Day 2 - and yet more hills!

Hills, hills, more hills, monster hills, long drags, short vertical inclines. We had them all today. Believe everything you read about Cornwall and Devon. 64.9miles of hellish hills. Actually it’s not the steepness that gets to you - though that is bad enough. It’s the fact that they are relentless. There is practically no flat just up and down. You slog up a hill, whizz down, lose the height you just gained and slog up again. My sister Karen and her husband Michael travelled from London to show their support. They were a welcome sight with ten miles left to go. We left St. Austell at 8.40a.m. and arrived at Whiddon Down at 8p.m. (think that says it all!)

Julia

Day 2 - Conquered

Life is a rollercoaster!

Bloody Hell that was a long day! We set off from the Travelodge in St Austell just after 8:30 and arrived 65 miles later at the Travelodge at Whiddon Down at 20:00 :-0 Last night’s blog was entitled “on the first day god made….. hills”, well tonight’s blog should be called “and on the second day God made the Hills in Devon - cause he had got the hang of it by then and practiced and practiced….”

I really don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that we probably were on flat level ground for maybe 1 mile total today. Every type and size of hill was thoroughly thrown in our way and every time you had got up one you would go down a steep bank and do it all over again!

We stopped for Calipo’s in Liskeard, Ham and Cheese Baguettes for Lunch just outside Callington and a 99 in Tavistock. We rushed to get changed tonight so that we could feast in the adjacent Little Chef ;-)

It was great to see Karen and Michael who had driven out to support us all the way from London and I know there presence meant Julia kept pushing on to see them sooner.

I managed to plan a route that took in a ‘cycle path’ across the edge of Dartmoor - unfortunatly it turned into a stony track and meant a couple of very slow and bumpy miles - sorry Julia L

Day 2 was meant to be the toughest day of our journey and I hope that it was!

Please keep the donations coming in and please feel free to leave a comment for us to read tomorrow evening!

Martin

Hills

Hills

And more Hills!

What was the name of the blog again?

Day One: Hills and yet more hills.

Opened the curtains at Sunny Bank House to blue skies and sun. Fuelled by a full english we cycled the 1.5 miles to Lands End. After photos at the sign post we set off at around 10a.m. A Lovely ride into Penzance. We cycled along the coast towards St. Michael's Mount - tide out blue skies what a view. At 20miles we stopped in Hayle for a blueberry smoothie. How very pleasant. That's when the hills got nasty! up, down, hills, more hills, stopped for a late lunch at Scorrier. Refuelled we headed onwards towards Truro. Hills, steep hills, up, down, steeper hills, downhill into St. Austell - travelodge. 5.30p.m. costa and tiffin. 53 and a bit hilly miles ticked off. bit hillier than I expected. Thanks for donating today Belinda - It made the last ten miles a bit easier when I got the just-giving e-mail. Tomorrow is the hardest day of the whole route. Ten miles more and hillier! 

                                                                                                                                         Julia          

                                                                             

And in the beginning God made ....................... HILLS !

Well what a welcome to Cornwall, bright sunshine, friendly locals and lots of hills!

We got up, had breakfast and packed the panniers onto my bike and set off the 1 1/2 Miles to the Lands End 'Theme Park' - I have to say we perhaps saw it at its best, mostly closed! We took a few photos by the 'fake' sign and waited for the official photographer with his 'official' sign (probably a wise move as we actually wanted a nice/well taken photo to make the start of our challenge.

There were a few others about all doing Lejog's and one group who stayed at the same B&B as us are expecting to finish on the same day as us but are taking a completely different route - Race On ;-)

The first 10 miles were pretty uneventful and we were soon rewarded with fantastic views across to St Michaels Mount. We turned inland from there and then the hills started in ernest!

Stopped for a lovely strawberry smoothy in Hayle and pressed onwards through Cornwalls finest (their words not mine) towns until we stopped for lunch in Scorrier. Onwards and invariably upwards through Truro and onto what was admittedly the welcome sight of the St Austell Travelodge!

