The "Are we nearly there yet?" Tour 2011: As John Noakes might have said “Get Down Shap!”

After yesterday’s long day we were faced with a little jaunt mainly along the A6 through such illustrious places as Garstang, Lancaster, Bolton Le Sands (now there's exotic), Carnforth, Kendal (missed out on the infamous mint cake), Shap and into Penrith.

We left Preston just after 9am and fairly scooted along. I had decided to leave Preston wearing the waterproof overshoes I hadn’t worn when it rained yesterday. I put the rest of my wet weather stuff on when we first stopped at Garstang Sainsburys for some mid morning refreshments, as it was very grey and had started to rain. HA I wasn’t going to get caught out again. Needless to say 10 minutes later the sun came out and faced with stopping or continuing to ride along looking like Bibendium I chose to carry on and quietly melt due to stubbornness!

The next 10 miles saw us go through Lancaster which was a surprisingly attractive looking town - the view of the University from the M6 really doesn’t do it justice. Bolton Le Sands came and went with a glimpse of some sand over to our left and next stop was a late morning snack from the Tescos at Carnforth (See as the BBC says ‘Other supermarkets are available’).

A 5 minute stretch on the A591 Dual Carriageway saw us retreat to the quiet side roads before we dropped down and into Kendal. A sit down and a Pint of coke later we went through Kendal before attempting the infamous SHAP. (Shap is infamous to those other idiots doing LEJOG’s or JOGLE’s because it’s one BIG climb in the Middle of virtually everyone’s route and it climbs up to 1400 ft and lasts about 5 miles!)

We had seen a few others today doing LEJOG’s or JOGLE’s and we were passed by a Scottish bloke on a road bike with a little rack bag going hell for leather at the start of the climb. He got round the corner and got off! We tootled past him with a cheery wave and found out he had set off the same day as us. Then it became a game of cat and mouse or rather tortoise and hare! The Tortoise’s won! We reached the summit and then enjoyed the well deserved downhill through Shap and onto Penrith.

First Half Summary

34515 ft of Ascent climbed

8451 ft Max Ascent climbed in one day

485.8 Miles Cycled in 7 days

47 Hours 58 Minutes Moving Time cycling

37.2 MPH Top Speed Reached before I chickened out

9 Relatives or friends met on route

5 Bottles of Lucozade drunk

4 Bags of Harribo’s Eaten

1 Scottish Cyclist overtaken ;-)

Martin