so we head towards my homeland……I will be thinking about my Mum who I lost to cancer to many years ago. I will also be thinking about my sister. And in the words of the only real scottish song, ill be “thinking of Home”

As we leave Penrith and head towards the Scottish border, I wanted to dedicate tomorrow’s biking to Jim and Mary tomorrow. They spent some of their life together in Penrith and to me going to Scotland is and always will be about visiting them. You will be in my thoughts.

I feel a little bit of pressure now that Doug promised ‘a more upbeat and funny blog today’… I am not promising anything, but I will give it a good go!

So as Doug said yesterday was a tough one for all, but we battled through and made it to Preston by 8:30pm, after approx 8 hours in the saddle across the day. It was a quick turnaround and straight down for tea. Sal and Cat (my uni mates) joined us for the evening, which was great to see them….especially when Cat came bearing homemade triple chocolate muffins…. a great way to end a hard day! Thanks for the effort guys…especially as navigating round Preston was a nightmare for both you and us!!!

Anyway, so today…a new day today…the rain of yesterday was a distant memory, the sun was shining. We decided to have a bit of a lay in the morning, so were on the road slightly later today by 10am.

This morning no much to report really, we rattled straight up the A6 through, Garstang, Lancaster Carnforth…and planned to meet the support crew in Milnthorpe. In fact what happened was we were so far ahead of the support crew, we beat them to Milnthorpe, cracked on along a cycle path (bring on the fly eating again!!) to Kendal …and we still managed to beat them there!

This left us with only 20 miles further to our destination for the day in Great Strickland, just south of Penrith. The only thing that lay between us and that was the ‘Shap climb.’ We had heard about this climb…and Rob had done a reccy when coming back from working in Glasgow the other week…so he knew what lay ahead and had prepared us….

 …this basically comprised of a steep downhill, followed by a 10% steep uphill, followed by a prolonged steep uphill climb for about a mile. Well…I’m not going to lie I took one for the girls today….I got to the top, looked back, couldn’t really see them, had a breather…looked back, they were specs on the road up the hill….took a picture of the AMAZING view….they still weren’t at the top! And think…I wasn’t even in my lowest gear (although they didn’t believe me!).

The climb was definitely worth the view though and the downhill after was an amazing feeling! That pretty much took us up to Great Strickland where we are now, sitting in The Strickland Arms having hearty British pub food!

We were met in Great Strickland by Woz and Amy who spent the weekend in Penrith to meet us (and apparently had some navigation problems of their own whilst walking in the Cumbria countryside). Thanks for coming guys it means a lot!

So….one week in, we are over half way…bring on the Scottish border.

Ok well things have been going great and then today hit…. Getting from Market Drayton to Preston has been nothing short of a nightmare.
The day started well with the Russian Prince deciding to do a small stint with us this morning, he brought the weather with him as we started the rain fell, well sort of lashed really, it teamed down and wet weather gear was the order of the day.
Puntures
Doug had the first puncture as a thorn embeded itself in the tire wall, yet another change of inner tube, Sara followed at lunch time and Rob had his puncture on the A57 Manchester road, at this rate its worth buying shares in rubber.

Mark left us after 19 miles or so his new bike suffering from Rain damage, it will be put back into the garage where its unikely to see light until the Hen and Chickens Christmas Raffle.

So we battled on throught the suburbs of Manchester in the rain and then in the sun and then in the rain again. It has been the most awful day for the 3 of us as we battled through to try and get North of Preston, this was not to be as we found a treturous route through places such as Leigh! Now that’s a place that is not for the faint hearted, if you go there take your stab vest!!

The support were brilliant again today despite having problems finding the hotel tonight, no doughnuts today, a measure how hard it has been for us all.

Its late now, we have a hard day tomorrow as we climb into Penrith, the upside is the route tomorrow is the A6 and then the A6 and then the A6.

Thanks for all of your messages of support it certainly helped us through today.
Promise a more upbeat and back to funny blog tomorrow. Good Night x

I don’t want to steal Rob’s thunder as in charge of updating the blog, but I wanted to dedicate today’s ride to Fred and Gladys. I was thinking about them all the way today and hope they were with me too.

So today we were back in the saddle following our rest day yesterday.

Things started so well this morning. Despite the light rain, we battered through the B roads of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire and were soon closing in on Bewdley (near Kidderminster), covering 42 miles before lunch.

Things were going so well in fact, I was starting to worry that I would have nothing interesting to write on here….thankfully Doug came up trumps in the afternoon!

On a side note, the Support Team continue their public service of surveying supermarket donuts. Today was Marks and Spencer’s opportunity to stake a claim in the chart….and I can confirm it is a new entry into the chart at number 2….Morrisons may be unbeatable….unless there is a wildcard thrown into the mix….keep checking back for all your donut chart news.