Evening meal in a local pub followed by free wifi in McDonalds!

Today in stats...
53.4 miles
37.2 mph Max Speed
4625ft Ascent*

*see conclusions below

Top 5 Conclusions from today?

1. Cornwall is Hilly.
2. Either Bikeroutetoaster, Julia Garmin or my Satmap are liars - 1000ft difference in expected height to be climbed and height actually climbed.
3. Even with a Satmap gps I can still send us the wrong way!
4. Lands End to John O'Groats is quite a long way!
5. Did I mention that Cornwall is Hilly?

Martin

The 'Official' Sign

The Starting Line

St Michaels Mount

Bye Lands End!

The night before....

All packed and ready to go. Sunny Bank House B&B Sennen 1.5miles from the start. Was feeling very nervous early on today - probably because we were passing places we were going to cycle back to in three days time! Now I’ve packed my panniers and laid out my kit  for the morning I feel ok. Excited and ready to go.

If you are following this blog please leave a comment, I’m sure we will need some support over the next couple of weeks and if you haven’t done so already please consider donating by clicking on the just giving link.

                                                                                                Thanks Julia

Sunny Bank Hotel, Sennen

Its the final countdown - duh duh duh der, duh duh duh der der........

Well all the preparation, planning (and worrying) are over and we are about to begin our journey. We picked up the van from Stoke last night before one final run at the club, loaded up the bikes and panniers and set off at 8:00 this morning. We had a good run down and made it in 5 ½ Hours (including the obligatory Starbucks break).

We unloaded he van at the Sunny Bank Hotel, in Sennen. We drove onto Lands End to see what awaited us in the morning and then back to Penzance via Sennen Cove. We dropped the van off at the car return behind the train station - it worked out cheaper to hire the van and pay £45 quid for fuel than it would have been to have caught the train! Nevermind the relative ease! 

Wandered around Penzance for about an hour - tested the quality of the Cornish Costa - not a patch on Uttoxeter ;-)

Caught the bus back to Sennen and have just been to the restaurant up the road for dinner - An early-ish start in the morning so just repacking the bags and going to bed ready for the off........................

FINAL ATHLETE PREPARATIONS......

Final recovery

Carbo - loading

Martin

One week to go- now counting down in days!

The last few weeks have rushed past in a blur of training, fund raising and life in general. It seemed weeks away and now its all scarily close. I feel a strange mixture of fear and excitement bubbling up inside me and at the moment fear has definitely got the upper hand. The last couple of weeks have been pretty stressful. Dad started off with a seemingly innocuous eye infection that ended with a 4hr visit to A and E, followed by a day at the eye clinic and a emergency MIR Scan, then a five day wait to see if Dad's cancer had come back. Thankfully all is well, no tumour just a badly behaved tear gland. Panic over.


Problem of the moment. Who is going to look after Smudge, Laura's house rabbit? The kids are now going on holiday for the first week of Lejog. Any offers? He is a very cute little bunny - with a sideline in chewing holes in jumpers!

Julia

1 Week and Counting...........

Well doesn't time fly when your preparing to cycle the length of the country??? In just 1 week we will be travelling down to Lands End in the hired van, with the bikes, two panniers (packed with far too much stuff...) and no doubt quite a few butterfly's!

Julia's training has gone really well whereas mine has been a tad sporadic (don't tell her but she has amazed me how dedicated she's been doing her training - well over two thousand miles since January)

The bikes went in to be serviced last week and Julia's came back all shiny with lots of new parts, mine however came back as it was with just a new chain and an annoying double creak from the bottom bracket. Hmmm back to the shop for it next Monday!

Just in the process of finishing off the magic book with our route, accommodation and lists of bike shops etc. Everything else is pretty much ready to go, Route, Accommodation and Transport SHOULD all be sorted, all we need now are the weather gods to be kind and give us lots of lovely sunshine and a tale-wind from the 30th July to 12th August!

Martin