I think I made the right choice changing this ride from Tuesday to today, everything about it was just perfect!
I parked the car in Peebles at 7am and set off on a wonderful ride that had me beaming from ear to ear! The last time I cycled the route in an anticlockwise direction so I decided to do it in the clockwise direction today which was going to be tougher due to the wind direction!
The centre of Peebles at 7am!
Now I was heading for the town of Innerleithing where I would turn off and head into the hills, well away from the busy roads and I had the roads pretty much to myself for the most part!
The River Tweed on the road down to Innerleithing!
The climb was now starting, all the way up to almost 1200ft and into a 20mph headwind! Eventually I reached the summit and enjoyed a nice descent into the valley, the wind was really blowing up here and I didn't even manage 30mph on the descent!
Into the valley now and the roads are just awesome!
I was now heading for St Mary's Loch, where I got soaked and had a puncture 3 years ago! I was more successful today thankfully and the loch was looking lovely in the sunshine!
After passing the loch I enjoyed the descent down into Moffat which was my turning point today, as soon as I got into the town the climb begins again! Its known as the Devils Beef Tub (Google it if you want to know more
) locally and it climbs all the way up to almost 1400ft!
This is part way up the climb!
Getting near the top now!
My first battery was getting close to 20% now which was pretty good going considering I had almost covered 45 miles at this point and mostly into the 20mph headwind! It was finally time for the descent back towards Peebles with 25 miles still to go and now I had the wind at my back!
Starting the descent in lovely sunshine!
A lone fisherman on the River Tweed in the valley!
I had beautiful views like this all the way through the valley!
Back into Peebles at 1pm and it was a little brighter than 7am!
I got back to the car with 60% still left of my second battery, I was tempted to continue but thought it would be best to call it a day here and get home for a much needed shower! I will need a couple of days to recharge my own batteries now after today and a tough ride last Tuesday! This was cycling at its best, I will be on a high for quite some time!