A great ride!
An old friend gave me a call in the middle of the week to see if I was doing this, so he joined me and we rode it together. We met up with HJ, Mrs HJ (who I found out reads here as a guest - come on & sign up Mrs HJ, you know you want to.) and Scoosh. Mrs Scoosh & their son were about at the start somewhere, but we didn't meet at that end of the ride. I also met up with a couple of other people I know, both planning a 4 hour ride. When one commented on my lack of gears I made the pronouncement that gears are for wimps. Something that I had the odd moment to regret saying.
The start was from a different location to previous years, forced primarily by tram works that are blighting Embra. However, in my opinion, this was a much better start than the old location. Sure there were holdups, but there were from the other start as well, and these seemed to be on a lesser extent. Mind you the police were much more pro-active this time.
On the roll out to the bridge, I spotted a couple of other people on fixies, so moved up to join them for a chat. One had a shiny new Dolan FXE that he had just finished building at 2am that morning and had only given it test spin before the ride. This was going to be his first real experience of fixed riding.
The climb up to the ice cream van had it's tough moments and I had to walk for a bit. I can handle climbs, so long as the gradient is not too much. We did not stop at the van. I knew the queues would be long and the midges hungry, so we wove our way through and onwards. Apart from the loose stuf on some corners requiring careful choice of lines, the descent was fine.
During the ride we joined, passed and were re-passed variously by the HJ's and Scoosh. We met up at the lunch stop with the HJ's and our timing was impeccable, seating ourselves in the tent just as it started to rain and leaving as it cleared up.
I had a minor equipment failure. Mainly my fault for over stressing the saddle bag by using it as a support to tie rolled up bundles to. So we redistributed things a bit. Unfortunately this meant requiring to wear my jacket when I was too hot.
In all, I regretted saying gears are for wimps a total of 4 times, but given that I had to walk twice last year on a 9speed triple (yes I know!) I don't think I did too badly. Last year I had been quicker, but this year I found it easier. Part due to the wind direction and strength.
Rolling into St. Andrews, we did not get lost as I had done previously and we arrived to see the rest of the CC crew relaxing in the sun where I was introduced to Noodles.
While watching the rest of the cyclists arrive, it was good to see the variety of riders and machines. From full on road bikes to folders and hire bikes. From fully fit people to one chap who had a spinal injury on a hand trike. From full lycra (should have had a camera for the women in lycra thread) to street clothes (the lady Brompton rider with long summer skirt). A fair number of tandems, but apart from the hand trike, no 'bents.
Mrs T and the Touchlettes arrived to collect us for a pizza and the drive home.
A moment of excitement took place as we were loading the bikes on the car. There was a load bang behind us and there was a chap in full touring mode with a broken chain and a flat rear. Fortunately I had a spare 9speed powerlink in my kit and he managed to get hold of an inner tube from somewhere as the flat appeared to have been caused by the chain hitting the valve stem and tearing it off the tube. A truly strange sequence of events.
I hope its not too bad but well done to you and all the riders 
There was quite a gathering by that point so I suppose I can be excused...
