The Proof!

All of a sudden the legs don't hurt and the sun is shining...

Almost two weeks later and things are starting to return to normal once again, such as sleep patterns and day to day routines. There are a few reminders though; my left hand still doesn't quite work like its supposed to (but its much better than it was!). I have a bike with both wheels in for "repair". Chris still hasn't been able to run yet due to muscular soreness - although with rest this should heal.

... I don't know how uncomfortable sitting on a bike again will be yet - but somehow it could never be as painful on a regular ride as it was on day 8!

Day 8 - The Champagne Leg!

Now when we booked our accommodation for the Inverness Youth Hostel it was “probably the best hostel in Scotland” … I think that they were being a sarcastic. We shared our dorm with a couple of snoring Poles in a hot stuffy room – to be honest though we still slept for most of the night after Day 7’s exhilaration.

So we were back in the saddle for one final push from Dingwall on to John O’Groats. As we walked out of the hostel I had a bit of a chat with a couple heading out on their bikes…the incredulous look from them when we said we were going all the way to JOG said it all.

So we headed off on the long road North East. Now for some reason today hurt a lot more than previous days – psychologically I suppose we must have relaxed and the mind had stopped blocking out all of the pain. Now when I say pain I don’t mean tired legs and limbs - we‘ve had them since day one…what I mean is sore backs from bending over the bikes all day, sore necks, creaking knees – but the most acute pains shot up through the saddle and took the form of an incessant reminder of every one of the lumps on the road. Oh for a bit of smooth road! What’s more, both Paul and I still hadn’t regained the use of our left hands – which meant any gear changes required a look over the shoulder and two hands on the left gear lever whilst the bike veered across the road and the chain clunked onto the big cog and control was regained once more… But what kept us going through all the hardship was balls of steel.

We pressed on through gritted teeth and before too long we were teased with signs for JOG – the fist one at 104 miles was met with whoops of joy!. With about 80 miles left on the clock we stopped for a quick feed with the girls before pressing on to break the back of the day – over the bridge over the Dornoch Firth and along the coast line grinding out the miles. We were lucky with the weather today and apart from a headwind the sun was shining all day. Out past the spectacular Dunbrobin Castle and along the A9.

By now the views were getting dramatic looking out across the North Sea on our right and the rolling yellow flowering gorse bushes which spread across the rolling grassy banks. After another few hours and a couple of harsh unexpected 15% climbs around the coastline we rolled into our last proper stop of the trip and a picnic in the sun to recharge the batteries one final time. Becky and Natalie were a sight for sore eyes with soup and flapjack from a clifftop with spectacular views.

The last 40 miles passed steadily – and mile by mile the end drew nearer. Normally by this stage we would be tanking along to make the end of the day but by this point we hand plenty of time in hand as there were no mountain ranges or big hills to conquer so we made it in up over the last rise and down into John O Groats for our welcoming committee of Becky, Natalie, Mark and Helen (honeymooning from Chris’s office!). I’m glad we don’t have to wash our kit for tomorrow as the champagne may have been a bit sticky mess! This was all followed by the compulsory photos at the sign post thanks to Mark and the comforting sense that we wouldn’t have to sit on our saddles again tomorrow…


Tonight’s celebratory meal included a delicious “Stack of Haggis”, locally sourced smoked salmon and hake- washed down by some wine, beer and a couple of wee drams of the local whisky as nothing else would seem more appropriate. When we started to fall asleep at the table we retired to our homely B&B.

Day 7 - Loch Lomond to Dingwall

We spent the night at Ardlui Hotel, situated at the North end of Loch Lomond. The view of the lake was stunning.

After a superb full Scottish breakfast with porridge and everything, we collected our bikes from where the hotel manager had locked them up for the night. We then made preparations for the day ahead. This usually involved a smothering of Assos cream (for your sore bits), mixing the drinks bottles with energy powder and distributing the energy bars we ate to keep us going.

There was a really long and sharp climb out from Loch Lomond. The highlight of the day was passing Glen Coe wich was breath-taking. We climbed over 1000ft then had the pleasure of coasting all of the way down to the bottom. Andy and I lost Paul on the climb but he soon caught us up by slip streaming a caravan!

Natalie flew to Inverness and caught the train over to Drummendroichit where Becky picked her up. We all met up at Loch Ness then carried on our way to Dingwall.

When we reached Dingwall we met with Becky and Natalie then drove to Inverness where we planned to stay the night at the Youth hostel there.

