Day 10: Keep Right On To The End Of The Road

Stats for the day: Miles: 50, Ft Climbed: 3600 Calories: 5000ish Group Punctures: 0, Beard Status: 800 miles of sketchyness. Undercarriage: Like the van, a few dents and scrapes but still running ok.

My dear friends, would you believe it? We are done.

We were actually finished just before 3, and as I type we’re now on the way back, listening to what sounds like a truly woeful England performance. We are stuffed in with all our 10-day-wear kit and minimal leg room, but we are happy, 850 miles happy in fact.

Today started with a view from our hotel that probably edged out our Glencoe digs:



It was certainly better than the back of an Anthony Worrell Thompson. (think about it..) I’d forgotten that Newquay is more than just stag and hen parties, it’s also a lovely place and a trip back there is required soon. Before heading down to breakfast we popped down to the beach, the mood was very good, with the finishing line proving a fantastic motivational tool. We ordered what I promise you will be my last cooked breakfast for a while and talked about the day ahead. We knew it wasn’t that long, but we also thought it might be pretty hilly, and we were right!

We had 3600 ft today, the vast majority of which was very steep but the extra level of determination saw us through, even if there were times when the ‘country miles’ made for fairly agonising progress. Other than Andy managing to splatter a big bug across his face after hitting it around 40 mph, it was an incident free. We rode through some fantastic scenery, and were lucky with the weather again. (Mo’ Nature, the postcard is on the way) but we climbed pretty much all the way until the last mile, which was a most welcome gentle down hill run in. After passing through the last village we popped over a crest and there it was- Land’s End.



If you’ve never been there, allow me to enlighten you- it is an odd place. Where as JOG was every inch the remote and simple place we expected, LE is strangely commercial, you have to pay to ‘get in’ with a car, and there’s even a random Doctor Who experience, ( If you are puzzled, don’t worry I don’t get that either) but I guess at the end of every great ride you exit through the gift shop. You also have to pay to get a picture with THE sign, but after our total non event at the start, we were getting that pic.

We paid our money, lined up and with a couple of shutter clicks, we were done.



It was an odd but great feeling, despite the commercialism it is still a breathtaking place and as the footy had kicked off we were able to sit in relative quiet for a few mins and think about the trip, and what a fan-bloody-tastic trip it has been.

Our little crew with our little old bus had made it, and made it well. Mark and I hadn’t owned bikes when this year started, Zoe managed to tolerate the humour of 5 blokes for 10 days and ride one 25 mile stretch with her brakes on, Steve’s amazing logistics and planning had been spot on throughout, Andy had been a monster both on the bike and in the restaurant and John had only crashed the van a little bit. Boom. High fives all round, I’m actually going to give myself one right now.

There is so much I feel we haven’t spoken about on here, through a combination of tiredness and pure forgetfulness but I’m sure I’ll bore a lot of you with them over one of the several hundred pints I now intend to drink in the next few weeks but it’s been great having you here, I feel we’ve bonded a little. In all seriousness though having this outlet has been a fantastic diversion, it gave me something to think about on the long ‘A’ road slogs and your messages/texts/emails all really spurred us on. Thanks guys, we probably would have done it without you, but it wouldn’t have been as much fun.

I will look to tidy the whole blog up in next week, get rid of some of my tired typos and add more pics so do check back, but after that we will have to part, at least until the next challenge. I assure you it wont be JOGLE.

All that’s left for me to do is thank everyone who has supported us: All our sponsors, (we’re getting close to 3k now) my lovely lady Luce for putting up with 6 months of training, Torq for giving us an amazing deal on their products, Irish Ferries for giving us the crossing to Pembroke and John our always entertaining driver- even when on the first day he got 4 bags of booze but nothing for us to eat! We will forever be grateful for making this happen.

Right, time for me, my slightly battered body and my trusty steed to metaphorically hoon off into the sunset, although if it was in proper JOGLE style it will probably be up hill.

Much Love

Andy.

Day 9: Sun Sea and Hills

Stats for the day: Miles: 89ish, Ft Climbed: 5100(!) Calories: Lots, Group Punctures: 2 Beard Status: Still patchy but at least its not ginger, Undercarriage: Feeling the burn!

