12th May - Day 7

Day 7

Left Carlisle at 8 and we soon arrived at the border at Gretna. A huge dig from Allanach took the sprint at the line for the border crossing. After the obligatory photos we headed north again to Dumfries and then along the A74 to Kilmarnock. This was quite a busy road and although undulating was not too hard to cycle except for the road surfaces in places where every lump and bump sent red hot spikes into my sit bones.  Lunch was served in a barn which was interesting and even the leaky roof was welcome as it was hammering down with rain again. We stopped for a nice cuppa at a cafe just outside Kilmarnock. Unfortunately it was three minutes past four and they shut at four. I wasn't overly impressed by their hospitality.  So we pressed on to complete the ride and stayed in the Park Inn which is attached to Rugby park which is the home of Kilmarnock FC. 97 miles all in today.  The southern members of our group had never heard of Red Hot Chilly Pipers. They know all about them now having been subjected to their entire repertoire during the evening meal.😀    BPF 8 today, and that was with double shorts.  Next time if I do this again Ill be using bigger tyres to soften the impact on the posterior.