Day 6 - Dumfries to Loch Lomond

The weather finally changed for the better today. Knowing that we had broken the back of the ride we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves but cautious that we had a long ride yet before reaching John O'Groats.

I think that the Scottish countryside is stunning. I have little recollection of Scotland since my parents took me as a child. I vaguely remember lots of castles and complaining alot about the long drive from South Wales.

From leaving Dumfries we followed a cycle route through the hills. This was a welcome break from the dual carriageways we had been navigating.

On route we visited a Drumarrig castle. After getting a lady at the
he castle to take a picture of us outside the castle, she said that we must visit "Riks bike museum." The duke who owned the castle had helped Rik fund the mountain bike trails around there. The mountain bike there are for all abilities, you can even hire a bike and get lessons there.

Paul's spoke snapped about 25 miles from Kilmarnock, we were lucky that we had Becky to call on. When she arrived in "the beast" we managed to switch Paul's broken wheel for one on Becky's bike. Becky was able to take the broken wheel to a bike shop called "Walkers" in Kilmarnook.

When we arrived in Kilmarnook, Becky was sat outside the pub having a drink. It was her birthday after all! The people in Walkers were very welcoming. The lady in the shop made us a cup of tea because she knew how hard the trip was since she did it with her husband on a tandem in 1996.

We got a bit lost around Glasgow and a helpful chap on a bike took us out of his way along the urban cycle paths, to get us back in the right direction. He even made a donation for the cause. He was a really kind chap and if we ever get his name I'd like to thank him again for helping us out.

The last stretch to Loch Lomand seemed to take forever. The lake was breathtaking which helped me take my mind off my knees. I recommend a mountain bike if you take these roads as they were terrible. After all of the mishaps with the bike and getting lost, this was the longest day of cycling we had done so far. We arrived at the hotel at 8:45pm, just short of a 12 hour day in the saddle.

Pictures to follow!

Day 5 - Kirkby Lonsdale to Dumfries

Just woken up in Kirkby with sore everything! The rain and wind seems to have followed us up the country but we are in good spirits.

Better had get on with breakfast.

Kirby Lonsdale to Kirby Stephens was a beautiful undulating ride through the countryside. We took the ride relatively easy because at this point our knees and quadriceps had been burning from the ride.

We passed Hadrian's wall although we didn't get to see it then made our way through Longtown to meet Becky for a soup stop which had become acustomed to.

A short ride later and we were through the Scottish border and Gretna Green. Dumfries was a bit of a rough ride and Paul picked up the first puncture of the trip just a couple of miles away from where Becky was going to meet us

We all stayed in Mabie forest bunkhouse which is an excellent place to stay especially if you like mountain biking. The bunkhouse was run by Pam and Geoff who decided on a career change and took over the bunkhouse 2 years ago. They made some slight improvements, a sauna and a hot tub supplied by a spring in the forest.

Once we had unloaded that van and used the facilities, Pam cooked us a great lasagna for dinner then we bedded down for the night.

Day 2,3 and 4

Day 2.
The rain and wind woke most of us up that night. The other people were woken up by Andy W’s snoring. It was so bad that John got up in the middle of the night and went to find a different bed!


Conditions in Dartmoor were thick with mist and rain. I had to really take it easy costing down the hills for fear of sliding off the road.

Later that day once the rain had cleared up and the sun came out, for all of 5 minutes, we passed the same 2 lads in the garish orange t-shirts we saw on day 1. After climbing a really big hill, I pulled in for a quick drink when one of the lads stopped by us. He was doing Lejog also and was waiting for his friend to catch up because he had a slow puncture and had to keep pumping up his tyre every 15 mintutes. When John asked why he didn't just change the innter tube the lad replied that they didn't have any! Andy Q gave him a spare tube and some food too(they didn't have any left) and wished them well. Hats off to the lads, they were doing lejog raw, in 10 days, with no back up, no food and no spare inner tubes!

We extended the cycle a bit more that day so that we didn't have to drive back into Bristol city centre the following morning. We pulled into a pub and waited for Andy to take us to Cardiff where we would be staying with my mum.

On day 3
It was really great to see my mum and sample some of her home cooking. Needless to say we all ate really well that night.

We packed our bags and drove back from Cardiff to where we finished up yesterday, somewhere just outside of Bristol (Andy W will have it written down). The weather started bad and got worse. The rain and wind was hitting us straight on and was really impacting our progress. On average we were doing about 21km per hour. It was a case of heads down and tuck in behind each other to get out of the wind.

