A report of sorts ...
It was reasonably bright when we set off from Edinburgh this morning, a sort of hazy sunshine, but we knew from Jane's earlier post here that we might hit the fog at some point. The temperature had only just climbed to +0.9C but it seemed quite pleasant with a complete lack of wind, until we got some speed up ... my hands were rather cold for the first half of the ride both ways, so may need to investigate even better gloves
.
We could see the fog out over the Forth when we got to Silverknowes, and then dived into it soon after... quite surreal to have a very limited field of vision on roads where you normally get very good views. We spotted a buzzard on a chimney and a flock of geese in a field, and then it started closing in properly. My glasses caught the fog droplets very effectively, and I had to stop several times to wipe them clear
.
A roadie came past us at some point and commented how fantastic our lights were (Di Notte
), I was quite glad of them as drivers really can't miss those! There were also puddles with ice and in one place a slushy patch on the road ...
We ambled past Niddry Castle and between the bings which were all invisible today, and along wee roads with hardly any traffic, climbing gradually and barely noticeably. This meant that there was a long descent down to Kingscavil, which HJ enjoyed more than I did (testing brakes a few times just to keep the speed down
as it was rather wet and quite steep in places). This would be good fun on a clear & dry day, as it's more or less straight and you could get a good speed up...
Scoosh later said that he met a guy who goes up that hill 5 times in a row for training purposes
.
Soon after we met up with the CC Ecossers at the Park Bistro
near Linlithgow, where we had converged from all over central Scotland, 3 from Edinburgh (Scoosh, HJ & I), 2 from Glasgow (Bhoyjim & JiMBR - welcome Jim#2
), 1 each from Fife (Jane wearing her brandnew CC jersey) & Stirling (Scook), for our 2nd rendezvous ride of the year.
The great thing about these rides for the colder seasons is that the whippets don't have to hang around & get cold while waiting for the slower riders (me) to catch up, and you can combine cycling/trains etc. to keep within your abilities. Food & cycle-chatting was excellent as usual.
On the way back, Jane, HJ and I teamed up and rode together as far as Winchburgh, where we parted company
. The fog never lifted, and the temperature at Edinburgh never went above 2.3C, it was my furthest ride in what most sane people would call not-so-nice conditions for cycling
.
The pot of tea back home was just what we needed
.
T
