LEJOG Day 6

LEJOG Miles Today - 90

Auldgirth - Cumnock - Kilmarnock - Glasgow - Dumbarton - Balloch (South end Loch Lomond)

Woke this morning to frost on the ground, but cloud-free blue sky, sunshine & NO WIND!!!!! After a hearty breakfast of porridge & banana, we headed out onto the roads. Great riding conditions meant we made great time up to Kilmarnock through stunning scenery to meet our loyal support crew just outside the city for lunch at 47 miles. A climb of 5 miles out of the city brought us to the start of the M77 where we peeled off (after a near miss with a king-size bulldozer on a low-loader in single-lane coned-off roadworks - took us a while to figure out the English version of "it's gunnay f$@kin' hit ye if ye dinna muv" from the escort van). At this point, when we thought the day couldn't possibly get any better, we discovered what must be the UK's longest cycle track. When you see a sign on a cycle track saying "Glasgow 19 miles", you know you're onto a winner. The 'track' was 4 metres wide of glass-smooth tarmac separated from the road by a grass verge & kerbs, and ran across amazing views for the next 11 miles. The final 8 miles was a continuous descent down the road into Glasgow centre, with a dedicated cycle lane virtually the whole way. We crossed the bridge over the Clyde, then headed west out of the city - which took us an hour to cross in total - towards Dumbarton. We arrived at Balloch at the same time as our support crew and loaded the bikes into the caravan to arrive at the campsite together. FINALLY - a day where the plan came together! Tent pitched & caravan set up with the four of us showered & changed sat in the sun with drinks by 6 PM. It's only taken us six days to get to this......
Tomorrow looks like being a tough day, with some big climbs up through the Highlands across to Fort William, but the forecast is good, so the views of Ben Nevis close-up should ease the pain! looking forward to an easy start along the Loch Lomond cycle track.