After a few hours the rain eased off and we all started to enjoy ourselves again. We passed through Button Oak which was a really beautiful forest on our way to Ironbridge. Ironbridge is incidentally named after the Ironbridge which was built there which kicked off the industrial revolution in the mid 17th century. We all stopped on the bridge to have a photo taken on until Konrad pointed out that the “Ironbridge” was 300 years old. Just at that moment Paulette and Steve (Andy Q’s parents) turned up and bought us all dinner.

After an excellent dinner at the local pub near to the youth hostel we were staying at, we said goodbye to Andy’s parents and soon after Dawn, who had come to take John and Konrad back to Manchester.

Day 4 - Ironbridge to Kirkby Lonsdale.
Andy and I had already done most of this route in a previous training ride so we were confident we could make it. We really pressed on today and made good time to Warrington.

Andy W was leaving us half way through the route and we were without support for a few hours until we met Becky. Andy did a fantastic job looking after all of us and getting that temperamental minibus working again. Without him I would have probably been still walking around Penzance trying to find a place to get my bike fixed. The ride through Warrington was long and tedious due to the thousands of round about there. We were glad to get past there.

We made it through and met up with Andy W’s parents – Joe and Paula. They had brought us tea and biscuits to keep us going and cheered us on.

The ride to Kirkby Lonsdale was stunning, I think it had the best scenery of all of the places we had been. My knees were playing up at this point and I was in a bit of pain so we eased up and and took it steady into Kirkby. When we arrived Becky was there in “the beast,” a large 4x4 which Lex donated to us for the remainder of the trip, complete with balloons and champagne celebrating the half way point in our trip. Jo (Becky's mum) cooked us the most amazing dinner. I think she said it was a South African dish called 'Bobotie'.

Driver update, days 3 and 4

Okay, the guys are so knackered each night that it's up to me to put something here to show the world what's happening!

Day three (Monday 26th May) was a tough one. The wind was gusting gale force and the rain coming down like stair rods. Morale dropped because of this; I think the "it's a new adventure" feeling was wearing off and cold reallity setting in.

Here's a pic of the start at Bristol - just outside The Swan pub at Almondsbury:



The minibus only cut out a few times and the accelerator stuck just now and again so things were looking okay. Most annoying was the squeaky clutch!

The pace was good considering the weather and the guys just got on with cycling into the northerly wind. Faces were reddened and clothes soggy, but determination drove them forward. I sourced some soup for lunch which I warmed on the gas stove to keep up spirits. Here they are, huddling in the back of the bus (with soup):



During the day I liaised with Andy's parents and Dawn (John's girlfriend) to arrange meeting up for dinner - which we did in Ironbridge. We had a lovely restful evening, good grub and a few beers.

Sadly, this was where we saw Konrad and John leave us (work commitments) and we were down to just three cyclists.

Day 4 (Tuesday) saw us depart from Ironbridge. After a quick photo, we headed up via Whitchurch up the A49. Stopping briefly for a brew in Sandiway with my parents, I left the guys to cycle on up through Warrington (while I sourced lunch) and met again at Newton-le-Willows. This was to be our last meeting - I then returned the minibus and handed the mantle over to Becky (Andy's girlfriend) to assist these brave chaps on the second half of their journey.

At this point, I'd like to add that I'm sorry to be missing the rest of the journey but I wish Chris, Andy and Paul a safe run to the end. Look after them, Becky!

(Oh, and Chris, how much will you put to charity for me NOT to publish THAT photo of you being massaged?)

Andy the driver

Driver view of the first couple of days

The drive down was a 7 hour slog (with no working radio) - from Manchester to Tavistock. We stopped off once we'd left the M5 for fish and chip supper. The last few miles were narrow lanes, carefully selected by the satnav to make it difficult for a large minibus.



At one point, all within about 5 minutes, the accelerator stuck on, we hit a large rock and the driver's window winder fell off. The sticking accelerator kept recurring and we had some Blackpool illuminations on the dash to add to the thrill.

After 30 minutes of getting lost and driving back and forth, we found the farm with barn and soon got to bed.

After an early start (5.30 a.m.) we reached Land's End at 8.30. After discovering the 'official' sign post is only 'brought out' at 9.30, we made do with a few pics of us before setting off just before nine.



I hoped to find a coffee shop and seek out a bacon butty, but the plans went out of the window when Chris called with a broken derailleur - only 8 miles in to the trip. A quick dash to Penzance secured a pattern part, fitted by "The Cycle Centre" on New Street - many thanks to them for their speedy service and help mobilising Chris. With only fumes left in the tank, I returned Chris to the A30 and sought fuel.

