Ride through Big Country

I wasn't planning on a bike ride today, persistent rain was forecast from 7am. When I woke up outside looked incredibly bright. When I got up, as the weather forecast was so wrong, no rain, I decided to go on a short ride. That way if the weather did turn for the worse, I could easily head home. I was thinking about the Etape Caledonia, last year I did quite well, so I was disappointed not to get a space on this year's ride.

I headed down to Penicuik, and carried on south along the Moor Road from Penicuik to West Linton, the sun came out. Just before the road starts to climb (again) I saw these horses with riders on a ridge to my right. It is a good indicator of the sort of countryside I cycle through. I took several photos before ditching the rain jacket, packable enough to fit in one of my rear pockets, and carrying on.

As the weather was so nice, I rode on to West Linton, instead of turning off at the Lamancha road and home. As it was still nice, so I took the Lyne Water road from Romannobridge, to the A72 and Hallyne, before heading home through the Meldons and Leadburn. I did get rained on for about 5 minutes, but I was nearly home, and rode through it.

The ride was just over 45 miles, at just over 18.5mph, was quite fast. I was pretty pleased with that.