(a short post today as we are late and like Andy in the above pic, truly buggered)

Hello Slog Blogettes, it’s our last night on our adventure and as always it’s a pleasure to share it with you. We’re in a hotel that sits up on a cliff over a beach in Newquay, it’s pretty smart but the view it has is amazing, we could quite happily stay here and have a few beers. That isn’t going to happen though, because tomorrow is THE day. Land’s End, we are coming to get ya! It’s a great feeling, but to get here was a big day:

As I divulged to you yesterday, we were without a ferry to make the trip from Swansea to Ilfracombe this morning, so we had a 3 hour drive to make in order to get to our start point. Now, our van has been fantastic, but spacious it ain’t, so crampy, achy legs were in abundance by the time we pulled up. We were also late- 1pm came and we hadn’t turned a wheel and with a long ride ahead of us we needed to get moving. I also had a few work worries to think about,(a stark reminder that we will be back to the real world very soon and that I’ve got more responsibilities than just keeping my legs turning.) but they had to be buried as leg turning is what I needed to do!

We were painfully aware that this day was about one thing: hills. Devon and Cornwall are beautiful places but they are not flat, not by a long shot and coupled with the baking sun we had a very sweaty few hours. There weren’t many dramas, but we were aware that if we didn’t get a move on the darkness would beat us and we’d be needing to do much more miles tomorrow to make up for them, so the pace was pretty relentless.

The roads were good, but getting any kind of a rhythm was incredibly difficult as it was almost constant rolling climbs and we found ourselves willing them to flatten out just a touch so we could get the train going and gain some momentum. Thankfully, the last 25 miles did just that (to a point) and we just started to settle into a fast pace when something unexpected happened:

The sat nav fell off.

We were flying down a hill at over 30 mph when suddenly it fell off Andy’s mount, bounced twice across the road and into thick undergrowth. Queue one big search, during which the irony losing the sat nav was absolutely appreciated. The bloody thing had beeped at us constantly for 8 days but when we really wanted it to pipe up it was quieter than the French World Cup base has been today. Thankfully Steve showed the value of his proper riding glassed and found the little blighter chilling out under a bush. Impressively, other than a few scratches all was in order, so no harm done and we were just able to still get into town before the light completely faded, with a stunning sunset and a total climb of a mega 5100 ft. That is even taller than me.

So here we are, so close. Over our very late dinner we all found it hard to comprehend how much we’ve done in the last 10 days, it hasn’t really sunk in. Now all we need is to hit it hard once more: 58 miles and 2800 ft, a shortish but steep run. My knees are in bits, my cuts hurt and it takes longer to get going after every stop, but I tell you what if I have to carry the thing on my back, tomorrow I’m getting to that sign. With a bit of luck, this one might even be there!

So with that determined growl, I’m off to bed. By the time we speak again, I shall hopefully be in the van on the way back to the real world, my own bed and the mrs, I shall sleep content but excited tonight.

Speak on the other side.

Day 8: Sweaty Wales and grubby nails.

Stats for the day: Miles: 72, Ft Climbed: 4100ish Calories: TBC Group Punctures: 2.5 (one was temp fixed) Beard Status: Thatch like in places. Undercarriage: Alive, if a little wounded.

Hello dear reader, another instalment of our rolling adventure for you, and this one is brought to you from Swansea, in a lovely hotel which had a cracking pool to surprise us with, even more of a surprise was that we arrived in time to use it! A nice treat for some sore limbs.

In stark contrast to our somewhat tasty surroundings tonight, our day started as many have this trip: in a Travelodge, 2 rooms between 6 people. We’ve seen a few of them this week, and they are all scarily similar but it appeared they had torn up the rule book for the Pembroke Dock location and, perhaps in a moment of creative clarity,gone crazy. This one had a blue bath panel. I know!Madness.

After recovering from the shock of our designer surroundings we loaded up with a fine local breakfast and got our sorry selves into shape. Every day seems to take longer to get up to speed now, with knees in particular complaining heavily for the first few miles, but once we get going and despite already 7 days in the saddle, the mood lifts quickly and we can make good progress. The body continues to amaze me.

We travelled east for the first time in 8 days and zipped along the first few miles before dropping down to the coast, through Tenby and along some stunning beaches. After our couple of days heads down smashing along ‘A’ roads it was nice to take in a few view again, but I must admit we were all a little envious of the guys sat on the beach with a beer, particularly as they were liable to get a tan that didn’t make them look like a liquorice allsort. We have comedy lines all over the place now.

