Thursday, August 31, 2006

Sponsorship Latest

Wow! What a truly generous lot you are!

We'd all like to thank you so much for your donations and pledges to support our two charities - The Meningitis Research Foundation and Cancer Research UK.

And, as sign of our gratitude, we will be giving away an autographed promotional bottle of 10-year old malt whisky kindly donated by the Glenlivet distillery to one lucky sponsor. For each £5 you pledged, you’ll get a raffle ticket – names will be drawn out of the hat this weekend (2nd / 3rd September).

Don’t panic if you haven’t sponsored us yet – there’s still a little more time! To make a dontation to the Meningitis Research Foundation, click here. To make a donation to Cancer Research UK, click here.

So, how have we done? Online, we have raised £4,180 for Cancer Research and £2,070 for Meningitis Research, together with Gift Aid of £1,090 and £530 respectivley. Added to this is the £1,000 in matching sponsorship from Garvins and SIAS as well as some mammoth individual direct donations from Punter Southall and PSolve staff totalling £1,125.

This means our grand total as of 8pm on 31 August is....

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Diary - Part Seven

Day - Saturday 8th July

Breakfast this morning was stood up outside the delightful Spar shop in Chester admiring the pages and pages of "Chavs who are barred from this shop" stuck up in the window. After scoffing much milkshake and sausage rolls, we were on our way at 9.45am.

The morning's ride was pretty uneventful, and thankfully flat. Much of the route was on main roads and navigation was easy. The miles were clocking up thick and fast.

Then we happened on a town called Lymm (near Warrington in Cheshire). The whole town seemed to have been dug up (take that as you will: the local residents looked like they had recently been disinterred and the roads had been carted off in skips) just in time for their annual festival. I have never seen anything like it. How a town no bigger than, say, Yeovil, can have a dozen or more town criers, I'll never know. Bizarre.

We left quickly.

Soon we reached our lunchtime destination - Leigh. If Chester was chav-tastic, then Leigh is by far and away chav capital of England (and possibly the entire universe). So much burberry, shell suits and bling in one place cannot be healthy. There was no balance. No nice bits to off-set the sprawling Matalan / McDonalds retail parks. In an effort to fit in, we bought our lunch from a Bargain Booze off-license, not letting one another out of sight for a minute...

Humour isn't up to much in Leigh either - as we cycled through a young lad clearly impressed his equally intellectual mates by shouting "huh huh. Tour De France!" several times.

Heading on towards Chorley, following Doug's instructions (thankfully the pressure was off me in that respect) we ventured back out into the countryside. Doug's instruction of "in 5.5 miles turn right onto Grimeford Lane" was dutifully ignored as we cycled 7 miles along that road, before I could catch Martin and Doug to gloat that my mileometer had said 5.5 miles at the exact place we should have turned right. They didn't believe me.

From Chorley onwards, we encountered different terrain and different weather. The hills got steep again, and the drizzle started to soak us through. I was struggling and so let Matt, Doug and Martin carry on at their pace, while Helen and I follwed on at our slightly slower one.

The descents became dangerous in the conditions, although I still managed a respectable 46.6mph at one point. We arrived at Slaidburn Youth Hostel drenched to the bone at 7.45pm, and after showers etc, rewarded ourselves with a fantastic meal at the Hark to Bounty Inn.

Kerry (acting as vehicular support for the day) and I sneaked off to enjoy a bit more comfort in a nearby hotel while the others arranged to go back to the pub for breakfast in the morning. One week done, one to go!

Day: 7, Distance: 90.6 miles, Cycling Time: 7hr 14min, Ave Speed: 12.5mph, Max Speed: 46.6mph

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Diary - Part Six

Day 6 - Friday 7th July

Most people would be more than just a little annoyed to get a phone call from their boss half way through their holiday. Other than the issue of him waking me up at 7am after the late finish last night, I was actually pleased when Robert Garvin phoned to say he'd be joining us for the day's ride from Stourbridge to Chester.

Kerry left early for work and so I set about turning our kitchen into a bombsite whilst preparing breakfast for the others. It wasn't quite up to the standard of Penyclawdd Farm, but still immensely satisfying (even if I do say so myself!). As we finished, Robert and his wife Linda arrived - right on cue.

