The Ride Day 2

We were warned that today would be another toughie. 'Grippy' is the expression used by the excellent Andy Cook at the nightly briefings. He is the person responsible for devising the route. Didn't take us long to work out how that translated to normal, non-cycling English.

I've come across various versions of this briefing euphemism on previous cycling trips. The best one, and most deceitful, was 'a little bit up, a little bit down' spoken by the leader of a Mountain biking trip in Nepal 12 years ago. Use your imagination...

I think an ability to lie brazenly with a smile on your face is on some templated job description for adventure guides.

We all know they mean one thing only. The road will go up, then keep going up, then go up a lot... and then it will get horribly steep so that even you will doubt your sanity, something your family and friends knew you lost years ago.

I need only say that today was indeed grippy.

We were spared the most severe aspects of Dartmoor before dropping down to the valley road leading to Tiverton. Really beautiful countryside here and a pretty well perfect cycling day.

The main challenge came when we climbed over the Quantock Hills. Super grippy that one.

But after that it felt we were playing at home. The Somerset Levels, climbing Cheddar Gorge (one disappointed rider was reported as saying after getting to the top which brings you right to the top of the Mendip Hills 'I assumed when I heard it was a gorge we'd be riding along a river valley!')

Then on up to Bath where we have the luxury of a bed for the only night of the ride.

I was of course looking forward to my welcome committee knowing that Helen, Ali (Sam's wife) and Monty (my biggest fan ) were going to be there. Spurred on I rode like the (tail)wind.

I did pretty well - too well in some respects as I got to the finish shortly before them! I resisted the suggestion of riding back up the hill to get the true hero's welcome that was intended!

A real bed tonight - it will be hard crawling back into a tent tomorrow. And I suspect this great weather can't travel with us all the way to Scotland...