The Ride Day 5

As I sit here in the warmth of the catering tent it is hard to accept or describe the scene outside. Imagine the love child of Glastonbury and a Somme battlefield and you will not be far out.

We were warned last night that today's base camp at Penrith had been flooded and to prepare ourselves for a challenging night. The Deloitte RAB crew have done an excellent job of mitigating the inevitable discomfort but you can't drain a swamp overnight.

The drying room is full to overbrimming and is an Aladdin's cave of posh but fetid hanging Lycra and cycle shoes. I don't quite get the logic of the 90 per cent of riders who have deposited their shoes there. Do they think the site will be bone dry tomorrow? Their shoes will be saturated again by the time they have walked to their bikes for sure, and they will have a matching pair of muddy non-cycling shoes as well.

My cunning plan (and there is so much about tonight's site that smacks of an episode of Blackadder) was to keep wearing my sodden cycling shoes but inside them to have layers of socks, survival foil and a freezer bag. This way I keep my ordinary shoes dry. OK the penalty is trench foot but you can't have everything,

Today's ride was ranked as the hardest day since Cornwall. We first has to negotiate the badlands of Wigan but did eventually make it to rural roads. All this in pretty torrential rain. I rode all today with Vicky the Demon Descender and we really attacked the first 30 miles making good time and keeping warm despite the soaking.

At one point Sarah Storey, the paraolympian cyclist who was fresh from her 4 gold medals, sped past us. I couldn't resist jumping on her wheel (a cycling expression meaning 'follow closely' rather than anything more literal!) and surprised myself by being able to stay in this exalted company for a reasonable time, OK she was on cruise control and i was eyeballs out with the effort but hey, she's younger than me,

It carried on raining but we were so lucky that our ascent of Shap Fell was in sunshine. The views were great but so was the effort needed both because of the gradient and the cold strong head wind all the way up. This continued all the way to Penrith. I have never had to put so much effort into riding downhill.

But I feel I am getting stronger each day and although extremely tired the thought I have now ridden over 500 miles and my fundraising today reached £5,000 will spur me on tomorrow into Scotland as will the thought of seeing my sister Lisa and her partner Colin tomorrow night at Hamilton, near Glasgow.

The Ride Day 4

Things didn't exactly get off to a great start for me today. Riding 106 miles on 2 hours sleep is not in the training manual and I confess to feeling a little miserable when dawn broke and it was time to do it all again.

I did start to buck up over my rather late breakfast. It's not every day that an Olympic gold medalist sits down at your table and starts chatting over a full English breakfast.

Rebecca Romero is a very unique athlete. An Olympic silver medallist and World Champion in the sport of rowing, Rebecca took up cycling with the aim of achieving the same elite standard. In a rapid rise through the ranks in track cycling she shattered British records and became double World Champion and Olympic Champion all within two and a half years in the sport. This made her the first British athlete and only the second woman in history to medal in two different sports.

Meantime, unknown to either of us and completely by chance our bikes were getting close up and personal as I discovered when I went to collect mine. There was no mistaking her state of the art time trial machine there in the racking the very next one to mine.

We started with a climb over the Shropshire hills before dropping down and on to the Cheshire plains. It should have been the easiest day but we were greeted by a very cold headwind which made life somewhat more uncomfortable. I started gently but by the second feed station was feeling back to normal, rolling in to Base Camp at Haydock Racecourse with a large group. Fantastic to see the 2 downhill skier paralympians riding hand cycles with us today. How hard must that be?

Our briefing this evening was brimming with Olympians and Para Olympians all encouraging and motivating us.

To be precise, James Cracknell, Sarah Storey and Barney Storey.

Tomorrow we cross Shap Fell en route to Penrith. Time for bed!

The Ride Day 3

After the ups, the more ups and downs of the last 2 days, Day 3 promised some respite.

We waved a sad farewell to the only bed we'd see for a week and hurtled down the steep hill into Bath. Very soon though it was more of the same with a very long draggy climb out of Bath to Marshfield. Lots of tired legs this morning but spirits were still high.

We've been told to expect a dip at about day 5. What was actually said was we start out as kids - full of enthusiasm and raring to go. Then by day 4 or 5 we reach the adolescent stage. Grumpy, difficult to reason with and hard to get out of 'bed'. Oh, with the odd hissy fit thrown in.

By Day 6 we are almost fully fledged RABbers. Sensible, philosophical and caring of the welfare of others. Day 7 often sees a return to adolescence apparently - not least as its the longest day at 127 miles... But only by Day 8 and especially Day 9 do we come of age, over 500 people of very different character, background and levels of fitness who have shared a rather unusual experience. We'll see and I'll keep you posted. I certainly don't need any motivation to keep going. The donations to the SKF are still coming in. Thanks so much to those who have given on line since I started riding.

