View attachment 179019
A perfect day for a long ride with light winds and a lovely 16C when I set off at 8.30am! There was a risk of heavy showers in the afternoon but with a mild temp I wasn't too bothered about getting wet, it can be refreshing anyway! It was actually a holiday weekend in my area so I was hopeful the traffic might be light for a Monday, thankfully it was so I was able to stick to the main roads for a while to cut down on the amount of climbing that would ensue if I had to use the back roads! The plan was to head down to Peebles in the borders as its such a beautiful area and the roads leading to it are excellent!
I headed SE on the main roads to Carluke where I turned east for Carnwath, it starts with a lot of climbing and ends with some amazing descents! The first climb summits at Kilncadzow and I stopped for my first photo just after passing through the village, the sky was looking very nice at this point!
View attachment 179028
I then enjoyed the descent down into Carnwath where I took the quieter road down towards Biggar, it really is a fun road to ride and with Tinto Hill lit up by the sun in the background it was looking so nice today!
View attachment 179029
Then I had this awesome descent to enjoy!
View attachment 179030
A closer view of Tinto Hill from the bottom of the descent!
View attachment 179031
To the east I had the Pentland Hills way in the distance!
View attachment 179032
The excellent views just kept coming on this fantastic road!
View attachment 179033
Just before I arrived in Biggar I took these photos!
View attachment 179034
The final descent down into the town is so much fun and with the Culter Hills in the background it just looked incredible!
View attachment 179036
From Biggar I headed NE through Skirling and on to Kirkdean where I had a really nice and much closer view of the Pentland Hills!
View attachment 179037
The local wildlife were taking an interest!
View attachment 179038
View attachment 179039
View attachment 179040
Just after Kirkdean and before Blyth Bridge I turned on to the main A72 which leads all the way to Peebles, its one of the best cycling roads in the country and with the great conditions and little traffic it was just sublime! The nice views kept coming also!
View attachment 179041
I arrived in Peebles and took this photo of the River Tweed from the bridge in the centre of town! This is looking east!
View attachment 179042
At this point the sky was starting to change out to the west with dark threatening clouds rolling in, this was taken from the excellent cycle path after passing through Peebles!
View attachment 179043
The path twists and turns for a mile or 2 before running alongside the main road!
View attachment 179044
The path ends just after Eddleston and leads on to a quiet back road that runs to the NW where it joins the main A701, its a 3 mile climb but nothing very steep and you get amazing views of the Culter Hills!
View attachment 179045
Some of the road is really rough but some is like this!
View attachment 179046
This is from the top of the climb looking back down!
View attachment 179047
Another 2 photos before joining the main A701 to head back towards Biggar!
View attachment 179048
View attachment 179049
After this part the road drops down steeply and joins the main road at Whim which was my turning point, I was now heading SW back towards Blyth Bridge and that's when I could feel rain in the air for the first time! Nothing heavy at this point though but I could see the dark clouds in the distance where the rain was looking very threatening! I continued down the A701 and the rain stopped but I knew I wouldn't be able to avoid it and would almost certainly get a soaking at some point!
At Kirkdean I had covered just under 64 miles and my first battery had dropped to 20% so I switched batteries, I had actually climbed almost 3500ft at this point so that was good going! Eventually I arrived back in Biggar and turned north to take the back road to Elsrickle, then the rain started to get heavy and the roads ahead were now soaking wet! Imagine my surprise when I suddenly reached dry roads again after less than a mile and I got to enjoy the big descent on a totally dry road before heading up the climb to Elsrickle! At the end of the road I headed NW towards Newbigging and the dark clouds were threatening once again, I could actually see a squall passing over the fields and attempted to outrun it but I had a big climb to take on up to Kaimend and was lucky to only catch the edge of the rain! I decided to take the back road to join the A70 here and avoid Carnwath which looked like it was getting a good soaking!
As I climbed the back road the rain subsided but the roads were very wet and remained so for many miles, at the end of the road I took the back road to Auchengray where the skies were starting to clear and just after passing through the village I came across dry roads again, I had made the right decision going this way for sure! I then passed through Woolfords and headed up the climb to Cobbinshaw and was looking forward to the big descent that was about to greet me, almost 45mph down this one!
I then took the road to Addiewell and Loganlea which leads to Breich and headed north through Longridge and Whitburn and the roads remained dry, all the time I could see the dark clouds out to the west and knew I would have to face the rain again at some point! I passed through Longridge and Whitburn with rain starting to fall, then headed west for Harthill and up the big climb and was glad of the rain which was cooling me down up the climb! I then enjoyed the descent down to Kirk of Shotts where the 100 miles arrived on my gps and I turned north to head past the Blackhill transmitters where the skies were looking brighter and I came across dry roads again!
View attachment 179050
Roughrigg Reservoir!
View attachment 179051
I enjoyed this awesome descent with the Campsie Hills in the background!
View attachment 179052
Looking back up the hill I just descended at high speed!
View attachment 179053
Another view of the reservoir!
View attachment 179054
View attachment 179055
Then I shot down the final descent into Plains and turned west for home with only 2 miles remaining! I sure got lucky today with my rain avoidance today, I'm good at reading clouds though!
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
What a brilliant day on the bike, the roads were just incredible for the most part!
![Thumbs up :thumbsup: 👍](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/7.0/png/unicode/64/1f44d.png)
I arrived home very tired of course but absolutely buzzing!
![Big Grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I'm loving the challenge of taking just the 2 batteries for these 100 milers now, its a lot less weight to contend with and my second battery still had 30% left when I got home so range anxiety wasn't on my mind!