Across the windy city

Today's additional March ride had overtones of the Christmas day rides as it was shorter than usual, and was concentrated in the city centre. The new city centre cycle route, "City Centre West to East Link" (CCWEL) was officially opened earlier this week. It links the Water of Leith and Roseburn path in the west with Leith Walk in the east. To publicise it, we decided to put an additional ride in the calendar.

After some heavy rain in the previous week, we were hoping it would stay dry. The forecast suggested it would, and it did. But the forecast also warned of strong, gusty winds, and we certainly had those. A turn out of fourteen riders was quite reasonable, and it was good to see a few new faces and some we hadn't seen for some time.

Following a briefing from the leader, we headed towards Roseburn Park via the familiar route of Bruntsfield Links, Leamington Bridge and Fountain Park. We joined the path at Roseburn Terrace following it east along West Coates, past the former Donaldson's School, which looked very impressive in the sunshine. Along Haymarket Terrace, then the quiet Roseberry Crescent before skirting the south side of St Mary's Cathedral. Manor Place and Melville Street followed, before crossing Queensferry Street onto Randolph Place with a cut-through taking us to Charlotte Square. Between there and St Andrew Square, the section along George Street has yet to be completed. The completed path continued on North St David Street, the corner of St Andrew Square and along York Place. Rather than continue to Leith Walk via the Playhouse, we crossed York Place and headed down Broughton Street to join the bike path at King George Park following a comfort stop at Tesco. Via the Goldenacre path to Five Ways, the Ferry Road, Telford and Roseburn paths we arrived at the Russell Road zig-zags. Here the leader declared the ride officially over.

Thanks to Mike for leading and showing us the new path that is definitely a worthwhile addition to Edinburgh's cycle network. Everyone enjoyed the ride, and it was great to be cycling in the city centre on a normal Saturday without having to worry about the traffic. Thanks to Alison for back marking. If just some of today's riders make regular use of the new path, the ride will have been worthwhile.

Leader: Alison

Report: Glenn

Photos: Glenn