The BIG Cycle Challenge: Day 6 - Friday 16th August

Day 6 – Clun to Runcorn (yes Runcorn the north of England!)

So I am pleased to report I had the first good night’s sleep of the advanture so far, we were lucky to be allocated the ‘Granary Suite’ at the White Hart in in Clun (Shropshire) and Bev the landlady made us feel very comfortable. We both woke up feeling good although a bit daunted by the 80 mile ride ahead, neither of us had done that distance before, especially after 5 days of similar mileage!

It was the usual full English breakfast, and get all the kit ready. There were a whole load of other cyclists in the pub also but not from our tour they were doing the same route but from Scotland to Land’s End. I was doing some minor adjustments to Michaela’s bike in the shed when I heard the following conversation outside between a couple who were pedalling a tandem.

‘Did you pack my red shorts’

‘No you didn’t put them on the pile’

‘What do you mean, you know I wanted them packed’

‘I just do the day bags you do the overnight packing!’

‘You knew I wanted those in’

‘You always blame me, you should have put them on the pile!’

etc etc for about 15 minutes, including tears and snot – moral of this story, however good an idea it might appear at any point in your life, if you want your relationship to continue, NEVER, NEVER BUY A TANDEM!

We pedalled down to the briefing (on our independent solo powered and controlled bikes) and set off at 8.30 am for a long but reasonably flat ride. I am pleased to report that all my bodily functions are under control, so feeling pretty good. Looks like a bit of rain ahead so jackets on!

We tend to meet up with Stefan at the start of the day and the end of the day. He heads of like a scolded cat, or as Monty Python would say, like a ‘rat out of an aqueduct’. He is running with the fast riders at the front of the group, we are running, or should I say struggling at the very back. Usually last in for the ‘brew’ stops and at the finish.

I was confident that the ‘sh*t nav’ was going to preform well today, but alas, within 10 mile it had shut itself down and denied all knowledge of where we were but usefully, although not but not very convincingly announced ‘continue on road’ - I guess there might be a few more stories about my favourite device later.

The countryside was wonderful, we did get some rain, flat terrain, the corn ready to be harvested, cows, horses and other cattle in the fields, weddings happening in rural churches, locals cutting their hedges and postmen and women delivering mail. A truely British scene. All the locals we said hello to wished us well, they know what we are doing because so many other riders of our tour have pasted and that this is a the main route for LEJOG. Everyone is pleasant and helpful when we ask for directions or start up a conversation.

The weather towards the end of the day is very hot again and we started to get burnt, there are many insects around, several of which bite us or we swallow, Michaela got a nasty bee sting on her neck.

At around 6pm, yes 8.30 am to 6 pm in the saddle, we eventually arrived at the hotel. We met up with Stefan (who arrived at 3.30pm and had already had a massage) – beat him up and chastised him, no sorry congratulated him on his athletic prowess, a quick shower, fixed the GoPro camera whose mount had snapped, bouncing it down the road a few days ago (sorry Ben) dinner and bed.

Tomorrow is a ‘hard’ day again, need the sleep!

The divorce machine...