I’ve got a day off tomorrow and thinking of riding up to St. Andrews. Not sure which is the best route and I’d be grateful of sage advice and gpx’s. Keeping my options open – this might be the first long ride on the road bike and I guess I could extend it. I’ll have to get the train home again so will need to finish at a station but if I had the legs could ride back to Ladybank or similar.
An option is also to ride the 456. I’m wanting to get some big miles in preparation for the WHW in June. I might not be ready for the Fife Coast Path yet but would like a crack at that one day this summer. I rode out to the selkies and Falkirk Wheel in that monstrous wind on Saturday and am thinking I’d quite like a tailwind tomorrow.

So, what should do with my day off?

I’d prefer the other way – coastal path joining John Muir Way and along to Berwick Upon Tweed. Although I prefer a loop rather than the train, so I’d actually go Edin, Musselburgh, Haddington, Whiteadder Reservoir, loop back to Gifford, Pencaitland, Edin – quiet roads and some hills to bag

Thanks Jamie but I have a commute to Haddington at least once a week so I’d like to do something different. One of these days I’ll explore the other side of Haddington after work.

Lucky you.

Afraid not ridden it so absolutely no idea, but I have got my eye on the coast and castles rnorth route

Same goes for here

Ive only ridden to Burntisland and back along that route and it wasnt too inspiring

The coastal route is an absolute pain on the mtb- heads up that a lot of it will require you to push your bike

Lepra route

There’s the route that the Lepra ride follows.

see scotroutes and his GPX of Edinburgh – Peebles and back, mostly off road — that’d be better WHW training possibly?

http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/p/pentlands-to-peebles.html

I’ve done that by variation, it’s a big day out but lovely to be taking the road less travelled as it were.

[Edit – that’d only work for the 456 obviously !! ]

Do a road loop of the Pentlands or granites.

Didn’t stw mag print a route inthe cx edition?

Thanks guys. I think I’m going to head over the bridge on the LEPRA route. I’ll see how it goes – might come back along the Tay and if I drop down to Kircaldy it would make it a nice round century.

Some good ideas for other days though. I’ve been thinking about that route to Peebles for a while and it would be good to get some perspective riding round the Pents as I’m riding over them a lot most weeks.

The coastal route is an absolute pain on the mtb- heads up that a lot of it will require you to push your bike

Most of it is fine on a bike with little pushing especially on a mountain bike.

Maybe it’s my lack of fitness, but I think riding from Edinburgh and starting in North Queensferry, joining the coastal path and arriving in St Andrews in a day would be a struggle. Much quicker by road and on a road bike. I’ve not done the Lepra route on a bike, but have travelled on every section and it’s quite scenic.

Well it was a jolly nice ride on Thursday. It seems like a tough one for those casual cyclists/have-a-goers that sign up for the charity ride. There’s a few sections with fairly busy traffic too. I just extended it a little – up around Tayport before getting the train home. I felt quite content at ther end of the day sat on a bench at the station refreshing myself with a large bottle of beer and cheese oatcakes.

The weirdest thing was yesterday, heading out of town on the mtb feeling like I might going out on the wrong bike.