looping: too far
In which I cycle quite a long way, and am unsure it was a good idea.
I’d put this ride off at least once owing to unfavourable weather but was running out of time this year to try it, so even though the weather isn’t ideal I am cycling a fair chunk of the way across the country, and then back again. The outward leg is into a cross headwind and while it’s not too bad, It is bad enough that it’s obvious early on that there’s not going to be much stopping if I’m going to get this done in a reasonable time.
I do stop fairly early for tea and a scone, plus water, largely because I’m not sure where the next water stop is but also because scones are nice. After that I’m quickly on to new roads, new boring roads as it turns out but they are at least direct. I was concerned they’d also be a bit busy but they’re ok. Still not quiet and I doubt I’ll be repeating them but they are getting the job done. I make reasonably good time to Stirling while also being definitely later than I had planned. There is a single stop to take a what turns out to be the sole photo of the day which says something about both the roads and my slowly dawning awareness of quite how much of a ride I’ve signed up for.
The roads out the other side of Bridge of Allan are quite fun. It is apparently a real road with a number and everything but it feels more like a private road through an estate. Narrow, twisty with some short and sharp climbs and in really good nick. It is very pleasant.
It’s then on to some nice backroads and the conclusion that I will not be stopping for a lovely sit down lunch in Aberfoyle. Partly because it is already one and I still have a way to go, but also the weather in that direction is beginning to look dicey and getting there and heading back before the weather hits seems wise. The headwind has picked up a bit too which I am not enjoying although the local Red Kites are.
The final run to Aberfoyle is a bit main roady and much more up and down that I was anticipating. I had made some effort to try and pick the flattest route possible but regrettably much of Scotland is simply not flat. The route doesn’t really have any hills to speak of but there is a constant up and down which over this sort of distance adds up to quite a bit of elevation.
I say the final run but it’s a lot less final than I was expecting. There’s a load of villages that I have no recollection of noticing when I was planning and none of them are Aberfoyle, which has been “probably about half an hour away” for at least half an hour. It is at this point that the doubts really start to kick in. Fortunately I am, as evidenced above, bad at estimating how far away places are so the “it must be nearly there” overrides the “I should turn round otherwise this is going to be a vey long day”. It is not nearly there for quite a while.
And then it is. I stop to top up with water and pull on a gilet against the incoming rain and then I’m on the way home, well over an hour behind a schedule that was based more on vibes than maths. I am beginning to consider if I could make a run for the train station in Stirling or Bridge of Allan and cut out a chunk of the return journey.
After another thirty minutes I stop to both remove the gilet and do some serious consideration of train timetables. The results are that getting a train is probably not going to be much quicker than cycling, plus I am uncertain of which trains I can take a bike on because the Scotrail app is unhelpful in this regard. I decide to just do the ride. There is at least thirty minutes of second guessing this decision.
As I’m on the way back I have a tailwind now so it’s easier riding and as a result I am making decent progress and I’m reasonably quickly through all the roads I covered on the way out, which cheers me up. The route back goes North of the Ochils for a bit of variety so I’m back on to new roads once I pass through Doune for the second time.
Mostly when I ride, even if it’s on new roads, I feel like I understand roughly where I am. The Doune to Braco section of the ride is an hour of having no clue. Several times I am close to stopping to check my phone to make sure I’d not done something stupid in the route planning, but I carry on dumbly following the Garmin and eventually I am back on to roads I know. I’ve never cycled them but they are not far from where I grew up so are familiar. There is even a nice bit of road on the run to Auchterarder that’s lovely and swoopy and really quite enjoyable with a tailwind. There are more Red Kites.
I stop in Auchterarder to get supplies in the Coop, mostly water and Haribo, to see me through to the end. I am much too focused on just getting the ride done for anything more complicated. I heroically manage to resist scarfing half the bag of Haribo in one as I know no good will result.
Out the other side of Auchterarder there’s a brief bit of passing and being passed by a chap on an e-bike before we get to a flat bit and I drop them for good. Flatish roads plus a tailwind mean I am making really good time now.
The rest of the ride is on familiar roads and very much trying to keep turning the pedals. Somewhere around Newburgh I realise I am going to get this done resulting in something of a sense of relief, verging on euphoria. I am very glad I did not decide to bail.
For reasons I cannot fathom I come back via the high road and the awful hill. It is a bit much after 240km but at least the final downhill run to town is a delight.
I somehow get home not too much outside the time window I was expecting. Of course I have basically not stopped for longer than it’s taken me to do a brief bit of shopping, whereas I had been planning on a cake or lunch stop, or both.
I’m very pleased to have hit the 250km mark but it’s clearly at the limit of what I can do in a day, or at least do in a day and it be not unpleasant or very long. I certainly didn’t enjoy the feeling that I just had to keep pressing on the whole time. I ride to relax and this felt a bit too much like the wrong sort of work.
A single photo and one scone in 10 and a half hours is no way to have a day out on the bike.