Birmingham & Funkenteleky

Colin headed up from London and Hannah & Cherry down from Edinburgh to arrive in Birmingham on Thursday evening.

On Friday we had a busy day moving Hannah's stuff from old to new house in Selly Oak. A small step up in niceness of her new property for Year 3 at Uni.

In the evening Hannah was performing at Funkenteleky. A great fun show and Hannah did great.

On Saturday we visited the Birmingham Back to Backs - old traditional working class homes in central brum. Colin and Cherry squeezed in a quick visit to the Botanical Gardens in the early evening.

The hotel in Central Birmingham was a very bad choice with so much noise all night.

Train home on Sunday morning for Colin & Cherry. Hannah followed on a few days later.

SufCamp 17 - 23 June

An amazing week in Switzerland at SufCamp. A hugely busy schedule of riding and coaching sessions with great food and guest speakers. Really enjoyed it. Daily updates were posted on my Facebook Account so I won't repeat the detail here.

Tweedlove Skinny

With just over a week to go before SufCamp this years Tweedlove Skinny had to be an easy effort at a comfortable pace. A new route this year heading to Innerleithen and then North through the Moorfoots. It was generally quite pleasant although I didn't like the section along the busy main road.

There as the bike show on at Peebles Green with a huge section of demo bikes on display. It might be worth booking some test rides in future years.

Moncreiffe Hill - Orienteering and MTB

One of the great things about orienteering is the places it takes you to that you would otherwise never visit. I've driven so many times past this hill just before Perth to the right of the Motorway. It's a really nice and well looked after area with nice paths, a few old hill forts and decent views. The orienteering was hot and hard with the summer growth making finding the controls a bit more difficult. Lots of nettles as well. Got round pretty successfully for a 5th Place on the green course.

Afterwards got on my bike and headed back up to the top of the hill.

Followed my nose for a while which eventually took me down the South side of the hill and into the flat flood plain area that is surrounded by the Tay, the Earn and the M90. Managed to find a route through the confluence of the two rivers.

Would have been nice to do a circular route but the riverside track started to look even more unwelcoming so headed back and then onwards to the event car park.

A nice steak out for Cherry, Max and Colin at Kyloe later in the evening.

East Lothian Cycle

This weekend is the last hard weekend on my training schedule. With damp weather forecast I headed out on the heavy touring bike for a ride round East Lothian. I wasn't feeling fab so welcomed the opportunity for an early stop for coffee and scone at the very nice Humbie Hub. After that onwards to Gifford for an early lunch stop at the Lanterne Rouge. Properly nourished I made the rest of the route home without any further stops. 60 miles in total - a bit wet in the latter stages.