The BIG Cycle Challenge

Monday, 19 August 2013

Day 8 - Sunday 18th August - Condor Green to Keswick

Day 8 – Sunday 18^th – Condor Green to Keswick

Well had a lovely evening meal with the team, lots of banter and good humour, great pub, I can thoroughly recommend the Stork at Condor Green.

Then it was a long but not very good night’s sleep (every radiator in the room was full on drying kit, every window wide open) and then up for the slightly later start at 9 am. Good breakfast, porridge and bananas, and ready for the off. Despite the lack of sleep, we were feeling good, as today we go through the wonderful Lake District, which we know quite well.

Sat Nav was in good favour today, I think we have finally built sufficient relationship with the machine which means I will look back fondly on our struggles together (rather than throw it in the sea at John O’Groats, which has been my plan over the last few days). Although I have noticed it has also tried to work on our relationship, but its attempts to impress me by pointing out local supermarkets at seemingly random times have not worked.

The start of the day was a bit drizzly, but soon cleared up into a lovely sunny day, as the Lake District came to us, all we had to do was pedal and follow the purple line (on the Sat Nav), our day (as per the last 8) laid out for us. Start when told to, stop for morning tea when you see the ‘brew van’ on the side of the road, stop for lunch when it’s time, stop for afternoon tea when you see the brew van and check into your Bed and Breakfast when you get there. Bags all in the room courtesy of the excellent Peak Tours staff (Graham, Andy and Johnny). All we have to do is pedal, and boy has there been a lot of it! Life is simple now and I’m beginning to forget what else I used to do all day.

Hills though are a big problem, going up I am of course referring to! I am almost a specialist in heading down them and don’t mind the flat bits but going up just hurts. And the going down bit is a poor payback for the effort to get up them (maybe another metaphor in life is emerging – will work on that today, note to self). Which got me thinking, what about a KERS for bikes? KERS being a Formula 1 device that taps into the car’s energy and releases additional power when you want it, ie when going up a hill. I have many ideas for this ground breaking device that will revolutionise cycling, and have analysed all the advantages and disadvantages of the many engineering solutions I have come up with many times over in my head during the hours and hours of cycling, and have concluded the best solution is to buy a motorbike.

Speaking of hills through, we have tried many different strategies for getting up them, but none of them will EVER involve walking up them! No Sir not on this trip, no hill is going to beat us! Obviously they all involve whizzing down the previous down section as fast as possible and trying to carry enough momentum as possible, but then what do you do? A) Attack it before the up and keep on going? B) roll to a natural near stop and then change down gears and get stuck in C) Stand or stay seated? D) Go for it or relax? Often the answer is just drop down to the bottom gear and just get a rhythm going. Often in my head I sing the song Dory (the forgetful fish from the film ‘Finding Nemo’) sang – ‘Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming’ (in the film after has had a frightening experience she finally remembers the key bit of information, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney) – anyway enough of this nonsense…

We are now half way through this little adventure, and we have now cycled from Land’s End to the Lake District. No small undertaking in itself! Michaela and I cant believe it, not really sure even this has sunk in yet. Is this real of a dream? Michaela is just wonderful, its not been easy for her, but she has provided a huge amount of support and encouragement, which I hope in some small way I have paid back, and when I asked her why she is doing this, she replies for the Hunger Project and to support you…just fantastic…

We got in about 5.30 pm into a rainy Keswick, stretched, showered and hit a local Italian restaurant to find Stefan inside, having arrive at Keswick around 3.30pm (‘we took it easy today’), having walked around the town and generally describing the day as ‘easy’. After much banter and me failing at psychologically bullying, eg ‘ah well the hardest is still to come Scotland is all up hill’ and ‘your legs look tired’ he departed and we finished our meal then bed. However tomorrow I’m going to let his tyres down…

So tomorrow we run out of England and head into Scotland past where Robin Wood lives in Dumfriesshire. That was England, we have run out of England – how mad is that? England was that all you had? Was that the best you could throw at us? Scotland do your worst, we’re ready!

legs developing well...

Look we're here!

Lake Windermere

Thank you for everyone who has supported us, we are doing this to raise money for The Hunger Project UK (Tim and Mark) and to support them in doing their work to end persistent hunger in the world – something that like cycling Great Britain, some people consider to be impossible…and it’s not

Click on the below link to see our route, as slow day, lots of those hills!

Day 8 - Sunday 18th August - Condor Green to Keswick by Bike27 at Garmin Connect - Details

Saturday, 17 August 2013

Day 7 - Saturday 17th - Runcorn to Condor Green

Day 7 - Saturday 17^th – Runcorn to Conder Green

Well both of us woke up feeling just great! It seems both our bodies have adjusted to what they are being asked to do day after day. Stefan arrived at the briefing, and then as usual flew off with his regular group who seem to sprint through the day, he was only to be seen briefly as I came into the gents (having just arrived, he just leaving after having had his lunch).

In the morning we rode through Warrington, Leigh and a glancing blow of Bolton. The start of northern England, lots of jokes about Wallace and Gomit, especially when a motorbike with side-car came towards us, but again great people and very friendly. At the first ‘brew’ stop, Graham described the next section as ‘a long flat bit of road that’s been lifted at one end’ – ‘a hill you mean?’ Our excellent guides, Graham, John and Andy will do anything to keep the motivation up and we are now understanding the language they use, ‘only another three hills before the stop’, means ‘there will be about 5’, ‘it’s just round the corner’, means ‘about two miles’ and ‘the weather’s going to brighten up’, means ‘slightly less rain’. So factoring in all of this we set off for the second stint of the day, the section before lunch. We went through Blackburn, not the best parts I am sure, but this is where the sat nav earned its keep, I had had words with it last night and it was behaving well. In fact I was so confident I led a small group through the entire Blackburn route, and you didn’t want to get lost there!

Lunch was good and tasty, still no rain, as forecast, obviously our guides had said there might be ‘a few showers in the afternoon’ – ‘it’s going to pour down’. I think I am getting into the northern thing, there are quite a few of the team from around here so we here the accent and dialect quite a bit. I found myself answering the waitress’s question (at The Black Dog at Belmont) of ‘How was lunch?’ with a locally attuned ‘it were great’.

In the afternoon, it poured down, we all got very, very wet. As Blackadder would say ‘wetter than a fish’s wet bits’. However we seem to move along the road faster when it’s wet, not sure why. After a long stint and a nice stop at a café at an old railway station, we eventually arrived at our pub for the night. Will do exactly what we did last night, because we feel just great today, red wine, steak and chips!

I think we’re there – what I mean is we can see ourselves at the end. The bodies have adjusted, they know what is expected of them, we are almost half way through the mileage, and are half way through the time, so feeling good. Tomorrow the Lakes, one of my favourite places in the world!

Graham at the briefing - a long flat bit of road that's been lifted up at one end...

The technology on my bike - did I mention a movie will be coming out about this little adventure, well at least a youtube video, another revenue raising opportunity me thinks!

Michaela in full flow...

Now at lunch - it were great...

Some of the other slow ones...

Your truly, taken by mistake!

The afternoon cafe stop

ditto

Well at least we're still talking...(no tandem you see)

500 miles of road grime...

a bit faster today and much more enjoyable!

Day 7 - Saturday 17th - Runcorn to Condor Green by Bike27 at Garmin Connect - Details

Day 6 - Friday 16th August - Clun to Runcorn

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...