Get cheeky with some weekday touring

Here at Clover Central, we don’t have Dress Down Fridays. (To be honest, our normal sartorial standards aren’t exactly sparkling, and Lockdown 2020 led to Dress Down Everyday. Going to a meeting in October, I realised it was the first time I’d worn proper leather work shoes since February.) We don’t even have POETS day on a Friday afternoon.

So, forget Fridays. What we do have is much more fun – Cheeky Wednesdays. Whenever possible, Wednesday is the day when we down tools, raise sidestands and head out on the bikes for a cheeky day’s adventures. (And yes, we do have a bad habit of working at weekends as a result. Must stop doing that…)

The reason we like our Cheeky Wednesdays is that weekdays – particularly Monday to Thursday – are actually the best days to get out into the most beautiful parts of Scotland. This might be hard for some of you city dwellers to believe, accustomed as you are to commuter traffic, school runs and the like, but it’s true. Scotland’s most wonderful rural and wilderness biking roads are generally less busy during the working week. Also, on weekdays you’re less likely to encounter bunched traffic involving campervans, caravans and distracted “weekend drivers” – yay.

If you’re planning to come and ride the Crieff Cloverleaf, a great way to do it is to arrive on Sunday, and ride the four routes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. (Or ride Monday-Friday, and take a day off in the middle. There’s lots of good relaxing stuff to do around Crieff – your own Cheeky Wednesday!) If you fancy a full week’s holiday, you can always add the delightful Little Leaf routes for a more relaxed final two days…