A friend and I both had passes on Saturday so keen not to waste them made the decision to extend our planned long ride.
We headed out to Alloa and up the Sherrifmuir climb without much incident. It's nice to see that the old pub at the top has been converted in to a house rather than being left abandoned.
We stopped for lunch in Dunning where we came across the first signs of the storm while munching bridies on the bridge and watching the burn trickle by.
The adjacent garden had suffered severe damage with one bush almost ripped out by the roots. By chance the old guy who lives in the house came by and stopped for a chat. He has lived there for 42 years and although the water had hit the bottom terrace of his garden a couple of times during flash floods it had never got higher. This time within minutes the water had risen over his garden and up and in his back window, considerably higher than ever before. He seemed remarkably upbeat considering what he had been though.
We then went up the Dragon climb and descended towards Culteuchar, thankfully we planned to turn towards Glenfarg as the storm had hit hard here too. The road surface at the bridge appeared to have moved a few feet down the hill leaving it blistered and a large mound of rubble at the bottom. The road to Bridge of Earn was presumably worse as it was closed.
I had routed us past the Glenfarg Tunnels as I fancied a look but everything was so wet we stuck on the road for the lovely long decent under the tunnel approach viaduct.
Thankfully we then left the hills behind us and wound our way through Newburgh and Cupar and took the Pitscottie road to St Andrews which I expected to be quieter than the main road. Sadly it wasn't had it appeared to have a number of drivers who though overtaking and forcing oncoming traffic the break was appropriate, mostly driving the sort of small cars which some parents seem to like buying their student age offspring. Thankfully the oncoming traffic were better drivers than they were.
We had planned some chips in St Andrews but it was still mid afternoon so after a rest on a beachside bench we continued south to Lundin Links where the whole village hard turned up at the chip shop. Thankfully Kirckaldy wasn't far away and Rinaldi's served us some excellent suppers for our tea, I don't think it was just the past 200km which made them tasted good although I'm sure it helped.
Back on familiar territory we climbed up the lovely rural Standing Stanes Road for the last gentle challenge of the day.
A long write up but at 235km there's no other way to report it.
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