After a gentle couple of miles we headed out of the villages and into was set to be the theme for the next hour or so- mega hills. We had a couple of long 14 & 16% gradients to deal with, and in the blazing sun it made for very hard work. You know its tough when the sweat is stopping you seeing through your sunnies! After every climb we’d find ourselves descending into the next village before starting again and pretty quickly we realised we needed to change the route if we were to get through the day ok, not least because we were struggling to av 7mph including the descents. The going was certainly ‘araf’ as our Welsh friends would say, so we went back to what we’d been good at recently: hooning down main roads.

We got a solid rate going, with Andy even managing to sit in the slipstream of a tractor at about 25 mph for a good few miles, before we had a slightly scary moment when we realised we had lost Zoe of the back of our Train, and we couldn’t see her at all. We’d been up in the high 20s at the time, and flying down a hill so we were a long way down the road which happened to be the A40- not a good place to have a problem. Thankfully it wasn’t anything more serious than a puncture and once a nice AA bloke pulled over to let us know she was ok and just a little up the road we were able to relax a bit, still it was a reminder that we are by know means done yet.

After that there was a huge amount to report, other than a series of little mechanical niggles that we had to fix en route (The trusted steeds seem to be feeling the strain a little too now.) and lots more hills. 4100 ft today. (That’s 3.5 Empire State Buildings Google tells me.) We rolled into a base for the night fairly early, and in decent shape. It’s ridiculous that so many feet of climbing and 70 miles felt like a ‘short’ day. I’m not sure I’ll ever be in a position to say that again.

What I am sure of though is that tomorrow, our last really long day, is going to be nasty: Ilfracombe to Newquay is 102 miles and very hilly, we have been warned. Bring it on. I shall update you on how that ended up going tomorrow, on our last night!

Now, one more thing; After yesterdays nice moment where you let us off for not riding into the ferry dock itself, I feel I can be more open with you about things, starting from…now. The ferry we were due to get across to Devon from our base here isn’t running as they are refurbing the boats, so we have to drive round to our start point. Not ideal but it doesn’t alter our milage and its required if we are to make it to tackle the other mountain that will be made of email on Monday. I knew you’d understand, you're the best.

Right, off to bed with me, I’ll try and drop some pics into this post tomorrow morning.

Over and out.

Day 7: Ireland. Done.

Stats for the day: Miles: 102, Ft Climbed: 3800 Calories Burned: 8000ish Group Punctures: 0
Beard Status: Badger like. Undercarriage: Solid enough but with occasional numbness

Hello dear reader. This is a first, this post has been written on a boat! A bloody big boat at that; we’re sat in the bar of a ferry from Roslare en route to Pembroke and before you make the joke, no we are not peddling. ;)

Before we start, a quick thank you. The lovely people at Irish Ferries let us travel for free. Thanks guys, let us know if you want any pics.

After yesterdays mega spin, we woke up in our really rather posh hotel and headed to breaky. Surprisingly we were all in a half decent state, although the tiredness has aged us all massively, I could possibly blag a free bus pass at the moment. However we did have a dark cloud hovering over us, as we knew that we had to be on the ferry dock, a good 100+ miles away for 8. Given that we hadn’t finished before that time at any point this week, and that we needed a good 45 mins to get the bus packed it was a pretty solid deadline. We needed another day of hooning.

The first 15 miles saw us roll through Dublin, which seemed lovely, but then after that the entire day was about head down and powering on, much like yesterday. As result I didn’t really see much other than Andy B’s backside, (Which, when he stands up on the pedals in his lycra riding shorts is truly a sight to behold. You know how soft fruit goes a little wrinkly when it’s a few days old? Yeah, like that, but massive.) and all I can really tell you about Ireland is that the crossings beep all the time, and the driving seemed a bit shoddy. I’ll have to come back and do it properly, or at least not when we have to cover 230 miles in 2 days.

We got the train going again, but it was a different story to yesterday, where as much of that seemed flat, today was all about rolling hills, and lots of them. it was hard work, especially when our old foe the head wind came to say hello, but mainly down to Andy B’s impressive, relentless and at some times punishing pace we rolled into Wexford bang on time.

Now, I’m going to let you into a little secret: we actually didn’t ride too Rosslaire, the timings were too tight, we had to make the ferry, and after a little ‘diversion’ earlier we’d done our miles. After 125 miles yesterday, and 7 days solid riding I reckon you guys will let us off. What you think? I thought so, thanks.

