Our Blog
It’s been a while since I posted on the blog about my bike ride. I have finished, and coming into Lands End, with my friends and family cheering me on, will remain with me as one of my best ever memories.
I will try and give you my memories of the last few days.
Day 7 started in Ludlow, at the racecourse, and is the shortest day with only 93 miles to cover. However, my left leg was not good and from the very start it was obvious that I was not going to be able to pedal properly. The physio had done something to improve the leg, and I had got my painkillers right, but I had no pressure I could put through the leg.
A fairly flat run down through Herefordshire to Ross on Wye helped me but when we arrived at the Forest of Dean the hills started to arrive. With a 1000ft climb up into the forest this became a very slow day. Working in the lowest gear I had available i gradually made progress through to Chepstow and the Severn Bridge. I approached the bridge to find a big Welsh flag being waved by my mother and uncle (who had been commandeered to guide the cyclists in the right direction). I knew Becky,Tom and Jack were on the other side of the bridge so a carried on over only to find about 20 people waiting there to cheer me on. I was absolutely astounded and it was great to have a short break and a chat with everyone.
I came within 2 miles of home and the temptation to go home and have a proper bed was tempting. Instead I carried on to Bath Racecourse, having to climb a beast of a hill from Tracy Park all the way up to the base camp.
It was an incredibly hard day with huge amount of climbing on a pair of legs that could hardly work together. When I arrived my family were there and we managed to “escape” from camp for a couple of hours for a visit to Pizza Express. This was one of those truly memorable evenings and just gave me (and my friend James Hamill) a bit of normality before the final push over the last 2 days.
Day 8. This was the hardest day if my life! We started from the racecourse at Bath and headed down into Bath itself. At 7am there is much less traffic than I normally encounter and we made progress through the city quite quickly. Bath, however, is built at the centre of 7 hills and that means the only way was up!
A staggering 25 mile climb followed, making our way up through the mendips all the way up to Cheddar Gorge. One of the highlights of the trip for me was coming down through Cheddar Gorge - spectacular to cycle through the cliffs on my own and the start of the downhill section to Bridgewater. Then the weather decided to turn for the worse!
20 mile an hour winds with driving rain does not make for pleasant conditions on a bike. That is what we faced on the bridgewater flats, through until another huge climb through the Quantocks. Then it was hills and wind (gusting to 40mph) all the way to Okehampton. 112 miles and 3000m of climbing in terrible conditions with still very weak legs made for 12 hours in the saddle that day. Absolutely exhausted but only 1 day to go.
My heart went out to a rider who crashed in the last few miles who broke his hip and would not be joining us on the final day.
Day 9 - The Last Day! This was always touted as the hardest day - 111 miles and 3300m of climbing. It lived up to the billing!
Everyone was exhausted and very cautious. Nobody wanted to crash out on the final day and not make the finish line. The hills were constant and steep; everyone got to the point where we didn’t like going downhill because we knew we were going to have to go back up, and the longer the down the more punished we were by the gradient of the hills.
Still, it was the last day and everyone knew that tomorrow they would not be on the bike so the atmosphere was quite cheerful.
After 953 miles and 20,569m of climbing I crossed the finish line. When i came into Lands End there were groups lining the final couple of hundred metres of road, and the cheer i got from my family and friends was fantastic. It gave me the biggest grin as I crossed the line!
