I have waited a while for decent Sunday weather and today it finally arrived, so I made the most of it as once again the weather is looking awful going into next week! I had a route planned out in my head involving a trip past Knockhill Racing Circuit but as I approached from Saline and Steelend I landed in the middle of a time trial and I couldn't believe it when they turned towards Knockhill... I then had a brainwave and came up with a brilliant alternative route!
I headed for Grangemouth first of all and stopped at the canal for a photo of the Kelpies and you can see how nice the weather was!
I then used the footpath over the Clackmannanshire bridge with the stunning Ochil Hills directly ahead of me!
I continued on the main road for a few miles until Forestmill where I took the back road which leads to Saline, its a very quiet road and has some nice views of the hills also!
As I approached Saline I saw a sign saying there was a cycle event taking place, I started up the big climb and could see some cyclists ahead and passed them easily until the top of the climb when they all shot past me on the flat part like I was standing still!
I knew there was another big climb coming though and I passed them again, then I heard a noise from behind and it was a young guy who shot past me on the climb!
That doesn't happen very often, he was obviously super fit...
I was nearing the turn off for Knockhill and spotted the young guy that passed me taking the turn to Knockhill so I decided to continue past and came up with a different route! That was when I had a lightbulb moment and remembered a ride last year when I took this exact road in the opposite direction and thought it would be a great idea to do it this way! The road leads to Kelty and its a nice descent most of the way and with the wind right at my back, it was pushing me along nicely! At Kelty I truned south and soon had this big climb up to Hill of Beath!
This is near the top of the climb looking back down and there is a cyclist way in the distance tackling the climb! He actually passed me not long after this on the slight descent down into Crossgates, he must have shot up the climb so fast!
I then had a lovely descent which was soon followed by another big climb, once again this is near the top looking back down!
I had this lovely view to my left!
My kickstand has started dropping down recently so I had to use a bungee cord to stop it falling and it was a bit awkward with my panniers so I didn't use it today! I have a new one already but the bolts are siezed solid so will need some work to get them out...I continued up the remainder of the climb and I knew what was coming at the top!
This was the main reason I chose this route as I knew how tough the climb was from the other direction, it plunges all the way down to Burntisland and it was absolutely amazing all the way down!
43.8mph was my top speed! Burntisland would be my turning point and it was instantly a big climb again, near the top of the climb I had a lovely view of the Forth with the bridges in the distance!
I wasn't intending to cross the bridge today but with the excellent weather I decided to go for it and I was rewarded with this awesome sight, Aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was docked at Rosyth for repairs!
The downside was the amount of people it attracted to the bridge though...can't have it all!
I was glad to get over the bridge and was now heading west towards Newton, stopping for 1 more photo of the bridges! The clouds were starting to gather now and the wind was picking up and of course I was now tackling the headwind!
I had changed my first battery at 51 miles and had 3 batteries so I knew I would have plenty juice available to tackle the headwind! I passed through Newton and the road was getting busy with people enjoying the nice weather so I turned off the main road and took the back road to Philipstoun where I passed over the canal!
I tried to get the horses to turn but the grass was too delicious I think!
I had a nice view of the Ochill Hills from here also!
There were many cars parked up at the canal, there is a Bistro here so I'm sure they were all tucking into some nice food!
They have been dredging the canal and looking at the bridge, I think somebody had crashed into it! Its quite a drop but maybe they just dislodged the wall!
From here I joined the road into Linlithgow with 70 miles now covered! It was very busy here also but I turned off the main road as soon as I could and took the road up to Torphicen which was much quieter! I had almost 14 miles of climbing to contend with from Linlithgow up to Longridge and my second battery had dropped to 26% with 86 miles covered so I switched to my final battery and with 30 miles to go I was able to up the assist level to help me into the headwind and up the remaining substantial climbs!
At Longridge I turned west passing through Fauldhouse and on to Shotts where I enjoyed some nice descents before the big climb up through Hartwood and up past the Shotts Prison, a really tough climb where I used assist level 3 before taking my favourite back road to Hareshaw where I got a nice surprise to discover they have fixed the rougher part of the road past a big farm where it floods a lot! It was so smooth and so much fun to ride, time will tell if it will still flood!
At Hareshaw I had covered 98 miles and I was still feeling strong, so I took the main road to Newhouse and continued west to Holytown where I turned north for Calderbank and was soon back home with 105.5 miles in the bag! What a brilliant day of cycling and not a single drop of rain for the first time in a long while, when I arrived home the wind had totally dropped and it was so warm! When I left at just after 7am it was frosty and it was a bit chilly for most of the ride but it didn't bother me in the slightest as I had an absolute blast!
. We rode back the way we came, and finished with just under 10 miles.