So that’s another day and another country done, by the time this is uploaded we’ll be in Wales with only 3 days to go. Crikey. If you’d like to join us for the last leg let us know, but be prepared to hoon!

Have a good Friday, y’all. We have 70 miles of Welsh hills to get acquainted with.

Day 6: Monday, Tuesday, Hoonday.

Stats for the day: Miles: 125 (!), Ft Climbed:2900ish Calories: TBC Group Punctures: 1, Beard Status: Stroke-able in places. Undercarriage: Surprisingly Good

(The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that is actually posted the morning after it was written, as we couldn’t connect last night, but let’s not let that come between friends.)

SBs, another late post, and another one short of pics, this time mainly as we’re in Ireland and it will cost a small fortune to upload them. I think the stats tell the story though! It was a long day.

After a little over 5 hours kip we had to get up to get on the early ferry to Larne, and it’s fair to say we were all in a mess. Personally I had gone mega stiff in the joints I gave a beating yesterday, but all of us had some niggles and the complete lack of kip did make us wonder how we were going to cope with the day ahead.

A quick status check to my bike in the daylight revealed a few more problems than we originally thought, but nothing terminal and other than the chain breaking it was fine today. Yesterday was a lucky escape for sure.

Thankfully we were blessed with a very smooth crossing allowing a couple of us to sneak 40 winks in the couple of hours we had on the boat. We all got kitted up before we left in an attempt to get away quickly but by the time we drove to our start point (a Tesco car park) and got everything sorted we knew we were in for a late finish, but that was tempered a little by the excitement of being in a new country; a country which definitely surprised us for the best. The people we met in Northern Ireland were incredibly friendly; the armed coppers who came over to say hello when we were setting up, the Tesco security guard who got his manager to come and say hello, do some picture and make a collection for our charities, a fellow biker we met at a sarnie stop who directed us down a great cycle route, even a bike shop owner who couldn’t help us for the spares we were after but let us use his loo and offered to sell us some guns. It made us feel good- and we put it to use by hooning. (hooning is another way of saying we got a move on by the way.

We had been riding a decent pace in the morning as we knew we were up against it on our longest day, but after our first stop it quite literally went up a few gears. The Train was working well and we found ourselves really eating the miles, which is a great feeling, and a total contrast to yesterdays slog. I almost felt like a cyclist, not a Brummie fish somewhat out of water. Our speed meant that as soon as we got into it, NI was gone. Thanks to everyone we met, we really enjoyed it, so we did.

2 big things happened in about 30mins about 4pm. We crossed the border (without any knowledge) and then we passed a magic lamp post. To most people is was just an ordinary post, on a ordinary Irish costal road, but to us it was something pretty cool.

It was Halfway. Get in.

Buoyed by the knowledge that we are technically in the home straight (all be it a bloody long one) we really kept up the pace, and despite a fairly major inadvertent de-tour we found ourselves about 20 miles from Malahyde at about 9pm. That was 105 miles in, and yesterday if we’d have been in the same situation we would almost certainly have bailed and called up the bus but despite being up from 530 today we all felt strong and powered through the last miles. I personally felt as good as I had done all trip. The body is a crazy Mo Fo.

So there we are! One more day down. Tomorrow is another 100 miler, but with a very solid deadline, an 8 pm ferry check in, so it will be another day to turn and burn for sure. Lets see what the legs have to say about that in the morning.

Rolling reporter over and out.

Day 5. Ouch

Stats for the day: Miles: 104, Ft Climbed: 3000 Calories: 7000 ( not taking into account of headwind) Group Punctures: 0, Beard Status: Refusing to Thicken. Undercarriage: still baring up.

Hey hey S.B-ettes. This is going to be a quick post as quite frankly I'm totally buggered and we have to get up for a ferry tomorrow in about 5 and a half hours!

So, our last day in Scotland today, and she left us with a sting in the tail.

We were a little late getting away as (after a Little Chef breakfast), but despite the long day we had ahead, we were in pretty good spirits. That all changed when we had got on our route for the day (which was basically one road) as our old friend Senor Wind was back, and this time he was right in our face. A tough day loomed!

