Three Glens, 165km

[Graeme]

Rode the Three Glens from Linlithgow today. Massive turnout, big peloton rolling out for the first 25km.

Good long climbing sections, plenty of rolling hills, typical Scotland scenery... ie stunning. Lovely roll back to the finish with a touch of industrial beauty through Grangemouth.  The sting in the tail... Did sting.

Phanta of this parish was riding. Left me for dead on the hills. Left me for dead on the flat. I only finished ahead of her by a few minutes because of my preference for not stopping.

Had a nice view of the Ryder cup cupboard.

Favourite moment?  Phanta having a strop about a hill. Getting off. Realising there was nowhere else to go and then accelerating past me and leaving me for dead.

[phantasmagoriana]

It was a good ride, wasn't it? Fantastic weather and the scenery was lovely, albeit a bit hillier than I'd expected (overall, it was relatively flat according to the elevation figure; most of the hills seemed to be lumped together in one section). That stupid steep hill did have me questioning why I hadn't just stayed in bed, but I'm glad I didn't.

I wondered where you'd got to in Auchterarder - a few of us stopped for coffee and cake (which took ages to arrive, but the brownies were good), and we saw a few other non-stoppers come and go, but you must have whizzed by.

The selection of cake/fudge/tiramisu at the end was excellent - I didn't quite manage to sample everything, but I had a good go.

The sting in the tail... Did sting.

That one was horrible too - I thought it might be short and steep, but it just kept going. And right at the end, too!

[Dave_C]

I enjoyed it, and have done three times now. I know the roads so nothing threw me, and I had enough geers in the bag for all the climbs. I was unsure about how the ride would go as I have had a chest infection which has kept me off the bike for the last 5 weeks but I managed to get round in a reasonable time. I didn't hang around for the first half, controlling and riding on but I stopped to wait for mates who caught me up at Auchterarder and then we had a good feed in  the Corrieri's cafe in Causewayhead. The food there is second to non. I too tried the tiramisu, but was already still stuffed from the cafe  stop so left nearly having to be rolled out of the door.

Shame its not going to be run next year, apparently a load of free loaders took food at the stops and then complained?? about not being able to get into the hall at the end, even though they'd not entered? Sad, this appears to happen more and more these days.

[jimmea]

Great day out, 3rd time for me and best weather yet. As usual we were spoiled by the org both before and after with the food on offer, sadly didn't get the chance to enjoy it at the end as i had to dash off, but thumbs up to all involved 

[Graeme]

Thanks again to all who contributed to making this such a lovely day out.  I finally got round to popping some photos and a write up on my blog:

Click here