For lunch I sought Cornish Pasties from Truro for the guys. When we met up, the guys pulled off the road to join me - except Andy, who flipped off his bike and rolled along the pavement! Thankfully, no harm done. The good news is I caught it on video camera - to be on YouTube soon!



Later on, the cig lighter packed in - so no satnav charging now. I switched to manual mode (road atlas) to conserve any remaining power.

The day was hard for the guys who were expecting a tail wind. It was on the nose for the whole 108 miles. John got leg cramps toward the end and dropped back a little. And then we lost him. He'd missed a turn. An hour and a half later we tracked him down to a closed pub, making a fuss of the resident cat and dog and drinking coffee! And there we were - worried...

Day two started a little gentler, time wise - starting from the farm we were staying in. It was still windy - and now raining. I spent a few minutes trying to sort the cig lighter but to no avail - there was no power to it any more. I got away quickly to get back into mobile 'phone signal land in case I was summoned.

Within a mile, all power vanished and the engine management light came on again. A quick restart on the hoof cleared it.

I took an alternative route between Moreton Hampstead and Tedburn which for the most part was smaller than the bus. By the time I'd reached the other side, the plant matter had forced the mirrors flat against the sides of the van. I stopped to fold them out and check our special magnetic signage was still attached and then pressed on.

I had arranged to meet everyone at Bickleigh, but the route the cyclists took was closed while two bent cars were scraped off. Once through, we had a group photo!


I headed on into Somerset and through Taunton. When I passed the guys, my friendly 'beep-beep' never happened as the horn had gone the same way as the radio, cig lighter, door handle, etc. Hey-ho.

At an interim afternoon stop, we helped a couple of lads also doing a Land's End to John O'Groats. They didn't even have tyre levers, but their enthusiasm should get them a long way.

We were making very good time today and arranged to meet north of Bristol. Great views of the Clifton Suspension Bridge! However, the inclines out of the city at the end of a long day meant we finished up just north - at The Swan. Andy Q's friend Matt joined us here for a beer. His wife's due to have a baby TODAY, so good job he got out while he can.

Spirits are high, injuries low (okay, Chris came off in Bristol, but escaped relatively unscathed...) and the mood's optimistic for our journey into the Midlands.

We shoved everything into the van and headed to Cardiff for the night - at Chris' mum's. I managed to blag getting the bus through the bridge toll as a car (£5 instead of £10) and we put the difference in the charity pot. Every little helps...

And it's from Cardiff I now type, after lovely dinner, with a mug of tea and cake - thanks, Margaret.

Day 1 - Lands End

We started out our first day brimming with energy and excitement pointing out all of the prospective lejoggers beginning their own journey, notably two lads on their bikes in rather garish orange t-shirts with backpacks.

12km out of Lands end, disaster, my bikes derailleur snapped off. My brand new Bianchi! A quick call to Andy our support and I was back on my way with the rest of the guys within the hour.

The route we were following took us down every valley and up over every hill. From speaking to some ‘end to enders’ about the ride beforehand, they told me that the first couple of days were the worst due to all of the steep hill climbs.

Reaching Dartmoor was a milestone for us. We had stayed the previous night in a farm there on the way down to Lands End and aimed to conclude our first day of cycling there.

Dartmoor didn’t have hedges like the first part of the day to shelter us from the wind, it is a pretty bleak place. The wind was relentless here and gave everyone a hard time getting up the hills. We also lost John there. John had got cramp in both legs and had to walk up one of the final hills. The rest of us waited for him at the top for a while before calling Andy to see if he could make sure that John was alright. John took a wrong turn and ended up at a restaurant where he was able to call Dawn (his other half) before she managed to call one of us. Needless to say we found John thanks to Dawn but not before he had to cycle up a 1 in 5 hill, with cramp in both legs.

The pub dinner was welcomed that night before we settled down for the night to begin day 2.

And we are off!

The guys just finished loading the van when Andy and I arrived at Paul's house (excellent timing Natalie). No sooner had Andy introduced himself to Konrad and John, he get on with what he does best and got his hands dirty under the bonnet of the bus.

Just as it started to drizzle we finished loading the rest of our things onto the bus and all piled on, waved goodbye to Natalie and headed off to join the bank holiday traffic on the M6.

Last Minute Preparations!

