So Wednesday we went through an industrial estate through the pouring rain, and after 8 miles of leaving the Travelodge our new arrival and mascot for 2 days got a puncture. We do 1000 miles between us, puncture free and then Phil "puncture man" Wadely shows up and blam, torrential curtain rodesque rain and we are fixing puncture #1. We take a bridge over the River Severn and into Wales, blast up the River Wye, soaked through, but it was lovely scenery and we had a few picnic stops and it was fairly flat. All in all a pretty good day.
Thursday was a dream, the weather was pretty dry, we did over 100 miles and we blasted it, averaging about 14.5 mph for the whole time. We smashed our way through the day in no time at all, we were outside Chester by 615pm and we were thinking early finish excellent. True to form 6 miles outside Chester Phil managed to conjure up another puncture. Our support driver, Andrew Lowe, was meeting one of our other support drivers for a wild camp up Snowdon, and had already departed for the day. So with heavy hearts myself and JP left Phil at a bus stop to public transport his way to the Travelodge, however we get a phone call within 30mins saying "Hi lads, I'm in the pub having a pint waiting for a taxi." THANKS PHIL!!!! Meanwhile once again the heavens had opened and me and JP were suffering from DRS (Drowned Rat Syndrome) and were pretty miserable arriving in Chester, until we went out for a fantastic Indian. That saved the day.
Friday Kendal today, we had a tail wind and it was fairly dry, intermittent showers that we sheltered from, so nothing to strenuous, no punctures or mechanical failures, this is our 2nd consecutive 100 mile day and we are feeling it now. I have a calf muscle that is like a lump of stone, and JP has an achilles tendon that is living up to his name. Slower progress today, but we were done by 730pm which wasn't too bad.
Saturday.....Dumfries..........I officially now hate JP. Suffocation whilst sleeping is definitely a real risk for him now. If you look on google maps you will see in the lake district, Windermere this is a lovely little town with a little cafe that has the best black pudding I have ever tasted. The waitresses were all stunning and we had a rather nice morning. The downside is that I had 2 punctures, 1 that Kevin noticed as we were getting ready to leave, and 1 that I got 10 miles down the road, these punctures were our final salute to Phil. *insert salute here* So then we went the Kirkston pass which half way up my gears packed in, it's a 20% incline and I had 3rd gear as my lowest.....that was evil, to compound matters my knee gave up at this point and I got stabbing pains like my kneecap was being prised off. This was not good. So by the time I reach the summit my knee and lower quadracep is swollen and we have to take a break by the pub that is 1500 feet above sea level, that's pretty f**king high. Kevin O'Connor did us the fantastic service of brining a mini gas kettle mabob with him and made us the most welcome cup of coffee ever.
This was 2pm and we had done about 23miles.....which is shit. We had normally been doing 45-50 miles by this time. So to say we were behind was an understatement. I am in a rush now to set off to get to Glasgow so will be brief now, we sailed round Ullswater, which was lovely and then up some more brutal hills into Penrith, and onto Carlisle which was super hilly. This was the hardest day coming off 2x 100 mile days and to top it off we had a 15mph headwind the whole damn way. This made going slow and painful. So at about 7pm we had done 70miles and were coming out of Carlisle heading towards Gretna (Scotlands first town) so we head off down the A75 and get the greatest quote out of JP.......ever. "You know what, you have all this image at the gym of being awesome, but I have seen you pushed to your limit and screaming for mercy, you absolute pussy." After this at about 730 I had a bout of go fuck yourself itis, and proceed to plough down the A75 to Dumfries at 20+ mph, after being in the saddle for 12hours this is not something I would recommmend, however I have to say, this made me feel good and we got to the pub just in time for 10pm (last food order) and a steak. EPIC WIN.
We are about to set off to Glasgow today. So I will see you all real soon.
Take care, and I leave you with some super photos.
Peace
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