This morning my bike was demanding our mechanical attentions, as last nights front derailieur problems needed fixing. However, even with Robert's bike know-how, we couldn't seem to get the blasted thing fixed. After three-quarters of an hour adjusting screws this way and that, tightening cables here and there, and swearing every which way but loose, we gave up and I headed round the corner to Race Co Cycles (which we ought to have done from the start!). When I explained what we were doing, the top chap there fixed the problem in a jiffy and didn't even charge me.

By now it was 11am - yet another late start. We headed off towards Bridgnorth with me explaining how the next 15 or so miles was part of my training route and was pretty flat.

Places feel so much hillier when you've got a tonne of luggage on the back of your bike. In Bridgnorth we successfully climbed Cartway (a steep cobbled street which is actuall oneway - down the hill!) and decided to make up some time by pressing on towards Ironbridge.

Just outside ironbridge, the mechanical curse of LEJOG06 struck again as the bracket holding Robert's handlebar-bag in place broke. Unable to fix it, we cycled the last half-mile into Ironbridge to meet Linda and Dfor (their dog) with Robert carrying the bag under his arm. Thankfully Linda was able to save the day while the rest of us enjoyed the delicious home-made pizza that Helen's mum dropped round the night before.

**I owe an apology to Helen at this point for forgetting in my diary of yesterday that her parents visited us in Stourbridge and brought with them a feast of goodies for us to picnic on the next day - good show! and thanks again to Mr & Mrs Smith!**

Despite the journey from Ironbrdge onwards being flat, it still hurt. I think this was the point where I hit my personal "wall" (disappointly close to Lands End and not anywhere near enough to John O'Groats!). Thankfully the others didn't and that spurred me on.

We stopped later in the day at Ellesmere where some of us fed the ducks (and Dfor) - although I must admit my Bakewell tart was just too tasty to share with animals.

After a final push we arrived at the Hotel in Chester. Once again, my map measurements were awry - my notes suggested 69 miles, in reality it was 82 - but the team were getting used to this by now. Some Czech girls who were also staying at the hotel wandered through the carpark and started giggling, pointing in our direction
and then heading over. Martin began to think wearing his Irn Bru t-shirt was finally paying dividends (Irn Bru being very popular in the Czech Republic I'm told). Unfortunatley, the girls were more interested in Dfor.

We said goodbye to the Garvinator (his new nickname on account of being an unstoppable cycling machine, particularly compared to the likes of me who by now was already feeling the strain) and Linda and Dfor and went to our rooms to shower before heading out to find somewhere to eat.

Friday night in Chester is, er, not the nicest time to hit the city. However, we found a pleasant Italian restaurant away from all the hullaballoo who, oddly, weren't surprised when we ordered our 5 bowls of pasta and then added two large pizzas as a side order!

Totally sated by our gigantic meal, we braved Chester's roads to walk back to the hotel.

Day: 6, Dist: 82.5 miles, Cycling time: 6hr 16mins, Ave Speed: 13.1mph, Max Speed: 41.4mph

Monday, August 28, 2006

The Diary - Part Five

Day 5 - Thursday 6th July

Many things have kept me awake at night over the years, but last night was the first time I had lost sleep thanks to a sheep. One of John and Ann's hand-reared lambs wanted the world to know that it was hungry right underneath the window of the room Doug and I were in. In my dazed and over-tired state, it took me some time to work out that shutting the double-glazed window would shut out the noise.

Despite that, we all had a fantastic night's sleep and were well-rested when we went downstairs to an awesome full "Welsh" breakfast. It truly was luxury after 4 nights in Youth Hostels.

After getting ready, we went to load up the bikes. To our astonishment, Matt's back wheel was ****ed again! A broken spoke had gone unnoticed over the final few miles and his rear wheel was starting to buckle again. We knew that the route today took us to some remote parts of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, making it unlikely that we'd have any chance encounters with bike-shops. John-superman-Davies came to the rescue and drove Matt and Doug into Abergavenny to get it fixed.

This gave the rest of us a chance to drink tea, write our journals for the first few days of the trip and catch up on the local goings-on in Abergavenny.

By the time Doug and Matt got back from Abergavenny and we packed up again and said our good-byes and thank-yous, it was Midday. Still, we thought, it's only 66 miles to Stourbridge, so we can afford to take it steady. In a fit of irony, I mocked the pair of sign-posts within 100 yards of each other outside Abergavenny that between them thought Skillett was either 12 miles or 9 miles away.

