Three rides for May

We've got three rides planned for this month. Here are some details - along with news of some other bike-related events:

Standard ride : 13 May

Our next standard ride will be this coming Saturday. Ollie and Dawn will be leading us to South Queensferry by a slightly unconventional route. With a total distance of about 25 miles, the ride will be a little longer than usual but there won't be any particularly steep hills to slow us down. There might be a couple of rough paths, although most of the route will be on reasonably good surfaces.

For lunch, we'll spread ourselves among the various cafés and pubs in South Queensferry. For those who prefer to bring their own food there is a nice picnic spot with good views over the Forth.

The ride will start at 10.30 from our usual meeting point in Middle Meadow Walk.

Weekend away: 20 - 21 May

For our fourth annual cycling weekend, we'll be heading to Perth. We'll leave Edinburgh on the Saturday morning, returning late Sunday afternoon. Jim will be leading us on what promises to be an attractive route through Fife and Kinross. There will be about 40 miles of cycling each day. This will include a certain amount of climbing but nothing too severe; but there will be one very steep descent on the Saturday afternoon, so I hope all our brakes are in good order.

There will be lunch stops at a café or pub on both days.

If you are planning to join this ride, you should book your own accommodation in Perth for the Saturday night. Those who want to do the Saturday ride but not stay overnight should make their own arrangements to return to Edinburgh by train. Those who are stopping in Perth will have the option of meeting up for a meal in the evening.

The meeting point for this ride will be the Craigleigh path junction (if you don't know where that it, see here). Get there in time for a 10.30 departure on the Saturday morning. You don't need to book for the ride itself, but if you haven't already done so it would be helpful if you could let Glenn know that you are coming, just in case of any last-minute change of plans. His email address is glenn.brearley[[AT]]forestry.gsi.gov.uk.

First Extra ride of 2017: 27 May

The following weekend will see our first Extra of the year. As you know, these rides are longer than our usual "second Saturday" outings (usually about 35 miles) and go at a somewhat faster pace. If you find our normal rides well within your capabilities, you should have no problem with our Extras. But if you are unsure of your fitness level, you might prefer to give this one a miss.

I'll post more information about this Extra once the details have been firmed up.

Evening rides

Don't forget that we have a ride every Thursday evening throughout the summer. For more information, see here.

More cycling events

With summer just round the corner, the local cycling scene is hotting up. We have the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling next month, as well as the Spokes Bike Breakfast and the annual Lepra run to St. Andrews - not to mention various rides organised by other local cycling groups such as EasyCycle and MellowVelo. Looking further ahead, the Edinburgh Book Festival in August often has talks on cycling-related themes.

I am posting details of as many of these events as possible on the Cycling Edinburgh site.

That's all for now. I hope we'll see you on one or more of the above events. In the meantime, happy pedalling.