Sunday morning 5am (thank goodness the clocks went back so I get an extra hour) up and at 'em. Porage on the hob coffee and bananas. Pack a small bag with camera, malt loaf, nuts, fill water bottles and head out into the windy dark streets to meet my fellow madmen. Today we cycle 100 miles and the weather 'aint looking good. I meet up with Jim and Duncan in the Meadows and we head off towards the Forth Road bridge. As the sun comes up we are cycling into Fife with a nice tail wind and the weather seems to be holding off. All's well and I'm really enjoying the national cycle route 1 as we wind our way up quiet single track roads and cycle paths. Yep good old Jim he picked a good 'un.
Everything was going great until mile 60 when my knee started playing up and by the time we got to mile 75 I was in quite a lot of pain. We stopped for a bit of a late lunch at the Foulford Hotel where everything is too much trouble......service with a scowl, good old Scottish hospitality at its best but nothing could dampen our spirits......oh no so we set off once more towards our 100 mile goal.
The last 15 miles into Aberfeldy is a long steady hill climb and every pedal stroke was torturous until you reach the brow of the hill and you can see Aberfeldy down in the valley. A fantastic downhill ride into town followed and we reached our destination for the night!! At last!! But no....it seemed we had only covered 97 miles so Jim (who's never told a lie in his life) made us cycle the last 3 miles round the town centre until the bike computers read 100 miles!! By then I was pretty much welded to the bike and we had to break out the heavy cutting gear to separate man and machine.
Here's a very silly film we made along the way
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