So, back to Doug’s error of judgement….stopping in Bewdley he noticed there was a tarmac footpath running along the river. Checking the map he saw it seemed to go in the direction we wanted to be……so he led us down it.

Within 500 yards it turned from tarmac to gravel; within another 500 yards it turned from gravel to dirt track; in another 500 yards it turned into dirt track littered with rocks, tree roots, stinging nettles, brambles, and more rocks. Needless to say this slowed us down somewhat….we covered about 2 miles in an hour!

Sara found this little detour hilarious as Doug scrambled along narrow paths. I too found it funny until I did my usual trick – trying to freewheel along to gain some time I hit a tree root, stopped and promptly fell off. More grazes. Brilliant.

Eventually we found a bridge and managed to get back to a semblance of civilisation following a climb up some country lanes….thanks to some impressive map reading on my part I might add!

As the sun began to burn down, we powered on to make up the time and were soon heading just out of Shiffnal to meet our second guest rider of the trip, Mark ‘The Prince’ Ellis.

After a slight delay while Doug had his second puncture of the week (luckily the support team were on hand to help out), we met Mark who pulled his shiny new (and I mean shiny new) bike out of the back of his Range Rover and came along for the last 10 miles of the day while Stu took up the role of secondary support team.

Mark’s preparations due to our ‘scenic river walk’ delay had probably not been the best – never advisable to have a pint before cycling, but he managed the 10 miles without any drama and has just had a well deserved two course meal and a few more pints!

So here we are, just outside Market Drayton in a little pub; Doug has his own room which EVERYONE is happy about!

Its great to see your comments; keep them coming! Its also good to see all charities are over £1k, we would love to get them all over £1,500, so please give as much as you can.

Daily update:

Weather – sunshine and showers as the weather man always seems to say

Lesson of the day – never listen to a word Doug says…ever

Song of the day – River of Dreams

Ok so third day did not start well, this was mostly as a result of me having to share a room with the brother and sister in law, Alan snores very loudly.

Count Von Count wears Count Von Count jersey

As I walked into the car park things got worse as Fat boy was standing in a purple bike top with Count Van Count (yes thats the way you spell it) now Count Van Count is Fat boys double, so anyone really wanting to see what he looks like should visit google sesame street it will all be revelead. I was almost decorating the Travellodge car park.
So we get under way and blast a flat route to cheddar Gorge, its then at the hill that my problems start as I bonk (its not what you think Nora) no energy at the bottom of the hill is bad and I had a bad morning compounded by a puncture.
However lunch soon arrived and off we went again eventually getting on the A38 and with a tailwind we batter along in a road train led by Fat boy, now this is where problems start as the A 38 has a number of pot holes and Fat boy has no clue what to do, the normal practice is to point as you come up to one so that the cyclist behind can move along, not Fat boy he shouts, so if your cyclist 3 and dont hear him trouble is ahead.
Indeed this is what happend, he spots a pot hole, Sara swerves I have no idea what has happend and hit said pot hole HARD, my left testicle shoots up to my left ear making a nice earing for about 10 seconds. All the guys know what happens next, the pain is BAD, so luckily the support van is up front and I manage to get from the bike bend double, I will get my revenge.
Good day as we have a rest day now and we are all recharging our bodies for the next blast to Market Drayton. Keep the comments coming we are inspired when you cheer us on.

So….according to the support crew (not that I want to spread rumours), the cosy night in the Travelodge with three in a room was not as peaceful as the Travelodge promises….due to a certain very tired cyclist keeping the support crew up!

Breakfast this morning consisted of an overly priced ‘breakfast in a bag’ courtesy of Travelodge Taunton….a small cereal in a pot, a nutrigrain bar and PG tips…not really the hearty porridge of the hotel in Lifton.

We were met in the car park this morning by a bright-eyed Matt (Rob’s cousin), who had got the train the night before and planned to join us on our leg to Bristol where he lives. Little did he know that we actually ended up powering through to Gloucester…meaning we are now a day ahead of schedule and means we can have a full rest day tomorrow! (woo hoo!!!!).

Matt looked this chirpy all day, despite the miles and the hills!

Anyway, back to today, this morning we pretty much rattled through all the way up to Cheddar Gorge along the A38. The hills we faced this time had less casualties (and less painted pavements courtesy of Doug), although I think that Doug may have been feeling the age difference as Matt, Sara and Rob waited at the top of the hills as he battled on to the peak. He blames the ‘breakfast in the bag’ this time (not the wine…or whatever the next days excuse is!!).

Doug 'bonking' up the hill (look at the expression of pain!)

Saying that Doug came to his own on the straight, and with him, Matt and Rob sharing the lead position, we hit Bristol by lunchtime. Today’s chosen supermarket carpark was Sainsburys. Now….the support team have taken it in to their hands (on behalf of the whole team) to do a Lands End to John O’Groats taste testing of supermarket doughnuts. Today was Sainsburys. This is how the league table sits:

1. Morrisons

2. Waitrose

3. Sainsburys

Clifton Suspension Bridge - our team photographer Sara has an eye for a good photo!

