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My longest and best ever ride and my dad was with me all the way!
On May 30th 2022 my dear old dad passed away at the grand old age of 93, he was my inspiration and encouraged my cycling throughout the years! To honour him I decided to ride from my front door to St Andrews and back and hope to do it every year while I'm still fit enough! It was his special place and he holidayed there every year when he was able! In July 2022 I set off for his special place and amazed myself by doing 162.6 miles, I'm certain he was behind me giving me a push!
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could better that feat, until today when conditions were just perfect!
I set off just before 5am with a light westerly wind (around10-15mph) and a temp of 9C and had most of the roads all to myself for the first couple of hours or so, I made my way out to Shieldhill to enjoy the awesome descent down into Glen Village and hurtled down at 42.8mph! The descent doesn't end there though as the road descends steeply all the way down into Falkirk, this set the tone for the day and I was absolutely loving it!
I then joined the cycle path out to Kincardine Bridge and headed for Culross on the coast road and on to Rosyth on the main A921 which was very quiet at this early hour! I stayed on the A921 all the way to Aberdour where I had the first big climb of the day!
A 16% climb that required assist level 2 to get up as level 1 was never going to get me up comfortably! My new Evo display seems to have reset my assist levels to the default and I decided to leave it that way as I don't want to touch the app (even offline) in case it bricks my new display! Thye have certainly improved the display now, it looks way more water tight! At the top of the climb I captured this photo, it was a little murky but dry thankfully!
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I continued on the A921 and passed Pettycur Bay Holiday Park where I took these photos!
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I then passed through Burntisland and Kinghorn and soon arrived in Kirkcaldy with 50 miles covered, a couple of photos from the Esplanade!
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It was time to start climbing again up through Dysart and through many villages out to Leven right on the coast! From Leven I continued towards Lundin Links which not surprisingly has a links golf course which runs right alongside the road with the North Sea as a backdrop!
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I continued along the coast road towards Elie, grabbing any photo opportunities that came my way!
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This is at Elie Harbour with the Elie Ness Lighthouse in the background!
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While I was here I could feel rain in the air for the first time and as I continued along the coast through St Monans and Pitenweem the roads were wet, luckily the rain was light and as I arrived in Anstruther it stopped and I had dry roads again! I continued hugging the coast out to Crail where I took this photo of the tiny harbour!
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At this point I had covered 78 miles and my first battery was down to 24%, this was actually my original battery which is just over 6 years old so it has served me well and continues do so! At this point I was 10 miles from my destination at St Andrews and at 83 miles my battery dropped to below 10% so I changed to battery #2! I then passed the Fairmont Hotel grounds and stopped for this photo, unless I win the lottery I will never stay in this millionaires haven...
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I arrived at the high point of the town looking down at the beach called the East Sands and the sun actually made a short appearance, I was glad it was short lived as the temp was perfect for cycling without it! It was around 17C now and I was now going into a headwind which would be the case pretty much all the way home! It was still around 10-15 mph so nothing like the gusty winds we have been experiencing lately!
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I then headed to the East sands and had a break and a snack at the 88 mile mark!
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After a rest I took the back road out of town out to Pitscottie, it starts with a long gradual climb and is followed by some lovely twisty descents, the scenery wasn't too shabby either!
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From Pitscottie I took the road to Cupar and then turned north towards Newburgh to avoid the main road, its such a great road with very little traffic and has this cracking descent!
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I arrived in Newburgh where I headed down to the harbour and had my lunch next to the River Tay with the sun making another short appearance!
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The clouds in the background looked a bit threatening but that was the opposite direction from where i was headed! I knew I had some big old climbs coming now but they were well sheltered so I knew they wouldn't be too difficult although I had to use level 2 on the steeper parts, my second battery was lasting well though! After the climbs I had the best descent of the day to enjoy, down into Gateside! Of course after the descent came yet more climbs and many of them all the way to Milnathort! On the way I passed the Lomond Hills and grabbed a few photos!
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Okay more than a few...
From Milnathort I continued towards Kinross where I joined the main A977 which was very busy with mostly cars and a few trucks! I stayed on the main road until I reached Powmill and decided to take the road up to Knockhill Racing Circuit to get away from the traffic, I knew I would have to climb for a couple of miles but my plan was to turn off the road part way up and take the back road down to Saline! The road was recently resurfaced so I knew I was in for a real treat and I wasn't disappointed!
At Saline I took the back road to Forestmill which is a long gradual descent for miles, and with little to no traffic it was just amazing!
I was now heading towards Kincardine Bridge and my second battery dropped to 20% at 142 miles, which meant it had lasted for 59 miles into a headwind with lots of climbs so that was impressive! On to battery #3 and I knew I only had around 25-30 miles to go now! So I knew I could crank the assist up now without fear of running out of juice, considering I had some huge climbs to come that filled me with enthusiasm for the final push! After crossing Kincardine Bridge I took the cycle path towards Grangemouth but turned off for Carronshore to head up the back roads for home! At Carronshore I spotted the Clydesdale horses again, the young one must have been running around for a while as it wasn't for budging when i stopped!
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From here I took my usual back roads up some massive climbs and flew up them using high assist levels, that was such a treat!
I arrived home almost 13 hours after I left and although I was knackered I was buzzing after my best bike ride ever!
I will enjoy a break now as the weather is looking grim pretty much all week...I probably should have waited until tomorrow to post this, it took so long and I'm shattered now! I will sleep like a baby tonight for sure!