Story
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<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="font-size: 16px; color: #1c2a47; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">day 10 Cullompton to Bodmin. 75 miles of finest South West hills.</h2>
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<div class="clearfix" style="display: block; zoom: 1;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 16px;">Not the flattest of days. Started off tired after the last two days' 90 milers, and wasn't helped by the unending selection of different gradients to haul myself up. Pretty quickly it became apparent that I have nothing left in the legs at all.</span></div>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">However, I did discover a new tactic for conquering the hills: walking. Thus parts of the day were more of a pleasant ramble - justified by having some food at the same time and therefore calling the little walks rest breaks instead. Good logic.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Rather disappointingly, walking up the hills rather than cycling up also had the added benefit of increasing my average speed. I am looking forward to having the car again.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">The last 15 miles across Bodmin Moor was the standard experience when crossing any piece of British moorland: gets dark, wind blows, much rain. Super.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Last day tomorrow - 55 miles into Lands End.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Then the car.</p>
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<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="font-size: 16px; color: #1c2a47; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; color: #000000; font-weight: normal;">Day 8 - Shrewsbury to Stonehouse. 87 miles<br /><br />Not a lot to report - relatively straightforward day, got wet, cycled 87 miles, got sore bum. Devon tomorrow.</span></h2>
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<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="font-size: 16px; color: #1c2a47; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Day 7 (today) - Preston to Shrewsbury</h2>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Should have been a shorter easy day of just short of 80 miles, but I had not recovered from the previous evening. Nothing in the legs, bum sore from the start and too tired to get my head in the game. However with much huffing and puffing and general self pity, day completed without much mishap.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">The ride itself was one of two halves, the first through industrial Lancashire and Cheshire - I would have said unpleasant if it weren't for Bogside 3 days earlier - the the glorious Shropshire countryside which I was generally too mardy to appreciate.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Generally, however, the landscape is a lot closer to home and is starting to feel more familiar. Must be nearing the end...</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">I'll try and post some videos of the more exciting moments of collapse tomorrow.</p>
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<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="font-size: 16px; color: #1c2a47; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Day 6 - Carlisle to Preston</h2>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">This should have been a relatively flat day, 85ish miles and relatively straight forward.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Various things combined to flush that down the pan as well.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">First, although there was not that much climbing in total for the day, it all came in one go as I climbed another 1000+ft to go over Shap Fell. Not quite as bad as Glencoe and not as bleak at the top, but still a fair old pedal and not helped by the weather.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Having spent the best part of a week in an increasingly aromatic set of bad weather gear as I slogged through the endless wasteland of the highlands, the sun came out in force to celebrate my return to civilisation.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">It was too hot to do any serious cycling until late afternoon, so I paced it to arrive in Preston with the end of daylight. I didn't get it quite right, and left myself 30 miles in a couple of hours. A bit of a time trial then, but just about made it.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">However, there then dawned the horrible realisation that the hotel was not in Preston, but across the city and 4 miles the other side. I arrived at 11.20, 95 miles down, 30 at the sprint, scarcely able to push the bike and with my shorts worn as hipsters to avoid any contact with my shredded backside.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Not one of the easier shorter days as planned.</p>
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<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="font-size: 16px; color: #1c2a47; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Day 5 - Lesmagahow to Carlisle</h2>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Following the failure to maintain 100+ miles a day, the plan for today was not to have a plan, but to try 80 miles to Carlisle whilst I straightened myself out. The ride actually went very well - I left Scotland so it stopped raining, and only having to do 80 miles took the pressure of speed and the length of time in the saddle.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">The result was a much more relaxed day, possibly as a result of the sense of relief at finally letting go the original route.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">That night, the route was replotted: Carlisle to Preston to Shrewsbury to Dursley to Cullompton to Bodmin to finish. Shorter days, about 85 miles each, straight south and flatter.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">In theory.</p>
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<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="font-size: 16px; color: #1c2a47; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Day 4 - Arrochar to Lesmagahow (don't ask)</h2>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">The day it all collapsed. The intention was to go from Loch Lomond through Glasgow to Dumfries, catching up with the original route. Things started off ok - I got to Glasgow in reasonably good time, but the legs simply gave way as I cycled along the Clyde - possibly the excitement and glamour of the view. I was clear that I was going to be able to continue that pace for another 70 miles so would not make Dumfries.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Mental breakdown followed physical, and there was a general falling apart as it sunk in I wasn't going to complete the ride in the planned timeline (and given the state of me, I wasn't going anywhere near the hilly days either).</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">The day became a question of damage limitation: to get as far as possible towards Dumfries before stopping for the day, regrouping and replotting a whole new route. Plan B had failed.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Things got worse when I found a strange compulsion not to leave Clydeside, by getting lost in Glasgow (popping into say hello to Bogside - yum yum), Hamilton, Blantyre, Motherwell and various other holes that defy description. After fighting through 67 miles, I finally gave up in a small town called Lesmagahow, 50 miles short, thanks to some nifty B&B finding by the domestic support unit.</p>