At this point, a local bird ( of the avian kind) decide to empty its breakfast, which I presume was square sausage, on our convoy and I definitely took the brunt. So, a 100 miles, a strong head wind and then shat on by a bird. A good start. Zoe and Mark then had a bang of wheels at a junction which resulted in Zoe half stacking it, but no damage done, and we settled in a long hard slog in the proper 'train' formation to save energy. It was dull (there's no pics form me today because of the lack of signal, but also as there really wasn't much to take pics of), and hard but we were just zoning out and turning the miles, bad start behind us.

Then I came off.

I hadn't fallen off a bike since I was about 16. I can confirm it still hurts. One of the hardest things of riding in a train is that you cant see more than a couple of feet in front of you, and I didn't see the rock in the road until it was far to late, it took our my front wheel and according to Andy B who was 2 people back I did a classic high side, and slammed into the road. Boo Hiss. Just for added drama/comedy depending on you disposition, Mark who was right behind me had no where to go, and despite his best bunny hopping efforts, clipped my bike and went over too! Smooth moves. Both riders and bikes got away with cuts and bruises ( Andy B helpfully added pics on facebook within 2 mins) so no harm done, but it's not something I'd like to repeat in the next 5 days; it would be so gutting not to finish now.

After that the day did thankfully lose the drama, but was bloody hard. The wind and the nasty road surface left us struggling to get an average of 13mph, a far cry from our 20 of previous days and by the end, we were all pretty much in bits! A massive effort all round, which we feel for sure now.

But that's another day, and a whole country done. Tomorrow we jump on the big boat over the Irish sea and take out 2 countries in one day- in a 115 mile mega day through Northern and mainland Ireland. We may well need some crack. That is an intentional spelling.

Right, I have to sleep! alarm goes off in 5 hours.

See you Scotland, it's been emotional.

Day 4: The longest day is 85 miles long..

Stats for the day: Miles: 85, Ft Climbed: 3613 Calories: 6200 Group Punctures: 0, Beard Status: Getting there. Undercarriage: Requiring double shorts.**New Category** Comedy Tan Lines: Multiple.

Slog Blogettes, Hello. Day 4, the Summer Solstice, is behind us, we’re in another ropey hotel in Dumbarton, and in general, it was a good day. We certainly had a better time than it sounds like North Korea did.

Smashing weather greeted us again this morning, we have been very lucky with the elements so far. Mo’ Nature is still playing the game, nice work treacle. Check out the view from my window this morning:

You wont get one tomorrow, as it’s of the back of a Little Chef.

Our smart hotel was topped off with a good breaky but we were all a bit worried by what was to come- the 7 mile hill I mentioned yesterday. As soon as we left the hotel it was looming over us, a big green bully and as we reached the bottom we all settled down into our own rhythms: iPod on, head down.

And you know what? It was ace.

I think we all really enjoyed it; it was hard but never overly steep and with an incredible back drop we were able to just get in the groove and power up it. I probably enjoyed that as much as anything on the trip so far- goes to show that your mind can make things seem bigger than they actually are, just ask Capello and his boys!

I was actually so in the zone that I didn’t notice Andy and Steve waiting at a little plateau below the summit and steamed on by, if they hadn’t had caught me in the climb left, I’d have been over the top and well away. We then had a couple of more little climbs before a mega blast down through the valley and alongside Loch Lomond. We stopped for lunch in a little village right on the shoreline, and after a sarnie wondered down to the jetty and sat with our feet in the water.

Check the view:

It was a fantastic setting, and we could have sat there all day but we had a fairly average Scottish town to get to!

We managed to keep up a nice pace at around 16-17mph which keeps us all together, until we hit a cheeky little final hill which was 1:6, basically any steeper than that and you are in Spiderman territory, although I reckon he probably looks better in Lycra. After that it was a cruise down the banks of the Clyde, past the gnarly looking nuclear sub base and into our home for the night. Job Done.

So we’re over a 3^rd of the way in distance, and we’re generally in a fair state. The next couple days will really show us what we’re made of though, they’re all over 100 miles, and at the moment we think tomorrow could be 120 miles..We try and average 10mph with breaks/lunch included. Even in my brain dead state at the mo I can do the math. Uh oh.

With that, I think it’s early night time, keep dropping us comments/texts/sponsorship it really spurs us on.

Hablo Manana.

PS: Updated the blog from yesterday with Pics

PPS: Have a good last couple of days in Spain Luce. xxx