We stopped for some food when we reached Skenfrith Castle on the Welsh-English border , just as the weather returned to the hot and sunny conditions we had been "enjoying" back down in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.

We headed for Ross-on-Wye where, once again, our directions didn't quite match the route we took (I'm still not sure which was actually wrong). Matt circumnavigated a roundabout several times while the rest of us worked out how to get back on track.

As we zipped through hilly Herefordshire and onto undulating Worcestershire, we clocked up some stonking speeds - exceeding 50 mph at one point near Upper Sapey in Herefordshire. However, it soon became apparent that my map-measuring skills even fell short of those of Abergavenny's road-sign makers. It clearly wasn't 66 miles from Abergavenny to Stourbridge. It was more like 86. The gang took the news, er, well, continuing with their deliberate mixing up of local towns (particularly Stourton and Stourbridge).

I began to get even more tetchy when my front mech started playing up which meant I couldn't use the largest chain-ring. I knew we just didn't have the time to carry out the fiddly task of re-adjusting so I just had to put up with it.

We were approaching Kidderminster when the sun started to set. We were all getting tired and disheartened that the miles didn't seem to be sliding by as quickly as they had been on previous days. Every turn of the pedal began to hurt. It was a thankful sight to see Kerry arrive with provisions and, just as importantly, a car to carry the lead-lined bags we'd been dragging for the last 80 miles.

I have pinpointed this as the exact moment that Doug's love-affair with the Rocky bar started.

With renewed vigour (but with legs that didn't seem to quite get that point) we completed the last few miles, arriving at my gaffe in time to watch the last dregs of sunlight disappear beneath the horizon. It was 10pm. Our latest finish yet.

The day ended as it had started with a sumptuous feast. This time lasagne, potato wedges, garlic bread and finally ice-cream rewarded our hard work. As the others trundled off to bed, I washed the cycling kit and hung it to dry before retiring myself at 1am.

Day: 5, Dist: 86.4 miles, Cycling time: 6hr 59min, Ave speed: 12.3mph, Max Speed 50.8mph!!

The Diary - Part Four

Day 4 - Wednesday 5th July


We awoke to glorious Somerset sunshine streaming through the dorm windows. Pretty, but annoying when you really need that sleep.

A hearty cooked breakfast was just the tonic to set us up for the day before we somehow contrived to spend an hour washing up and loading the bikes. Nevertheless we were on the road at 10am and heading toward Matt's home town, Wells, where we viewed the many tourist attractions that the city offers. (Strictly, that's not true. We stood outside Tescos in the drizzling rain eating bananas whilst I bemoaned having forgotten to bring a raincoat. Then we set off again.)

The mendips provided a bit of a challenge for us as we headed on towards Bristol. We tried to take our minds off the endless climbing by telling some poor jokes. Ask Doug to tell the one about his visit to the zoo with no animals...

On the way, Doug and Matt made contact with some fellow nutters / friends of theirs who were doing the JOGLE cycle (i.e. backwards) and it transpired that our paths would cross at Barrow Gurney. We met them briefly at the Prince's Motto pub, but with most of our cycling still not done (unlike the others who had made a ridiculously early start and were nearly finished), we reluctantly declined the invitation to join them for lunch, instead heading towards the Clifton suspension bridge.

Crossing the bridge was uneventful save for the spectacular views across the Avon gorge. We then climbed up onto Clifton Downs where we were briefly halted by incorrect directions. Once we worked out where we were going, we journeyed on in the rain towards the old Severn Bridge.

The wind blowing down the Severn Estuary made crossing the bridge tricky, but we soon reached the second country of our tour - Wales. Disappointingly, the "Croeso I Gymru" sign was on the opposite side of the dual carriageway to the cycle path, so a photo opportunity went begging.

It was, once again, getting late in the day. We still had a fair whack of cycling to do before we got to Abergavenny, so we agreed to push ahead. When we reached Llangwm, we stopped for lunch and I phoned that night's B&B to let them know we were running a touch late. As we set off, Helen repeated my effort of Day 0 and took a tumble off her bike - it looked worryingly painful, but she did herself surprisingly little damage.

