Day 1: Land's End to Exeter

A misty and drizzly start saw us off from Land's End with all the fanfare one could expect at 8am on a Monday morning. The A30 lulled us in with a few nice country lanes before dropping a dual-carriageway bombshell on us for the majority of the 120 mile stage.

Riding on the half metre 'hard shoulder' full of debris and cats eyes resulted in an outstanding four punctures and the obligatory broken spoke for Greg. 120 miles of obstacle course and brushing with lorries later, we finally arrived in sunny Exeter.

Tomorrow Tewkesbury, then the world.

Past the point of no return

Tomorrow is the day!

Cycles checked, shopping bought, washing done, house cleaned ... now it's just the nervous countdown. Must get some sleep tonight - we'll need it :-(

Last Minute Problems

Those last minute problems are rolling in.

We seem to have survived theft, damage (Greg is too heavy for his bike) and mishap (Mark's map reading). Now at the final hurdle and starting to get anxious. How many miles a day??

I am now doing final fixes / updates to my bike and all the required equipment i ordered has just arrived - yes today, with one day to spare! Nothing like leaving it to the last minute :-(

Big thanks to all our sponsors so far - i now feel I HAVE to complete (or at least get to the start).

Stranded in the saddle!

What a spellbinding drama this event is turning out to be. With Mark's theft of his bikes and the frantic searching for a replacement at the end of the cycling season, we have now had the unfortunate news that our support driver can't support us with any driving! So dear readers, we are frantically looking for an alternative which I may find closer to home than I think! Watch this space.

Route elevation

Thanks to various GPX tools, we now have elevation graphs for each stage:

Stage 1
Climb: 2,554m
Descent: 2,585m

Stage 2
Climb: 1,837m
Descent: 1,851m

Stage 3
Climb: 1,452m
Descent: 1,435m

Stage 4
Climb: 1,993m
Descent: 2,023m

Stage 5
Climb: 2,132m
Descent: 1,985m

Stage 6
Climb: 2,558m
Descent: 2,558m

Stage 7
Climb: 2,450m
Descent: 2,616m

This gives a total climb of 14,976m and descent of 15,053m. Some people struggle cycling 15km, let alone vertically!

Route is online

After much pain with various route planning websites, the route is finally online:

• Stage 1: Land's End to Exeter
• Stage 2: Exeter to Tewkesbury
• Stage 3: Tewkesbury to Warrington
• Stage 4: Warrington to Gretna
• Stage 5: Gretna to Glenfarg
• Stage 6: Glenfarg to Inverness
• Stage 7: Inverness to John O'Groats

We decided to use Gmaps Pedometer as it was the easiest to use, could follow roads and was far less buggy than the surprisingly broken Google Maps. Our first attempt by Greg, who plotted the entire 840 miles, later discovered that it had only saved the first 175 miles. Naturally, presuming that it was Greg at fault rather than the website, I also spent a long evening plotting the route, only to discover that it was indeed a known bug. Thus I opted for plotting each of the 120 mile stages separately.

We settled on the Cracknell-Romero route since it was more up-to-date than the CTC one we intended to use, and still weighs in at a zippy 842 miles. We'll be tweaking the exact start and end points of each stage depending on convenient places to park the motorhome, but it shouldn't change too much now.

The Hills

The 3 of got together on Saturday 15th August for a 120 mile ride. As usual Mark sped off into the distance (whippet!), Greg plodded along in top gear and I chased along at the back sweating (nice!).

We started a little late - due to my alarm clock and an accident on the M6. 120 miles is a long day and we didn't finish until just after 9pm as darkness was already with us (and only I bothered to take lights). I'm used to Cambridge hills - so going into the Cotswolds was a horrific experience.

We averaged just over 15mph which was our target and only Greg, as usual, had a few mishaps. E.g. 2 x punctures and a broken spoke. Back to the bike shop for Greg!

Here's a couple of photos of him repairing his bike and looking increasingly unhappy :-)