Part 2 - "The Coast to Coast Report."

 
Around 250 gallant souls set off from Watchet harbour at 9am Sunday 19th June on what was to be a true test of endurance. The majority of the participants were MAMILS - middle aged men in lycra with bikes that looked very nice and light. There were a couple of exceptions, one Bridport lady sporting a Laura Ashley dress and beret and was using a pre-war 'sit up and beg cycle' and one 12 year old was on a bmx. We set off up a fairly long, but do-able, climb out of Watchet. My 'Boris Johnson' special bike was making a noise somewhat like Anakin Skywalkers pod racer - later diagnosed as broken bearing casing on rear wheel. Anyway I countered this handicap by scoffing half my dextrose tablets managing to go quite fast at one point catching up with and passing the other guys, reminiscent of Mr Bean in his French excursion. One of our number, Louis, had disappeared into the distance in a 1-1 battle with a Mr Dyke...the remaining seven stayed together in a spirit of great togetherness that will bind us for life.

And before we knew it we were in Bishops Lydeard with 13 miles done. Although one, Kinger, had decided to forgo this stop, take a different route and was last seen heading towards Taunton on the main A road. We didn't want to stop him as he looked like he was enjoying himself.

The women's institute were on hand at Bishops Lydeard to dish out cake, Fryer sampling most of them (he was under the impression this was a Cake to Cake challenge). Our spirit of endeavour and personal achievement was deflated when Laura Ashley and bmx boy turned up ten minutes after us.

So we set off post haste, although I lost my right toe clip - giving me an excuse for slow performance... The ride from Bishops to Creech, going over the M5 was fairly pleasant and we even managed to pick up Kinger who was waiting by the main road - rumours he had got a lift from a passing Spanish truck driver were strongly denied  - although some noted he did not sit on his saddle for a while. 

Our next stop was the ambulance station in Illminster, where we refreshed ourselves, Nick posing for the paparazzi and Phil recommending  the Lemon Drizzle cake. We high-tailed it out of there as Laura Ashley turned up.

What lay ahead can only be described as hell on earth. But is known locally as the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This was a climb pretty much from Ilminster to Cricket St Thomas along very narrow, very steep,  winding country lanes, Nick and I struggled on our cast iron bikes whilst the other five sped off up the hill as if it were not there ( I believe they had filled their bikes with helium and Piers kept drinking from a suspicious looking small bottle (EPO & Complan mix ??))... Thankfully the speedsters waited for Nick and I at the top and we started our long decline to Drimpton. However, just as the back-markers (Nick, James and I) were passing a rather interesting example of road-kill a loud 'pop' was heard from Nick's front tyre... he had suffered a 2 inch blow-out. A passing cyclist gave him an inner tube but his tyre was also terminal. James and I left him by the roadside waiting for Jane to appear in the support vehicle with a spare tyre. Stuff “togetherness” - we were gonna win.

The remaining six met up at the pub in Drimpton where Phil recommended the Banana Cake. Five minutes later, Laura Ashley appeared so we set off again. I was beginning to fall back quite a bit now but the five kindly waited for me at Broadwindsor and we set off down hill to Bridport together.. Only Mother Nature decided this was a good time to have a laugh and started a strong, gale force head-wind.
What I thought would be 10 miles of freewheeling joy became a torrid 25 minutes of fierce pedaling with one toe clip, a rubbing wheel and 'sunday lunchers' driving passed so close I could smell the sweet sherry and sprouts on their breath.

I met up with the five again at Salway Ash then again at the Crown roundabout in Bridport. We set off down West Bay road trying to catch up with and pass two cyclists who were 100 yards ahead of us. On the last bend before the finish line I finally managed to get passed them only to find out it was the generous young cyclist who had given Nick an inner tube earlier in the day. Too tired to feel guilty I grabbed my medal along with all the other guys. The time was 2.10pm - we had done the 55 miles in 5 hours ten minutes having stopped loads of times to eat cake, energy bars, milky ways and to catch our breath. We were only two and bit hours behind the winner, who I bet did not enjoy as much cake as we did.

Laura Ashley turned up 40 minutes later, although rumour has it she did have a three course luncheon in Drimpton. There is some debate as to whether Nick beat Laura (aka Mary Poppins)... I’ll leave you to decide who the winner was from the photo...

Not bad at all, and over £300 raised for the air ambulance - thank you all, kind sponsors.

In hindsight I would have preferred my mid life crisis to have involved fake tan, a Mazda MX5 and goatee beard - but you live and learn.

 Chris

 

Part 1 - "the pre-amble"

I was humbled when Richard told me he was doing this cycle ride from Watchett to West Bay and told me about the charity he was doing it for, I said "there are so many people in Somerset and Dorset who need help with their hair - but is a helicopter a good idea?" Richard patiently explained the subtle difference between a hair ambulance and the air ambulance. Nevertheless I think this is just as good a cause, if not better. So we got together a crack team of inexperienced cyclists made up from our equally inexperienced cricket team 'The Squanderers' ... This team will do the coast to coast charity cycle ride on father's day 2011, see the link below for the details: I've had a look and it takes in Exmoor, the Quantocks, The North-West Dorset Alps, The almost vertical Chard Gorge, The Drimpton Incline (the latter two not to be confused with medical ailments caused by poor saddle positioning) and many more challenging climbs, in all we will climb over 100,000 cm on this ride reaching a height of over 7,000 inches shortly after starting. Hopefully the air ambulance will be around just in case..

Our crack team of cycling heroes are:

Piers Garner aka Mr Bridport Music who will be singing hits from his 60's repertoire to motivate us.

Nick Neale - Our Fitness Coach, a one day event like this is nothing to the man who did a non-stop 30 day event last November. Yes, those 30 days of not shaving his top lip took him to the limit of endurance.  

Richard King, our legal eagle just in case things go pear shaped and we need a super injunction.

Luke Gatehouse, carpet expert, what he doesn't know about piles is not worth knowing. Should be handy after the event.

Louis Garner, design guru - our bikes will hardly need pedaling.

Phil Fry, Builder Extraordinaire. We won't be going short of strong sweet tea, copies of The Sun and hopefully spot some prime residential development opportunities en-route .

James King, the rest of us are banking on him giving us a push up the steeper hills. 

Me, Chris Scally, The Scribe providing long and factually challenging reports aplenty - 

That's enough for now. Here's the link for the route...

  http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Watchet-Bridport

 

 

Chris