We headed to Usk and then onto Aberystwyth. As we got within a few miles of our destination at Llanvihangel Crucorney, our direction of travel swung us round into a headwind making the last half-hour somewhat arduous. We finally arrived at Penyclawdd Farm at 7.30pm, to be greeted by Ann and John Davies, the owners of the B&B.

Ann and John were incredibly welcoming to us. After we had showered, tea and cake was laid on and John ferried all of us to the local pub for dinner. All of us, that is, except for Martin "can't-miss-a-minute" Hunter who declined coming for food just in case the pub didn't have a TV showing the football (it did).

Day: 4, Dist: 81.4miles, Cycling time: 6hrs 49min, Ave Spd: 11.9mph, Max Spd: 34.5mph

Friday, August 25, 2006

The Diary - Part Three

Day 3 - Tuesday 4th July

Strangely enough, despite the stresses of the first two days, there was a renewed sense of optimism about today. We were still alive, we had beans on toast for breakfast and the sun was shining. What more could you want?

We set off early enough and planned to stop in Exeter to see if we could find a competent bike mechanic to true up Matt's wheel (or, alternatively, a shop that would sell him a replacement). And that we did.

After a spot of shopping in Tescos for lunch and snacks we were on our merry way. Even though it was after 1pm by the time we left Exeter and we still had about 50 miles left to cycle, we maintained the cheery spirit that we had woken with at Steps Bridge.

The hills were becoming longer and more sweeping (as opposed to the short, steep ones we encountered frequently in Cornwall) as we progressed through Devon towards Somerset. The type of road started to vary enormously from the busy A-roads (occasionally, but rarely dual carriageway) to the country lanes that were barely wide enough to accomodate a bike let alone a car or tractor.

At Talaton, we stopped for a late lunch and "enjoyed" a local resident's music which he/she had felt it necessary to share with the entire village. To be fair, it sounded pretty good.

Late in the afternoon, and much to our relief, we hit the Somerset levels. Finally, a decent stretch of flat where we could really get some speed up with minimal effort! And, as if the beautiful countryside and hill-less journeying weren't buoying enough to our spirits, we even had first-hand proof that the milk of human kindness flows thick and fast in Barrington when we were invited into a complete stranger's home to fill up our drinks bottles.

Having passed by some of my boyhood haunts in Shepton Beauchamp, we stopped for another swift break in West Lambrook before pressing on again to Somerton, and the return of a few unwelcome hills - including the very steep and long one leading up to our resting place for the evening - Street Youth Hostel (complete with [insert politically correct term for gypsies, whatever that might be] camped on the other side of the road).

Shock horror! - we actually finished the day's cycling before sunset!

In fact, we had finished so early that we had time to get cleaned up and head down into Street to eat and to purchase provisions for the next morning's breakfast. Everyone had neglected to mention that it was a 2 mile walk - exercise none of us felt we needed. Apart from Martin who, in a bid to ensure that he didn't miss a single minute of the World Cup, ran it. Little did we know this was a portent of things to come.

Dinner in Wetherspoons was, er, just like all other Wetherspoons. Tasty enough after a day's cycling and Doug clearly thought so when he bought his invisible friend a meal too. After a swift Guinness (for me that is - strangely, I failed to make a note of what the others drank that night), we caught a taxi back to the Youth Hostel to bed.

That night I slept happy in the knowledge that, for the first time, things had pretty much gone to plan today.

Day: 3, Miles: 70.8, Cycling time: 5hr 44mins, Ave Speed: 12.4mph, Max Speed: 42.0mph

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Postcard from Penyclawdd Farm

The day we finished in Abergavenny, we had the absolute pleasure of staying with John and Ann Davies at Penyclawdd Farm B&B. They made us feel incredibly welcome, looked after us really well and even taxied us around to get bikes fixed.

So we sent them a postcard from John O'Groats to say thank you, and got this in reply:

The Diary - Part Two

Day 2 - Monday 3rd July

If Day 1 was a trial for us, then Day 2 turned out to be full of tribulations.

My dodgy knee was causing me a whole host of problems, although I found that dosing myself up on Ibuprofen and keeping the knee directly above my ankle whilst riding kept the pain down to a bearable level.

