Sept 17, 20:35: Fantastic day! Everything seems to have gone right today - a nice early start with porridge & toast provided by Vivienne, followed by a much-needed chivvying from our amazing support crew (without whose managerial skills we'd still be in bed now) to get moving. We were out by 08:45 and on our way back to last night's bail-out point.
Everyone seemed a bit worried about how far back it was - bearing in mind we'd just be getting on the bikes and cycling back past Chateau Miles again. But the going was good and we blatted back past after about 75 minutes, a distance of around 17 miles.
This took the support crew by surprise - they thought they'd missed us or we were lost, but in fact we were simply still ahead of them. Next stop was about 17 miles further on, and with the exception of my ill-advised (but victorious) game of chicken against an HGV passed without incident.
And that was largely the theme of the day - really good pace, everything working, and if it hadn't been for one final incident involving me ramming Mark from behind and buggering up his gear alignment - hopefully Andy will blog a full explanation of what happened and why it was his fault later - it would almost have been boring....!!
Finally we pulled up at Shrewsbury Travelodge at 17:57, which we were all incredibly happy with, especially as I'd had a bet on with Clare that we'd be nearer 6 o'clock than the 6:30 finish she predicted.
As a closer, I have to mention the local Halfords store, which is just the other side of the A5 from where we're staying. Mark & Veljko took their bikes over to them because their gears needed alignment (no, I didn't pile into Veljko's bike too). Not only did the guys there sort them immediately and efficiently, but didn't even charge for it. Big thumbs up to the first helpful Halfords I've ever been in!!
Keith
Everyone seemed a bit worried about how far back it was - bearing in mind we'd just be getting on the bikes and cycling back past Chateau Miles again. But the going was good and we blatted back past after about 75 minutes, a distance of around 17 miles.
This took the support crew by surprise - they thought they'd missed us or we were lost, but in fact we were simply still ahead of them. Next stop was about 17 miles further on, and with the exception of my ill-advised (but victorious) game of chicken against an HGV passed without incident.
And that was largely the theme of the day - really good pace, everything working, and if it hadn't been for one final incident involving me ramming Mark from behind and buggering up his gear alignment - hopefully Andy will blog a full explanation of what happened and why it was his fault later - it would almost have been boring....!!
Finally we pulled up at Shrewsbury Travelodge at 17:57, which we were all incredibly happy with, especially as I'd had a bet on with Clare that we'd be nearer 6 o'clock than the 6:30 finish she predicted.
As a closer, I have to mention the local Halfords store, which is just the other side of the A5 from where we're staying. Mark & Veljko took their bikes over to them because their gears needed alignment (no, I didn't pile into Veljko's bike too). Not only did the guys there sort them immediately and efficiently, but didn't even charge for it. Big thumbs up to the first helpful Halfords I've ever been in!!
Keith
0 comments:
Post a Comment