With the Tour of East Lothian running on Sunday there was nothing else for it but to get a second 200 in for the month on Saturday.
It took a bit of clicking on Google Maps and RWGPS to figure out how to get to Musselburgh from Dundee without being either 2km under or 20km over distance, eventually settling on what should have been an easy route...
Met Iroromono in front of the RRS Discovery and within 2km we'd stopped for a rest at the roll carriage at the end of the esplanade to kill our average speed (If I'd thought about it in advance I could have used this as the start point).
Not to worry the Carse of Gowrie is great for getting speed up as it's the only extensively flat bit of ground in the area, except being a vast expanse of flat in an otherwise steeply sided river valley it's also a nightmare when there's a 30kmh South Westerly blowing. The shelter of the Balthayock was welcome for once and we were soon getting the views over Perth the climb rewards you with.
Perth was largely uneventful and we took to Necessity Brae and wished we had those horses to help but at least it's sheltered from that wind. Strathearn was exposed and we struggled into Dunning where we got some shelter from the Ochils, plans for a relaxed lunch in Auchterarder were scrapped in favour of bouncing the Co-Op.
Took me a couple of seconds to clock Bairn Again through Gleneagles village (which isn't in Gleann na h-Eaglais at all, and someone needs to point out to the incomers that it means Glen of the Chapels, nothing to do with Iloaire). Back out in to open at the top we took the Auchinlay road to get round Dunblane, not sure if it is faster than the convoluted route through the 1 way system or not.
The ride into Doune wasn't too bad at least, and we stopped at the Spar for a quick snack and water top up before heading down the A84 which was thankfully relativley quiet to the Kippen turn off where the road ramped up, this was meant to be the "hard bit" of the ride but it didn't seem too bad in comparison.
A bit of respite on the descent into Fintry (much nicer looking than the Fintry in Dundee) and then it was the "Highlite" of the ride, the Climb over to Lennoxtown on the Crow where we hard our arses handed to us by:
Someone doing hill repeats on a commuter
Two mountain bikers
and a Squirrel
The top was a major relief as we knew we "should" get a tail wind through to Musselburgh after the Gravity assistance down to Lennoxtown, right enough we got a good shove along through Kilsyth and Bonybridge before deciding that having meddled with a deil of a headwind all day we'd visit the Kelpies in Falkirk. I had thought we'd be here about 2 hours earlier than we were, but we also managed to be early for the Café opening... by a month and a half.
Boring flat route from now through Grangemouth and then Borrowstounness before climbing up to the back of South Queensferry.
Almost took the A8000 by mistake but corrected it and shot through Edinburgh on the old railway lines with a couple of wrong turns in Drylaw (where we also went wrong on the return ECE) before the blast through Leith and onto the Portobello Prom and the ride into Musselburgh, much later than either planned or expected.
Survived the TOEL getting in with not much BR pace to spare before repeating the blast back through Edinburgh into the wind and getting a great shove through Fife.
TTEL:
https://www.strava.com/activities/2154034950TOEL + ECE:
https://www.strava.com/activities/2156780135