We got on the road nice and early, as planned, and headed from Golant Youth Hostel down to the Brodinnick ferry. So far so good. After disembarking, we made swift progress to Looe where we stopped for a 10 minute breather (and Martin's obligatory Irn Bru) before climbing the hill out of the town towards Torpoint.

And then it happened. Doug picked up a puncture - his second of the trip so far (we had fixed one on the sie of the road somewhere in the Cornish Lanes on Sunday). A bit unlucky to have a second, we though, but fixed it nonetheless. 100 yards along the road, it went again. Clearly there was a major problem here.

That problem turned out to be not just the state of Doug's tyre, but the fact that not one of us had bought a spare along (at this stage we were ignorant of the existence of folding tyres) - only inner tubes. Standing in a gateway being eaten alive by horseflies and all manner of other flying insects, we discussed what to do next. Matt, Helen and Martin were already 4 miles up the road.

With the nearest bike shop some 14 miles away, it was clear we had a major logistical problem in replacing Doug's tyre, so we decided to bodge it. I had packed some electricians tape in my panniers especially for such emergencies and we layered it on the inside of Doug's delapidated tyre. But, would it do the trick? We got back on the bikes and waved goodbye to the gathered masses of flies, wasps and bees.

A few miles on, tyre still intact, we found Helen and the other lads lounging in the shade of a tree. Matt's brakes were starting to rub against his wheel rims and so he was busy adjusting them.

Doug, worried about the tyre, decided to press on towards Torpoint and perhaps Plymouth, hoping to be able to find a bike shop and get a replacement tyre on his bike before we could catch him. As Doug cycled off into the midday sun, the remaining four of us agreed to pair off and meet in Torpoint. Helen and I set off first expecting my knee to slow us down, while Martin waited for Matt to put his bike back together.

Helen and I made good progress and were nearing Hessenford when I glanced back to see if I could see Matt and Martin. Unfortunately I could only see one. It transpired that Martin and Matt had become briefly separated at exactly the wrong moment. A quick call to Matt's mobile confirmed the worst. He had taken a wrong turning and was heading towards Plymouth - but the long way round. So now we were down to three.

We three pushed on to Torpoint where we thought our luck was starting to turn (little did we know). Right on our route down to the Torpoint/Plymouth ferry was a bike shop and outside was Doug, putting the wheel back on his bike, complete with brand spanking new tyre! Phew! We boarded the ferry and phoned to see how Matt was progressing.

Matt's little detour was almost at an end and he was entering Plymouth. However, he had another problem. His brakes weren't at fault for the earlier rubbing - it was his wheel starting to buckle and it was getting worse. Time for the second bike shop visit of the day!

The famous five were finally reunited in the cafe of a Morrisons supermarket somewhere in Plymouth. But, by this stage it was around 4pm and we still had to cycle across Dartmoor. We were getting concerned that we might not make it as far as Steps Bridge.

As we reached Yelverton, some 10 miles further on, Matt's wheel began buckling again. The shop in Plymouth clearly hadn't done anything to fix the problem. Matt removed his mudguard and slackened off the brakes to give the warped wheel room to manoevre whilst Doug once again powered ahead to see if he could find somewhere to buy our dinner in Princetown.

He did. Doug managed to persuade a local shopkeeper to open her shop to let him purchase a selection of supernoodles. Doug also had time to find out that his bike tool had a spoke key on it and so when the rest of us caught up, Matt tightened his spokes to stop the wheel buckling further. Worryingly, the sun was beginning to set.

Dartmoor at dusk is a beautiful place. Unless you're a short-sighted sheep who cannot see Matt Claisse in full flight on his bike. From where I was sitting it looked like the said sheep deliberately threw himself in front of Matt. How both managed to escape relatively injury free, goodness only knows.

As we descended off Dartmoor, the failing light and surrounding trees made it pretty much impossible to see where we were going. Nonetheless, a feast of supernoodles (and, as it turns out, a couple of frozen pizzas found for us by the Youth Hostel warden) awaited and so when we finally arrived at Steps Bridge at 9.45pm, it was with relief that the day was finally over.

Surely things could only get better....

Day: 2, Miles: 67.2, Cycling time: 5hrs 45min, Ave Speed: 11.3mph, Max speed: 47.8mph

The Diary - Part One

So here it is, part one of the diary they've all been waiting for. Ty explains the goings-on on tour from his viewpoint (usually towards the back...).

