Century Ride.
Doing a 100 mile bike ride was on my 2013 'to do list' and today we completed one - our first in 6 years. We drove up to Symington on Friday night with a promise of high pressure which would give ideal conditions for a long ride. We didn't know how long the ride would take so we were up early and on the road by 7.10am. It was a bright morning but we were surprised to be cycling into a strong westerly wind as we headed for Abington. This would make stages of the ride more difficult but would also assist at times.
From Abington it was south to Moffat which we reached in under 3 hours. We took a wee break and had a drink before turning north east along the A708 to Selkirk. This was a superb leg passing the Grey Mares Tail, the Loch of the Lowes and St Mary's Loch. The sun shone and the wind was behind us so we flew along between 20 and 30 mph.
Before reaching g Selkirk we turned north west on to A72 for Pebbles. We'd covered over 60 miles and felt great. We now, however, had a head wind and the riding got harder. Susan had to 'pull me' along for a wee bit and we were both in need of a rest when we reached Traquair mainly due to sore feet.. We had some food and drink with our shoes off, which improved things greatly, and then headed for Peebles along the Tweed Cycle Way. By the time we got there we'd covered 83 miles and it was only 2.15pm so after replenishing our drinks in Sainsbury's we decided on a Cafe stop and it had to be Cocoa Black - superb.
We know route from Peebles to Symington very well so knew it would be quite tough into the wind but we also knew we'd cracked the 'Century ride'. We stopped briefly in Broughton for a drink and then cracked on to Biggar. We hit the 100 mile mark on Biggar High Street then rode the 3.8 miles back to Symington. A superb day out on the bike!!!
The stats:
Distance 103.78 miles
Average speed on the road 13mph
Time on the road 7 hours 58 mins
Max speed 36.1 mph
Total time 9 hours 30 mins
From Abington it was south to Moffat which we reached in under 3 hours. We took a wee break and had a drink before turning north east along the A708 to Selkirk. This was a superb leg passing the Grey Mares Tail, the Loch of the Lowes and St Mary's Loch. The sun shone and the wind was behind us so we flew along between 20 and 30 mph.
Before reaching g Selkirk we turned north west on to A72 for Pebbles. We'd covered over 60 miles and felt great. We now, however, had a head wind and the riding got harder. Susan had to 'pull me' along for a wee bit and we were both in need of a rest when we reached Traquair mainly due to sore feet.. We had some food and drink with our shoes off, which improved things greatly, and then headed for Peebles along the Tweed Cycle Way. By the time we got there we'd covered 83 miles and it was only 2.15pm so after replenishing our drinks in Sainsbury's we decided on a Cafe stop and it had to be Cocoa Black - superb.
We know route from Peebles to Symington very well so knew it would be quite tough into the wind but we also knew we'd cracked the 'Century ride'. We stopped briefly in Broughton for a drink and then cracked on to Biggar. We hit the 100 mile mark on Biggar High Street then rode the 3.8 miles back to Symington. A superb day out on the bike!!!
The stats:
Distance 103.78 miles
Average speed on the road 13mph
Time on the road 7 hours 58 mins
Max speed 36.1 mph
Total time 9 hours 30 mins
Symington to the Grey Mares Tail via Moffat.
Grey Mares Tail to St Mary's Loch.
St Mary's Loch to Selkirk.
Selkirk to Traquair
Traquair to Dreva.
Dreva to Biggar and 100 miles.
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