We have spent the last two weeks frantically arranging all of the remaining details for our trip. Finalising accommodation, back up arrangement, spare kit, sponsorship,publicity, routes, food, drink - the list goes on, but with two days left we are nearly there.

There always seems to be more to do than expected... Paul's bike is currently off the road and in for a service to resolve some worrying clicking sounds, whilst my (Andy's) bike was in for frantic repairs. On the plus side Chris has finally got hold of a shiny new bike, which is great news as he doesn't need to ride on his 1970's steel antique bike that he has amazingly coped with for the last year.

The Harlech Triathlon nearly two weeks ago proved to be an absolutely fantastic race. A chance for a bit of not too serious fun and a break out from the grind as well as the opportunity to get some more miles in before/after the race. Well organised and marshalled on Welsh Coast with a great course. Chris finished fourth in his age group, Paul and John also posted good times. I too was flying on the bike until a brake failure resulted in me taking a collision course with a solid slate wall - amazingly I was just sore and bruised. Unsuprisingly my bike wasn't - it needed a new fork, brakes, handlebars, front wheel and chain as well as some fine tuning. I only just received it back yesterday minus a front wheel - something I'm going to have to borrow for the trip.

The Grand Plan!

On the 23rd May Chris, Andy and Paul (plus Konrad and John for the first few days) will be heading down to Lands End to begin their epic 950 mile journey over 8 days to John O'Groats using nothing but pedal power. Keep track of our journey here

23rd May (Friday evening) we are driving to down to Tavistock from Manchester. Night spent in a camping barn!

24th May - Day 1 Lands End to Tavistock 80m (via Par Sands and Lostwithiel). Stop over in a camping Barn.

25th May - Day 2 Tavistock to Bristol 121m (via Dartmoor, Moretonhampstead, Tiverton, Taunton, Bridgewater and the Mendips ~ hilly day). We finish today in Bristol but are staying with Chris' family in Cardiff for a bit of home cooking!!

26th May - Day 3 Bristol to Ironbridge 109m (via Cotswolds, Stroud, Cheltenham, Worcester, Bridgnorth). Night to be spent at a youth hostel - by this point I think we should be able to sleeep anywhere!

27th May - Day 4 Ironbridge to Kirkby Lonsdale 126m (via Whitchurch, Northwich, Warrington, Clitheroe). Stopover at Becky's family home.

28th May - Day 5 Kirkby Lonsdale to Dumfries 114m (via Sedburgh, Yorkshire Dales, Kirkby Stephen, Gretna)

29th May - Day 6 Dumfries to Ardlui 131m (via Cumnock, Kilmarnock, Dumbarton, Loch Lomond ~ pretty flat day). Night spent on the banks of Loch Lomund! This is also a landmark birthday for Becky so we're hoping to finish on time!!

30th May - Day 7 Ardlui to Dingwall 131m (via Rannock Moor, Glen Coe, Fort William, Spean Bridge, Loch Ness, Drumnadrochit)

31st May - Day 8 Dingwall to John O'Groats 127m FINISH (via Bonar Bridge, Helmsdale, Wick)

1st June - (Sunday) Drive back

We will be backed up by our van driven by Andy W and Becky emblazoned with our logo!

Hopefully this link will work for our sponsorship site....

Our Charities

We are raising funds for the following:

Marie Curie Cancer Care

Marie Curie Cancer Care provides high quality nursing totally free, to give terminally ill people the choice of dying at home supported by their families. Your local Marie Curie Hospice actively promotes quality of life for people with cancer and provides support for their families. The services are completely free to patients. World class scientists at the Marie Curie Research Institute are investigating how cancer develops to find better ways of treating the disease in the future.

Both Chris and Andy's families have had support from Marie Curie so it is a charity close to our hearts.

To donate please visit:
http://www.justgiving.com/le-jog2008

CLIC Sargent

CLIC Sargent care for children and young people with cancer and their families in hospital and in the community.

'La Renaissance'School

Paul is also raising funds for La Renaissance School, situated in North West Africa, in Burkina Faso an area of extreme poverty where access to any school is rare, provided by a few state run and a few charity funded schools such as La Renaissance. The school has 257 pupils. Class sizes are large and facilities are extremely basic. Sponsorship funding from ‘LE JOG’ will provide much needed equipment for the school.
Paul works promoting sport in schools in the Manchester area and as such this is a cause close to his heart!

To support 'La Renaissance' go to:
http://www.justgiving.com/epiccycle

Thank you very much to all of you who are sponsoring us!