Day 0 - Saturday 1st July

Last night was manic. The plan was to have had everything packed days ago and get the train down to London after work to spend the evening at Dave's stag do (and then meet the others first thing Saturday morning to train it down to Penzance). It didn't happen - too much to sort out at the last minute. Thankfully Kerry offered to drive me straight to Penzance - what a star!

The journey down in the glorious sunshine was a little less fraught once I had established that the other four had safely boarded the train at Marylebone. Kicking back in the passenger seat of Kerry's car, I began to look forward to two weeks exploring the British countryside on a bike.

On arriving at Penzance station to meet the others, I couldn't help but stare in amazement at the amount of stuff Matt had managed to bring! As it turns out, he forgot the spare wheel, but was prepared for most other eventualities.

And so, the prologue began. A quick 10 mile sprint down to Lands End to warm up, get the photos done and meet my Dad (who, by complete coincidence, was setting off for John O Groats the same time as us, but aiming to finish in 8 days!).

After posing for the myriad of cameras down at Lands End (well, three) we headed into the Ship Inn to watch England vs Portugal. Oh, how Martin laughed. It wasn't the best of starts to my holiday - but nonetheless it was soon forgotten as we crossed the famous start line and headed back towards Penzance.

And it was just 4 miles from Lands End (yes, that's right, 4 miles!) that we had our first accident. I'm ashamed to say that it was me that takes the honour of being first faller. I learned to be a touch quicker at unclipping my pedal cleats after that.

So, 10 miles in to the journey we arrived at our first stop-over - Penznace Youth Hostel. With bikes safely stored and paperwork sorted, we headed down to the seafront for a feat of fish and chips and battered mars bars (I thought they were a Scottish delicacy?). A quick pint and then off to bed in preparation for the first full day.

Day: 0, Miles: 9.50, Time: 40 mins, Ave Speed: 14.2mph, Max Speed: 39.3mph

Day 1 - Sunday 2nd July

The start was early. Especially when we were supposed to be on holiday!

We set off in earnest ready to tackle whatever Cornwall could throw at us. As it turned out, it was quite hilly and we ended up having to sit out a thunder storm in a bus shelter in Peranwell Station.

However, a roast lamb lunch at The Roseland Inn at Philleigh (tel: 01872 580254) was awesome enough to help us forget all that. However, we quickly came to the conclusion that snacking throughout the day was much better than gorging for lunch as we tried to cycle our over-full bellies up the the next mountain.

The afternoon was spent lost in the lanes of the Cornish "outback", adding several miles onto trek - as if it wasn't long enough already! We finally made an unplanned descent down to Portmellon in the late afternoon. A bit of confusion over whether we were cyclists or in fact heavy goods vehicle meant that we ditched the 100 yard flat route out of the village, opting instead to cycle 1.5 miles up one side of a very steep hill and down the other. The locals stared in disbelief. We rewarded our stupidity with clotted cream fudge from a shop in Mevagissey.

By this stage it was getting late and, as we approached St Austell, it was clear that Sunday trading had ceased several hours before. Undeterred, we pushed on towards Par. But this undeterred-ness was shortlived as the road to Par was closed. Somebody had kindly dug it up.

A helpful local pointed out that cyclists could still get through, although she didn't point out that the cycle path was a little "cross-country". A successful piece of navigation later, and we were in Par. And then we found our Oasis - a Spar - and it was actually open. A Spar. In Par. Par Spar. How we joked about that (for approximately the next eight days). Midly more amusing was the poster in the window showing some recent staff fundraising efforts - they were described as Stars. You can guess what happened next.

We purchased sausages and pasta, got three sets of directions to Golant and opted to take the steepest.

On turning off the road at Golant onto the gravel driveway, my bike slipped underneath me and my knee twisted sickenly. I didn't say so at the time, but I really thought the adventure was over before it had even begun.

At 9pm we decamped into the Youth Hostel and Matt amazed us with his awesome Cheffing skills. Sausage and pasta followed by sticky toffee pudding. Mmmmm...

Day: 1, Miles: 65.4, Time: 5hr 58mins, Ave Speed: 10.9mph, Max Speed: 38.1mph