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Category: Bike Rides 2004
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Well a lovely ride last Sunday 4th April, when we cycled to Aberdour in Fife. It didn’t start too well, a cold shower immediately sending two people scurrying home as we went through Fountainbridge, the temperature was only 6 deg C.After emerging from the tunnel under the Western Approach Road, the rain stopped, so we headed for Roseburn and National cycle route 1, which we would follow to Aberdour.

Once on the main path, the weather felt quite pleasant, although very breezy, this was reflected in our average speed. Although it felt fast, a lot of energy out to the bridge was lost riding in to the wind. When we got to the path at the Kennels at Dalmeny, we turn on to the cycle path that goes straight to the South Queensferry, which has just been tarmac’d, which made the sheltered ride very pleasant. Temperature had now risen to 9 deg C.

From the Co-op we headed along Morrison Gardens to the Forth Road Bridge, crossing the Firth of Forth, which was not too breezy and headed in to Inverkeithing. From there we followed the route 1 to head our along the Fife coast to Dalgety Bay, where we departed from Route1 for a little while, following Moray Way South. We rejoined at the Eastern end of Dalgety Bay, near St. Bridget’s chapel, to take Beech Avenue to Aberdour.

At Aberdour, we headed for Aberdour Castle for lunch. Some opting to picnic in the car park, others opting to pay £2.50, for entrance to the castle. I think most people used the tea room at some point, leading to shortages of cake!!!!

Mark threatened to leave early, but never did, and Neil and Jenny did, being TBC,  leave early, using the same route back as we had out, stopping for some help at the bike shop in Inverkeithing because a pedal didn’t like the spindle anymore. Unfortunately they couldn’t help at the bike shop.

After lunch, we followed the coastal path back to Inverkeithing, stopping for a short time at St. Bridget’s chapel for 10 minutes for further views. There were a couple of showers, but we only caught the edges of them, so we did not get very wet. Neil, who had left early, has told me he was at the Bridges in the second shower, the cure for this was an injection of scones at South Queensferry. During the showers, the temperature dropped a couple of degrees.

As for the main pelaton, the wind was too strong for bunny hops at Inverkeithing, although the cycle land out of Inverkeithing, heading for the bridge, had a couple of nasty surprises.At the Forth Road Bridge, we took the same route back to Cramond that we had taken out. We returned to Cramond Brig at 16:10, quite early, if the weather had been a little nicer and more predictable we would have stopped in South Queensferry for ice-cream.

I arrived home at around 17:10, had a quick shower and a huge cup of coffee and collapsed in the nearest chair.

Thanks to everyone who turned up. We might go to Dunfermline next month, but we’ll see. Hope to see you next month, 2nd May, when it should be getting a little warmer.

Ride Stats:

Speed:      18.5km/h (11.5 mph) The slowest for quite a few months.
Distance:   69.4km (43.1miles)
Max Temp     9 deg C, quite cool, one heavy shower right at the start.
Height Climbed: 602m (1975ft)