RabH
Well-Known Member
An epic ride on my epic bike to celebrate it turning 8 years old!
My bike turned 8 years old on Tuesday and with a nice forecast today I decided to do a long ride to celebrate it! Its hard to believe its 8 years old already, I still remember my first ride like it was yesterday! I did question my sanity this morning though when I had to push my bike out of my street due to ice all over the road, it was just a case of sticking to the main treated roads until it all melted! It was -1C when I set off with little to no wind for a nice change, of course it was going to be windy later though! I made my way down to Lanark and stopped for some photos near Lanark Loch, you can see it wasn't very warm...
Lanark Loch with the morning mist making a nice view!
I left the loch and headed down to Hyndford Bridge and joined the A73 towards Biggar, for a mile or so the fog was hanging around and it was bitterly cold! Thankfully it cleared and I had a nice view of Tinto Hill!
I passed through Biggar and joined the A72 towards Skirling, I had this stunning view of the Coulter Hills for a few miles!
The Spring lambs were enjoying the warmth from the sunshine!
I continued along the A72 towards Kirkdean, stopping for a couple of photos before taking the cutoff towards Peebles!
This road is just amazing and the views aren't too shabby either!
I arrived in Peebles and stopped for lunch, I was able to sit outside and really enjoyed the warmth from the sun! I then headed to the bridge in the centre of town for a couple of photos of the River Tweed!
From Peebles I headed north towards Eddleston and used the excellent cycle path that runs alongside the busy A703, the path passes many farms and the lambs were everywhere and making quite a racket!
The path ends just north of Eddleston but I was taking the back road to Shiplaw which is a huge 3 mile climb with some nice smooth tarmac and some rough parts, its such a great road and peaks at just over 1100ft! I stopped part way up for a couple of photos of the Cloich and Meldon Hills!
One of many big climbs!
The views from the summit were pretty special!
Then I had a cracking descent down to the A701 where I turned SW, I spotted a road ahead closed sign just as I joined the A701 but there was no information about where it was closed! 2 miles on and the barriers were up so I had a look at my phone to check the roads and I had just passed a side road a few hundred yards back signposted for Macbiehill and I noticed it would eventually take me to the A702 which leads to Dolphinton! With a name like Macbiehill I just knew it was going to be a climb and I wasn't wrong!
I was straight into a 15% climb but what a road it was, for once a road closure worked out!It was all ups and downs and super twisty, my kind of road!
As I neared the end of the road I came across a van driver who had tried to make a tight left turn and managed to get his van wedged and it was blocking the road completely! Luckily there was another side road that led to the village of Carlops which was on my route and just after joining I spotted a few cars stopped because a truck was trying to get up the tiny road!
The truck driver reversed back to let the cars pass and I tried to tell him about the van blocking the road further up and he just ignored me and stormed off, I hope he got stuck...
I eventually reached the A702 and was making my way SW to Dolphinton, the wind was picking up now and it was a direct headwind around 25mph! After the winds on Monday this felt like just a breeze so it was no trouble, unfortunately I picked the wrong time to be on this road though as the trucks were all in a rush and its a big long straight road so they weren't hanging about! I was glad when I saw the cutoff for Dolphinton and was back on quiet roads again, I got a nice suprise as I was heading up the climb to find new tarmac had been laid! I will look forward to descending this road soon to enjoy that smooth tarmac!
I had this view of the Pentland Hills at the top of the climb!
I was now heading for Walston and looking forward to the back road from there to Newbigging, I could see the road way in the distance as I made my way to Walston! It runs past the flooded field in the picture!
I just love this road!
As I neared the top of the climb I could hear a tractor behind me but there was no way I was stopping on that climb, its a real beast! I got to the top and the farmer blasted his horn as if to say I should have let him past....
I grabbed my final photo before making my way to Newbigging!From Newbigging I was heading west towards Carnwath but turned north at Kaimend to take the back road to Auchengray, another big climb! I passed through Auchengray on Monday and headed for West Calder but today I took the back road to Wilsontown as the wind wasn't blowing like crazy this time! Its another great road and amazingly this is the first time I have used it in this direction, it won't be the last! From Wilsontown I decided to turn south and take the back road to Braehead to enjoy some awesome descents, then I took the back road to Yieldshields and used my usual back roads all the way home!
What a brilliant ride that was, I was a little worried about the ice at the start of the day but it worked out welland I had one of my best ever rides! Very fitting to mark my bike's 8th birthday, I have now covered 45295 miles from 778 rides which is an average of just over 58 miles per ride! It has been 8 years of cycling brilliance, I'm so glad I took the plunge back in 2018!
I slipped up today though, I should have done another 5 miles and I would now be on 2000 for 2026! I traded my Galaxy S23 in for a Galaxy S25 and I'm very impressed with the photo quality!
I will sleep like a baby tonight....
