fixed his tubes and tyres. We took advantage of the Travelodge being
on a retail park - the bikes were filthy so we washed them off at the
petrol station and Paul got his tyre back up to full pressure at Evans
Cycles.
We were on the road about 10.15 - out past Ibrox Park and some type of
Orange style march getting started. We headed for East Kilbride in
lovely sunny weather. My bottle cage collapsed but fortunately the
bottle didn't get crushed by the car behind. The cage was replaced at
Halfords 10 minutes later. The route was much hillier than we
expected, but improved as we headed to Strathaven - an attractive
small town. We then reached the B road which runs parallel to the M74
and things started getting very tough - still hilly, with strong
headwinds which made it tough even going downhill. There were a few
light showers which made it even more grim. Luckily the last 20 miles
or so were mainly downhill - I was wasted by then so was very grateful
for that. Also, for the first time, my saddle feels like a medieval
torture device. Nasty.
We will be out of Scotland tomorrow morning. Everyone has been so
helpful that we feel obliged to thank all the B&B landladies, Kyle who
drove us up to JoG, Chris at Travelodge for looking after our bikes,
Evans Cycles in Braehead, the charity raincoat man in the Landrover
and particularly the cyclist who guided us all the way from Govan to
Braehead when we got lost. The beer in the Highlands was excellent and
we are willing to accept that we probably chose the wrong places in
Glasgow and Lockerbie.
The pic may look a little grim but it seems appropriate as it was only
taken as an excuse to escape the wind for a few
minutes.
Stats: 81 miles. Average 13.1. 2 very tired cyclists.
No comments:
Post a Comment