So, after lunch, the team’s muscles were loaded with Cornish Pasty (great recommendation by Matt)….and homeward bound (Chez Support Team). Eating up the miles….Rob doing a grand job leading the pack….well that was until he may have called ‘pothole’ a little too late. Sara managed a sneaky swerve out the way, poor Doug was left hanging….BUMP! oooo…that kind of thing should not happen to any man, let alone one his age! We had to stop and wait for his voice to come down an octave!

Team bonding overlooking the Severn Bridge (pre pothole incident)

Anyway….the last few miles were tough for all I think (apart from Matt…who still had a smug ‘I am only doing one day’ smile on his face!)..but the thought of a jet bath, some vino and a home cooked meal (once again Support Team came up trumps) kept us going all the way down the lane to Tina and Alan’s house.

Three counties down.....

Bath, eat, bed planned for this evening I think.

So finally….a big thank you to Matt for his support today, was great to have you on board. Also to re-iterate Doug’s message this morning…thanks for all the donations….it really keeps us motivated and puts a great deal of meaning to our madness! It would be great to see all chosen charities over the £1000 mark…we are almost there! Also keep the messages coming…makes us laugh as I am sure you are laughing at our blogs.

Daily report:

Word of the day – ‘Pothole!’

Most tired person – Big Al after a sleepless night courtesy of Doug

Least tired person – Matt (with I think an unfair advantage!!)

First pucture (on a bike!) – goes to Doug

Record time for changing puncture – goes to Doug (Very impressive!)

Ok so 4 pints and a half bottle of red wine were, on hindsight, perhaps not the right thing to do and Lifton got left with a colourful pavement as I struggled up the first hill. Sara or Dorey(something to do with finding nemo,dont ask me, its a love fest with Rob and Sara) was off like a rocket fuelled by the powers of mythical porridge. Rob was being his usual prattish self blaiming his equipment for covering himself in oil(and ruining my planned all white look for Scotland as he had my white cycling gloves) its a grease thing, he loves it. So his Mammy cleaned him up and promptly rubbed whatever sun cream of his face, it was just as well, as we were able to sit in the beer garden last night, no patio heater needed as Robs face done the Job. All the locals in Taunton came round to see what the glow was.
So today has us moving on up to Bristol and if the day goes well onto Glos which will earn us a rest day(yipee) Please if you read this leave some comments its good to know that people are even the slightest bit interested in this thing that we do. Love to all and thanks everyone for the Very very kind donations to our charities.
Doug

I imagine there are many rumours gathering pace that I am not actually on this bike ride, as I have not blogged and there are no pictures up..well I am most definitely here, as my calf muscles will testify to.

Today did not start well. Guess who had an issue – me…again. Whilst setting off from a layby after adjusting my computer there was a loud bang. It appears that my little faux pas yesterday had broken the plastic chain guard and it was now rattling around my back wheel.

Meanwhile, up ahead Doug was throwing up on his bike after one too many glasses of rouge the night before; luckily Sara was running on porridge so was far enough ahead not to see it!

By the time I had caught up with the others, my face was covered in grease and Doug’s white gloves he lent me were black.

A quick stop of with the support crew, and while Big Al broke off the offending item, Little T applied the make up remover to my face!

Weight reduction modifications

Getting ready for the photoshoot...

Despite the early set back we made good time in the morning, powering towards Tiverton. We were then hit by another problem, a puncture….on the support van! After a stop off in Okehampton some questionable local mechanics changed the tyre.

Whilst they were having problems, we were facing the drama of the Devon hills. Those hills will fill our dreams for many many months to come. We kept climbing and climbing….and climbing.

By the time the support team caught us up we were just 5 miles from Tiverton…where we originally planned on stopping!

A quick lunch and we carried on down the hills and took the call to push for Taunton.

Still smiling!

Still smiling....before I gave the wrong directions!

As Doug’s £4million bike sat nav was proving to be useless, we continued to rely on OS maps being read by me! This may have caused a little bit of tension in the team when we went up a hill unnecessarily, but, hey you go up five, one more doesn’t make too much difference (!).

So here we are in Travelodge Taunton. After taking our lives into our own hands and crossing the town in rush hour, we managed to nab the last two rooms in Taunton due to some stupid cricket thing.

Two rooms and 5 people doesn’t really work, so the support team went beyond the call again and let Doug stay in their room….if they sleep through the snoring tonight they are better than me!!

Two counties down.....

Daily report:

Weather – still good

Bottoms – Deteriorating, but  no crying yet

Support crew – continuing their great work

Casualties – one – the Kia Sedona (support van)

Tune of the day – heavy breathing, no time for singing today

Two counties down, and tomorrow Matt “Ironman” Baxter will be joining us…..hope he knows how to go slow!