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<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="font-size: 16px; color: #1c2a47; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Day 3 Fort Augustus to Arrochar</h2>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">ight, where was I? Day 2 was a bit of a shambles as previously noted. I ended up in Fort Augustus, 30 miles short of Fort William as intended. This meant the original route down the Mull of Kintyre to catch the last ferry to Arran was no longer an option. It would have meant covering 130 miles in bad weather to arrive at 7pm.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Plan B came into action: rather than go down the Mull and then across Arran to Dumfries, take a straighter route from Fort Augustus to Loch Lomond for day 3 (100 miles), then day 4 cutting through Glasgow to Dumfries (105 miles) for day 4.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Day 3 went ok (ie I made it). Very big climb over the pass at Glencoe, about 1500 feet up with the ski slopes. The body held together, but up on Rannoch moor the mind went a little. Very very bleak up there, and at about 4pm the weather closed in and I got a bit panicked. No reason, plenty of traffic but three days in the highlands and I had had enough. Mad sprint down the hill and eventually calmed down a bit as I came down into the Trossachs.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">I saw a clip of Monarch of the Glen a couple of days later and had flashbacks - I will not be going back to the highlands any day soon.</p>
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<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="font-size: 16px; color: #1c2a47; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Day 2 Tain to Fort William (in theory). 80 or so miles in 532 hours.</h2>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Proprietors of last night's B&B were English so I breakfasted in scrambled eggs free from any sheep innards.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Utter shambles today. Mind and body weren't ready in the morning after yesterday's beating so progressed in a perambulatory fashion, stopping every fifteen minutes at the merest excuse. After 5 hours or so, I had gone 35 miles.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">After having been rained on several times with particularly cold water, the weather cleared up and so did I. Everything started to go well - I was concentrating on what I was doing, the legs were working and I was looking good for a reasonable finish time given the utter pants of the morning.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Then I made the mistake of following my sat nav (as programmed by me of course). To plot my routes, I use Mapmyride. This is normally very good, but if you zoom in too far you can't tell the difference between a nice proper road and a mud track.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">I zoomed in too far when plotting today.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">At about 6.50 this evening, I found myself half way up a mountain in a forest being told to wade across a river with no discernible footpath on the other side. I declined with a certain lack of grace, but it took me another hour to escape the forest and double back. In total, I lost about 2 hours, and ended up 30 miles short of today's objective.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">I am currently replotting the next two says to get back onto the planned route. I am replacing the Mull of Kintyre with a ride through the middle of Glasgow.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">Videos may follow tomorrow - not in the mood tonight and I have some soggy socks to wash.</p>
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<div class="uiHeaderActions rfloat">Day 1 Thurso to Tain. 88 miles in 10 hours 20.</div>
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<div class="clearfix">For breakfast today, I ordered scrambled eggs. I received andouilles du mouton au poivre a l’Ecosse, ie haggis. So it was that I sailed off in a cloud of fryer fat and condiments, straight into the fine Scottish Summer weather.</div>
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<p>First it was the rain in the middle of the highlands. Then back against the coastal winds again, this time the east coast. As a man of my physical presence, I have come to accept that it will take some time to haul myself up a hill. However, I also consider it my legal right to enjoy maximum gravitational pull on the way back down. I categorically do not expect to have to drop down to bottom gear and work hard to move myself downhill at 6 miles an hour. I shall join a union.</p>
<p>Not fast today, but a bit of an epic struggle between man and the elements. The elements won.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REFGQUGd6O4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REFGQUGd6O4</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RT_E781TJU">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RT_E781TJU</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpHHwxnLfnk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpHHwxnLfnk</a></p>
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<p>The prologue time trial.</p>
<p>20 miles from Wick to John O’Groats, lunch of burger with bacon a l’Ecosse (ie fried), then another easy 20 to Thurso. Easy if you think cycling head on into a North Scottish coastal wind is easy, which I personally don’t. It was also raining, but the rain was reasonably warm so must be a Scottish Summer.</p>
<p>Given today’s experience of the wind, I think I will be going for plan B tomorrow – a slightly shorter route (90 miles) and a lot flatter (about 1,600 ft less climbing).</p>
<p>Having trouble with the video camera today, so nothing recorded on the bike.</p>
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<p>One of Isobel's best friends, six year old Finlay Connor, was tragically killed in March when he was hit by a bus on his way to school. His mum Niki was left seriously injured and fighting for her life.</p>
<p>This was a fight she may not have won if she hadn't been airlifted to hospital by Wiltshire Air Ambulance.</p>
<p>This life saving service is largely funded by charitable contributions, so in June I will be cycling from John O'Groats to Lands End to try and raise some money give some more support.</p>
<p>It is fair to say that I am not a cyclist, not having sat on a bike for 20 years. Nor frankly am I at the peak of physical fitness ready to take on such a ridiculous challenge. So to make things easier, I will be going the wrong way (into the wind), a long way round (over 1,000 miles) and on my own. It all seemed such a good idea at the time.</p>
<p>Please do give generously and forward this on.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
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