A gorgeous day for a bike ride and a record breaking 801 mile total for April!
Back in March 2012 at the age of 54 I managed 752 miles on my Focus Cayo road bike, until today that record still stood!
It was a great bike and my first ever carbon frame, the only issue was the rear gear cable was forever breaking! In fact in August 2012 I set off for a 154 mile ride to St Andrews and back and just 50 miles into my ride I had problems going up the gears, no issues going down the gears though so I decided to carry on and managed to complete the ride! On checking the cable after the ride I discovered it had frayed badly at the bottom bracket and was very close to snapping, that sure was my lucky day!
My stats from March 2012, week 3 was a massive one!
My stats from April 2026!
Amazingly both months had 11 rides but as you can see 2026 had a lot more climbing involved, thank goodness for e bikes!
On to today's awesome ride, it was a beautiful but blustery day with a 20-25mph wind from the ENE and with 75 miles needed to break 800 miles for the month a ride to the Forth bridges was just perfect mileage wise! The temp was around 14C when I set off at 11am but it felt a lot colder due to the wind! I made my way to Linlithgow and stopped for lunch there, then stopped for a couple of photos after passing through the town!
I was now heading for Winchburgh where I turned north towards Newton, a new cycle path had been laid but it was a very short one sadly...
The Pentland Hills in the background!
I passed through Newton which is less than 2 miles from the crossing over the Forth Road Bridge and stopped for some photos, I timed it nicely to catch a ship passing under the bridges!
Minutes later I was crossing the bridge and stopped for photos of the iconic rail bridge!
After crossing I used the cycle path which gives you a nice view of the Queensferry Crossing!
The view across the Firth of Forth from the same position!
I then made my way up the climb into Rosyth where I finally got to enjoy a lovely tailwind after 35 miles! From there I took the coast road to Limekilns where I stopped for a couple of photos!
Then I headed up the short cobbled climb into Charlestown and stopped for more photos, the rapeseed is in full bloom now!
At the end of the road I joined the cycle path to Crombie and stopped for this photo looking north, the hill to the right of the photo with the masts on top overlooks Knockhill Racing Circuit! Guess the name of the hill...
I then took the coast road through Torryburn and Culross, I took these photos from the cycle path at Culross but rejoined the main road which was way quieter than the path...
I continued along the coast road and joined the cycle path to the Kincardine Bridge and took this photo of the Clackmannanshire Bridge with the Ochil Hills in the background!
I stayed on the cycle path for a couple of miles before joining the main road again towards Carronshore and arrived in Falkirk where it was time for some big climbs, I decided to head up the big climb from Glen Village!
From the top of the first part of the climb looking back down!
The final climb is a tough one!
I then enjoyed the big descent down into the valley at almost 42mph before heading up the climb to Slamannan, thankfully with a nice tailwind helping! From Slamannan I took the back road to Longriggend and Caldercruix where I turned for home with less than 5 miles to go! I arrived home just in time for a well deserved dinner, what a brilliant ride on my fantastic bike! I only need another 19 miles to reach 46000 now, what a great decision I made to buy this bike back in 2018!
Maybe I should rest up in May now...not a chance!
