles and 3500ft of climbing!
The view at Rigside!
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The road continues to rise and fall for miles, I stopped at the summit of this one for a snack and a short break!
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The view to the north!
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I then enjoyed the fast descent down to Hynford Bridge where I stopped for this photo of the River Clyde!
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I decided to continue on the A70 to avoid Lanark but the traffic was becoming a problem, so at the first opportunity I turned off the main road and took the back road to Thankerton! I made a few wrong turns on this road as I hadn't used it for decades and have never ridden a bike on it!
This is the start of the road which is a big old climb!
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Further up the climb I had some amazing views of Tinto Hill and even caught the train passing, just a little 4 carriage one!
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The awesome views just continued!
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I reached Thankerton and my first battery was down to 21% with 62 miles covered, so it was time for a battery swap and it was just as well because I had a huge climb to contend with! I stopped for my lunch before the climb and had these views to enjoy!
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I then tackled the climb and stopped near the top for more photos!
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The road was pretty rough in places but not the worst I have seen, eventually it joined the main road to Libberton where I took this photo!
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From Libberton I continued on to Carnwath where I joined the back road up the climb to Braehead, I turned off part way up the climb to take the back road to Yieldshields to enjoy the awesome road to Carluke which was resurfaced recently and the final descent is just incredible!
![Thumbs up :thumbsup: 👍](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/7.0/png/unicode/64/1f44d.png)
From Carluke I took the back road towards Morningside and turned off to take the much quieter road towards Allanton! At this point I had covered 80 miles so I turned before Allanton to add some miles to make sure I was close to 100 miles when I got home, this back road is great fun and it eventually joins the main road at the eastern end of Allanton!
I then took the road to Shotts which is mostly fast descents down into Hartwood and then I turned north up the toughest climb of the day towards Kirk of Shotts, my gps was showing 20% at the steepest part despite Ridewithgps showing only 14.2% max gradient...near the top of the climb I turned west to enjoy one of my favourite local back roads to Hareshaw, it really is sublime!
![Big Grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
As I passed through Hareshaw my gps was showing 95 miles covered and when I reached the end of the road I turned east towards Salsburgh to take the quiet back roads to home! I arrived home with 102 miles in the bag and I was grinning from ear to ear after a truly breathtaking day on the bike!
![Beaming face with smiling eyes :grin: 😁](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/7.0/png/unicode/64/1f601.png)
It doesn't get much better than this, it blows my mind to think 8 days ago I did 68 miles more than I did today! Today felt so much harder I have to say...maybe I was still fatigued!