Cold, wet and windy this was depressingly like cycling in February. 3 miles after leaving Peebles the rain jackets went on and they didn’t come off all day.

26 miles from Peebles to Edinburgh may be a marathon distance, but for us it should have been a walk in the park. It wasn’t. By the time James, Tom and I reached Prince’s Street in the centre of Edinburgh we were soaked to the skin.

Nevertheless, that wasn’t enough to dampen our spirits. Hardly being able to see Edinburgh Castle due to rain and low cloud, encountering cobbles for the first time and taking our coffee break at Burger King did demoralise us slightly, though!

But pedalling through the centre of the city, past all the landmarks and locations was a real highlight. It was Tom’s suggestion that we do it rather than skirt the edges and it certainly helped to brighten a dull day. I think you’ll agree he even managed to strike a good camp pose!

The Fun Bus crew weren’t far behind, They detoured into Edinburgh so Ollie could buy some replacement shoes and trousers – a sure sign that he’s serious about trying to get back on the bike in the next few days.

We were surprised how far it was out to the Forth Road Bridge, We dropped down to Queensferry between the two bridges over the Firth of Forth and this was Tom’s high point. No not because of the views, but because the rain stopped!

But with bagpipes playing, and loads of friendly cyclists out and about we rode up onto the bridge feeling pretty good. Stopped for the obligatory pictures, then rode on.

Like flicking a switch, as soon as we dropped off the bridge, God turned the taps on again and for good measure decided to aim the heavenly hairdryer in our faces, too. These were miserable miles up to Kinross, stinging rain driven into our cheeks by 20mph headwinds as we grinded on through dreary housing estates. Tom described Kilty as “the armpit of the world” and James’ knee started giving him jip.

Luckily the ever-reliable Fun Bus had found us a café on the shores of the loch, so we chowed down on jacket potatoes. None of us wanted to get back on the bikes afterwards, though. Somehow we made good time to Perth – still into the rain and wind, of course.

Once there we found a great coffee shop near the art gallery. The waiting staff even handed out black binliners for us to put over the upmarket chairs so we didn’t get them wet. How thoughtful. Of course when we got up to leave there was a big puddle under each of our seats – but the staff were quite literally standing by with mops at the ready!

From there we rolled reasonable easily up to Blairgowrie. James’ knee got better, the rain finally stopped and when we arrived at our Guest House (yet another Fawlty Towers copycat) we were greeted by the sight of Ollie kitted up and ready to pedal! It was really great to see him and Tom set off for an gentle three mile trial, but when they came back Ollie still reported too much rib pain to put in the exertion needed to join us for a day.

We drowned our sorrows (or rather filled our empty tummies) at the Yan Kee Chinese. Tom led the way, inexplicably drawn to it by the “all you can eat for £10” sign outside. A bit of light relief after a depressingly poor day.

Highlights:
Seeing Ollie back on his bike
Bottoms less sore and hurty than normal due to extreme sogginess (believe us, that really is a highlight)
Edinburgh and the Forth Road Bridge

Low Points:
James’ knee niggles – his worst day of all
The headwind
Will this rain ever stop?…

Stage Stats
Today’s mileage: 86.32
Total mileage: 743.88
Average speed: 14.6mph
Max speed: 36.3mph
Average daily mileage so far: 92.99 miles

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 9:43 am and is filed under General chat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.