Slow up hill, drafting down hill

Another amazing day.

We left Edinburgh, through Princes Street, past the castle and picked up the A7.

Rather than follow the A7 all day we detoured off on a "rural" route. It was stunning right through the Borders. It was however a day of climbing for 6 or 7 miles (not steep, just long, steady hills) followed by long winding down hills. The climbs were ok - legs are tired but the hills didn't test them too much. The borders was a mix of high moorland and then heavily forested areas. We rode often for an hour or so without being passed by a car and seeing few houses.

Now, the main fun for the day was breaking our drafting and overtaking record. We can draft each other down hill by one of us riding quite close behind the one in front and so being shielded from the wind (there is never a doubt that we have a headwind!). The one behind, without pedalling, will accelerate and can then pop out the side and overtake (imagine formula one but with two tired blokes trying to find an excuse for not pedalling all the way down hill).

Today, we manage to - remember without pedalling or using brakes - overtake each other 20 times down a hill. This provoked much giggling and punching of the air. We would have hit 25 if the sheep hadn't kept getting in the way.

As you will see from a previous picture, we crossed the border into England today. We had a celebratory wee in no-mans land (having marked our territory through much of Scotland), took a picture and then made our way to Carlisle.

Tomorrow is our hilliest day - through the Trough of Bowland.

Thanks for texts/messages - much appreciated.


Brendan