Ride to the Sun - 24 Jun 23

 

I have always wanted to cycle at night in open countryside but I was always too scared. As soon as I heard of this ride, I was in and have no regrets at all! Not sure I'll do it again, as you end up wasting 2 days for just a ride, but sure it's something all cyclists have to do once in their lifetime.

https://www.ridetothesun.co.uk/

Perfectly organised and well communicated, it just maybe lacked a bit of community spirit, in that each one was pretty much cycling with partner / cycling groups, but given the roads were not actually closed that was probably a good thing. I wonder when in the UK they will organise something like Ragbrae, if ever, but I suppose the Ride to the Sun is a good start...

We cycled to Cramond to board our 3.30pm bus. They were 4 buses in total and there was a bit of a wait (we got there at 2pm), but the sun was shining so who can complaint. We arrived in Carlisle at 6pm, got the bikes, and given there was no much info around or leader we decided to head off by following the NCN 7 instead of the route, more quite and nicer we thought. There were cyclists of all the kinds, but the majority were road cyclists. I didn't feel like I fitted there, but it was still cool to head off in the late afternoon sunshine.

We overtook a few people and many more overtook us. Paul was pushing quite hard so I had to slow him down a bit. Still, we averaged our fastest ride ever with 26 km/h (thanks tail wind!). Without me he would probably have averaged 30km/h...sorry!

Back to Scotland!!

The first bit to Moffat was a bit boring, but me I kind of enjoyed it as it was all a new experience. I was not even sure of the eating strategy, and we figured we should stop after 50k for a slice of cake, like we would do on a normal cycle. Thing is night cycling is really different, and you end up not being that hungry. We ate the cake fast as many people were cycling past and we felt a bit rushed (why?? it's not a race!).

We arrived in Moffat shortly after, where the first official stop was at the fish and chips shop.

 We were still full of cake so we just filled up the bottles and headed up the Devil's Beef climb, and that was extremely pleasant to cycle in the fading light and quietness of the evening. We have never cycled that way as it's normally packed with cars, but by then it was past 9pm and there was not a soul around, just beautiful clouded hills everywhere.

There was a guy that was supposed to be playing the bagpipe on the top but we were too early...oh well, he was still there for the pictures :)

It was definitely not cold but the extra layer came up handy in the descent, and thereafter. The descent was a blast, like whoooo! Tail wind, perfectly graded and no sharp turns. We put on the turbo gear and were flying down at 45km/h for a good 30 min, definitely the best part of the cycle, and I'm so glad we did it with some light as the views were really stunning.

We reached the Crook Inn when the lights started to fade. There was a disco (Paul went wild), bananas, water and much more, but we could only force a banana down (I had 2 sandwiches with me but just the idea revolted the stomach). We couldn't really stop much as the midges were out (only 10 bites this time!), so off we went for the night section. 

 

We put on the lights and were just following a road. I couldn't even figure out when I was on a descent or ascent, but in the distance we could still see a kind of orange line in the horizon, the sunset lasted for ages and it never really got totally dark, which was quite cool.

We stopped after a while in a place called Roman Bridge, I think at km 122. I had no idea where we were on the map and moral was getting a bit low, but as soon as I saw a sign to West Linton 2 miles I knew we were not far from home. Next thing was the silhouette of the Pentlands, like sleeping ladies, and that's always the reassuring sign that home is near.

It was a quick downhill to Penicuik which we reached at half past midnight (to me it all felt more descent than ascent, like I really can't believe we climbed more than 1000m!) . We stopped at a bench for a smoke and gosh people there know how to party! A guy stopped and asked what we were up to and was left with his mouth open. I think pretty much everybody agrees that this is the coolest idea ever!

We kept going on known territory, up the road to Comiston Road and then the long downhill to Morningside. The meeting point was at 4.28am at Crammond for the sunrise, but given we were home at 1.08am we thought there was no point in waiting 3h and just got back home. I'm a bit gutted that I didn't get to see the sunrise, but then I'm also impressed with myself at how fast and smooth it went. No drama just a lot of open mouth (and sore legs the day after...), so glad we did it!