RabH
Well-Known Member
After Sundays epic ride our weather has been awful once again, today it was showing heavy rain in the morning with light rain in the afternoon! It turned out to be a mostly dry morning after some early rain, heading into the afternoon it was still dry so I decided to go for it but knew I was going to get wet eventually! The wind was from the SSW and around 20mph so I was intending to head south to Lanark and enjoy a tailwind on the way back, I had to abort that idea almost immediately as the sky to the south was looking extremely threatening! So I chose to head east to Blackridge and north over the Heights climb and east to Avonbridge, then I took the awesome back road to Standburn!
Its such a great road but has many steep climbs!
At the top looking back down!
I stopped for this photo before heading for Standburn on the awesome rollercoaster road, its full of ups and downs and just such a joy to ride!
After passing through Standburn I enjoyed the descent all the way to Whitecross, on the way I passed over the canal!
The foliage is really growing due to all the rain!
The bridge over the canal, what a road this is also!
This part is just incredible, just around the bend its a big fast descent!
At Whitecross I turned north to take the road to Polmont, stopping for some photos on the way!
The big climb out of Whitecross, so far it was still dry!
At the top of the climb looking back down, oh look its a car...
Just before that 2 big tipper trucks squeezed by each other! 
At the end of the road I turned west for Polmont, then south up the big climb into Brightons! Then it was west to Hallglen and up through Lionthorn into Falkirk, where I joined the back road to Bonnybridge!
Another car, yes it was a busy day!
From Bonnybridge I headed west for Allandale and the sky was starting to look threatening just after I turned this corner!
I stopped at the canal a short time later, just before Allandale and the rain started to fall!
I got lucky though as 2 narrowboats were passing each other in the locks, perfect timing!
The rain then started to batter down so I decided not to wait for the other boat, it would have been a few minutes before the lock filled up again so I got the hell out of Dodge!
35 miles in the dry was a bonus, from then on it was almost incessant heavy rain but at least it was mild so I was still enjoying it! After passing through Allandale I turned south and took the back road to Walton, another gem of a road!
Then I took the back road to Arns, love this road also!
After lots of climbing came this cracking descent!
I found a nice shelter here out of the rain for a short break and some snacks!
Then it was back into the rain!
The rain just got heavier and heavier and I wasn't the only idiot...
It was time to forget about taking photos and get my head down and get home for a well earned shower! There were many floods all the way home and a moron in a truck decided to pass me as I was avoiding a big flood and he absolutely drenched me, it went right over my head!
I bet he was sitting in his truck laughing his head off...if I had dived into the canal I couldn't have got any wetter than I was! Despite the rain I really enjoyed my first ride after my monster Sunday ride, it felt like a ride round a park compared! After tomorrow things are looking promising, on Sunday I will be heading to Knockhill for the British Superbike Championship and the weather is looking perfect! It will be crazy busy though so the bike will be staying at home, it looks like it will be the first dry race meeting of the year...
