Cycling fans have a great habit of passing on their favourite riding routes.  Everyone has their favourite route, their top hilly ride and their most scenic outing. They will most likely tell you the exact distance, the best coffee stops en route and their top time (when they were at their fittest).

I hadn’t paid much attention to all this talk until I started stacking up the miles in training for the Bealach Mor Sportive. (You’ll know I’ve entered this epic event if you’ve been keeping up with my constant cycling blogs!). Now I know why riders try to vary their routes so often. Once you start cycling 70 to 90 miles in one outing you need to find a range of great routes to take your mind off the distance and on to the scenery, training hills – and the best coffee stops and cake!

The Glasgow Triathlon Club forum has been a good source of bike route suggestions. So, too, has the G-Force who can recount numerous tales of riding all the routes north of Glasgow as a youngster (he was a member of the now disbanded Scotia Cycling Club). His favourite stories are of brilliant times (“I was young and fit then!” he says.) and epic peloton races. And so I’ve followed the G-Force around the Trossachs; via the Campsies; ‘Round the Cree (the route that heads from the north of Glasgow via Crianlarich); o’er the Crow (over the Crow Road out of Kirkintilloch and over to Fintry); along the Top o’ the World (a route somewhere near Aberfoyle) etc.

And then I’ve had various Twitter and Blog followers telling me about their favourite routes. So I thought I’d start a blog series of “Fantastic Scottish Cycling Routes”. Please feel free to email me with your own route.