The Team for LEJOG

Paul:

Paul is the enthusiasm behind the team. Having represented the UK in Age Group Competition in Hamburg last year triathlon is Paul's forte. (albeit an aweful lot shorter distance than this!). Never call Paul's bluff as he's not afraid of a challenge!

Paul took no persuading to join the team.

Chris:

Chris is relatively new to triathlon having started racing last year at Bala. With his strengths in swimming (fish) and running Chris has done his biking no harm by taking for ever to get himself a new bike. Instead he has been using a bike that those in the car trade refer to as "vintage".

As a result his biking has improved massively!


Andy Q:

Andy has had a crack at several varying challenges over the last few years from The 3 Peaks to Mts Toubkal and Olympus, from the London Marathon to triathlon...despite his swimming being atrocious (well there's always duathlon).

LEJOG sounds great (the saddle soreness doesn't)

John:

John is another fellow triathlete who has also represented the GB Age Group Team. John is just about the most positive guy around which will be useful when he joins the team for days 1-3.

Konrad:

Also joining us for the first few days, Konrad is probably the most experienced cyclist in the group. Being an Ironman veteran he is best prepared for the endurance and feeding element of the challenge!

Andy Wright and Becky

Vitally important to our efforts. Becky and Andy are each doing half of journey in the support vehicle, carrying vital supplies and spares. This means that we don't have to carry everything for the week with us every day. Becky and Andy are both legends as no matter how much this will hurt, it would be worse if we had to carry any more!

Lakeland Loop Sportif (13th April)

Now when I first heard about this it sounded like a fantastic idea. No amount of hills could be too much in preparation for the big one so this seemed ideal.

On the face of it a bike of around this distance is pretty regular. What's not regular however is the climbs that we took in.

Red Bank - category 2
Dunmail Rise - cat 2
Little Poggio - cat 3
Winlatter Pass - cat 1
Egremont - cat 3
Gosforth - cat 3
Hardknott - HC category (murderously hard!)
Wrynose - cat 1
Blea Tarn - cat 2

This was an exhilarating ride - for the first time this year the weather was spot on (especially after last week!). Chris and I did this again at LEJOG pace - with the hills it would have been cracking strength work.

Although putting Hardknott at the end was very harsh. With a 30% incline plus there are some cars which can't make it...let alone anything bigger!



Andy

Day 4 Recce 5th April

Having spent much of the winter taking in long Sunday rides and tacking brick sessions (biking after runs and running after bikes - painful but necessary) onto runs etc. it was time that we got a feel for what LEJOG would do to us...

Well to be more accurate Becky decided that it was. As we were due to be in Kirby Lonsdale anyway on the Sunday - Becky volunteered to drop us off in Ironbridge and then drive up to meet us. Great idea and much appreciated - however it was only upon looking at the atlas and the number of times we had to turn the page that the distance dawned upon us!

This bit of the route is relatively flat - however the elements conspired against us. Strong winds blew NNW against us all the way making drafting essential to share the work but there was no shelter from the harsh Baltic hailstorms that lashed down on us time after time.

Yes this was definitely good training.

It helped us sort out fueling as well. Even on a long Sunday ride there isn't a huge amount that you usually need to take on board, however, at one point 80 odd miles in we both started to fade. Thinking that we may have reached our limit we decided to stop and take some food on board. One shop stop, two coffees and large slices of cake and Chris and I were right as rain again. Lesson 2 never stop eating!

Eventually with light fading we made it into Lancaster just in time for Chris to jump on the bus back to Manchester.

It was a great psychological boost to have done a day. It should stand us in good stead when we're really suffering on day 3! Hopefully when we do this day for real we'll have a bit of support as well as we past the North West.

Andy

Llanbedrog Training Weekend (26/27th April)

Four weeks to go and it seemed as if it was time that we did a couple of testing days back to back...

Two full days - Saturday the sun was shining, while the route was both tough and jawdroppingly scenic.

Sunday at 5.30am we were woken by the incessant rain, which sat over us for most of the day. Any time we went over about 50 metres we were in the low damp clouds. It was tough and wet. By the end we were all feeling the effects of two long days in the saddle... but happy to have completed a quarter of our LEJOG distance

Chris: We set off early on Saturday morning in order to give the morning Manchester traffic the slip. After a brief stop in Chester for a sausage sandwich we pushed on only stopping for food and to mend punctures. Over the 2 day training ride we managed to get 7 punctures between us. The training ride was well worth doing, it gave me confidence and taught me to get some Assos cream pronto.