It was just an easy ride out this afternoon

Today was a game of two halves. In the morning, inspired by a bright sunny dayBigman and Mrs Bigman decided to speed across teh forth Bridge to the Linlithgow Canal Bistro. It was a stiff south westerly. One of those wind directions that prevents easy progress, however unlikely to support you in your return journey. The view from the bridge was cracking. In days like these Scotland is a picture postcard and the scenery lives up to the reputation.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the bistro cafe. The cakes were limited in choice and devoid of flavour. It must have been an off day cos usually the investment in the journey to this stop provides greater returns than a bank share!

They flew back to the bridge and up through Inverkeithing. On cresting the climb Mrs B noticed she had 11 minutes to be at a meeting in Dunfermline. Bigman was despatched to fetch the car and so it was pedal to the mettle up and over Masterton climb and then up over the Garvock Ascent. Before he could park his bike in the garage, change his shoes and reverse the car out of the driveway, Mrs B appears pummeling down the hill in a sprint finish that even Mark Cavendish would have been proud of. With her light frame and Alpine climbing experience she is fast becoming a Tour contender.

With Mrs Bigman off to a meeting a wee txt to the Ironman, and a rendezvous was set up to do some reconnaisance work on the Col du Carnock International meeting route in late August.

Neighbours in Carnock have reported strange lights across the fields after midnight. Is it Aliens making crop the circles? Is it criminals pursuing their professions? Or is it the Ironman getting in some extra training to claim the Carnock crown in his home country. All this Tour spectating is building national pride in the metropolis of Carnock.

It was agreed to have an easy ride to allow time to take in the climb lengths, the number of bends, and analyse the gradients both up and down. The stiff Westerly was not going to make the journey easy. A reasonable pace was maintained up to Saline with the Ironman confirming they were only a minute off his record time. That was fine. It was, after all, an easy ride. Down the Saline brae and dogs cowered behind hedges as the whoosh flew past, both at a reasonable pace.

Quickly the Forestmill turn off was upon us. This has all the hallmarks of a do or die junction and will deserve respect. There will be no prizes for hospitalisation on this event.

There has never been an accident on the International col du Carnock meet. Okay so there has never been an International Col du Carnock meeting but lets not allow the facts to get in the way of sensationalist journalism. The 300 readers of this blog are all highly intelligent. Who else would read such quality stuff?

After debating whether the car behind was letting us cross the road for the right hander to the rod leading down to the cycle track or just lining up his grill for mounting a madone on the front we shall never know however the guys crossed the carriageway and with a single motion were flying down the hill with warp speed back up to 25mph. After all this was only an easy ride.

A few bystanders on the cycle path looked bemused at these lycra clad middle aged men blasting their way along the path however always showing resepct for fellow path users even if this was not reciprocated by the woman with five mussled lurchers. The dogs could say nothing, their master choose to not reciprocate pleasantries.

The Col rushed towards the pair and then the sky came down to meet them as the mighty Col pointed skywards .................... and it was done. The end achieved in a time of XX mins. With the competition for Carnock Crown hotting up, it would be inappropriate for me to divulge the time.

It was after all just an easy ride this afternoon :-)

40 miles covered in the morning, and another 28 covered in the afternoon, we are another step closer to the Epic Caper in South Africa. At the weigh in post outing this afternoon, Bigman was down to 13st 8lbs equaling the pre Alping Altitude Training Camp ( which had required much re-hydration)

The metrics are heading in the right direction. what could possibly get in the way of an even leaner, fitter, faster Bigman?