We crossed the Severn Bridge and our first food/water stop was at Chepstow. Still on my home training ground here. I decided to take it easy on the climb up to the Forest of Dean. So often with Steve, Patrick and most definitely with demon climber Neil we put the hammer down on this 6 mile climb. It has been a while since I was able to admire the scenery and it was most enjoyable lads!

At the second stop it was raining for the first time on the ride but Vicky and I decided to press on and it stopped after about 20 mins. The last 30 miles to our camp at Ludlow racecourse were excellent with quiet, well surfaced sweeping roads we positively swooped along. A bit of a contrast with what we'd had before as I omitted to mention the 'off road' section.

Marco (my Italian frame builder - not only Brad Wiggins who can say that!) if you're reading this, and in one very material sense I know you're not as your only words of English when we met were 'Is good?") I am truly sorry. Nothing that beautiful should ever have to be ridden over that 8 miles or so of poorly surfaced track. It wasn't so much the potholes which with care could be navigated around. It was more the sandy sections laced with gravel which would fly like shrapnel against the frame. I wasn't planning on a re-spray quite this soon!

Actually it was fine and the views of the river Wye made up for everything.

We had a mixture of response from car drivers on this first working day of the trip. One not so gentleman leaned out of his window and told Vicky "I hope you get knocked off your bike, it would be really funny". Another lady asked in her posh voice who she could complain to. I hasten to add that we were an extremely well mannered small group of only 8-10 on both occasions, riding in single file.

But there was also the friendly driver who stopped to let us cross a busy A road where we could otherwise have been stranded until rush hour ended.

The other highlight was coming home to my country seat, a castle no less. See photographic evidence below.

But tonight my pop up tent must be my castle and that's where I'm heading before I fall asleep in my blog

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...

The Ride Day 1

Hard to describe the sense of anticipation around last night. The camp itself looks like a cross between a rock festival and a refugee camp.

But that belies the reality. All is very well organised. The facilities include an enormous dining marquee, secure bike parking (guard on duty round the clock and you an only remove a bike bearing the same number as your wrist band.

Wi fi, hot showers, massages, information point, chill out area, free newspapers. Sounds good doesn't it. Only snag is that you have to cycle over 100 miles a day to benefit from all this!

We were woken at 5.30 by Freddy Mercury telling us in his irritatingly predictable way that he wants to ride his bicycle. So did I but only after a huge breakfast which was impressive even for me.

We were promised a fine sunny day so I was decked out with sunglasses. In fact within 5 mins of leaving at 7.00 am we were in a thick sea mist. Damp and misting my glasses which were not helping at all I rode the first 40 mins 'blind' and therefore with extreme caution.

Then the sun emerged an the pattern of the day established itself. Very steep climb on probably the hottest day of the summer, followed by very steep descent which failed to deliver sufficient momentum to get you more than 10 meters up the next steep climb. Repeat for 107 miles. Or a lot more if you were the young lady I was talking to at the evening meal tonight.

She explained she had entered alone and had only taken up cycling in April. She was petrified of descending having had a nasty accident on a bike as a child. She missed a sign and got lost today and went 20 hilly miles out of her way. She eventually got back on route but was well behind everyone else. She was advised to quit but wouldn't.

It was tough. I like climbing (my 9 stone weakling physique has one benefit in that it confers a pretty good 'power to weight' ratio') but this was as tough as any cyclosportive I have done and I found it tough. But at least it was over quite quickly for me. I finished about 3.30. I was still watching and applauding riders coming in at 7.15pm. That is a very long day in the saddle in these conditions and they gained huge respect for seeing it through.

Really great that 3 work colleagues Rachel, Katie and Clare interrupted their weekend break in Cornwall to drive an hour each way to Okehampton to cheer in myself and Vicky who used to work with us at Barcan Woodward and is riding with me.

More of same tomorrow it seems. Off to bed sorry make that bag on sleeping mat...

Stage 12

The day has come! Luxury team bus transfer to Lands End. I wonder if there is an option to stow away and travel this way to John o' Groats?

Amazing set up at base camp and fine weather here.

This is to prove I have started from Lands End. Very proud to wear this cycling top

Bring it on!

Stage 11

The big day is getting very close. I just have to hope that the somewhat limited time I had for training will be enough. I think I am going pretty well and on my last 100 mile sportive recently I actually posted my fastest time for a century ride - 6hrs 2 mins to be precise. I was gutted about those 2 mins I can tell you but then found I was still within Gold standard time when my OAP status was taken into account.

Anyway, too late to worry about that now as with only a few days to the off I have to be tapering. Essentially that means no major efforts, lots of rest and lots of eating. I have no problem with carbo loading certainly.

Recently my riding companions seem to have decided that their mission in life is to see me stuffed with cakes at our coffee stops. Steve, Patrick - I'll let you know if the force feeding strategy pays off or whether all the cash I spent on the new lightweight frame has been a complete waste thanks to you, offset by rider weight gain.

Had a last minute panic with a very squeaky rear wheel and decided it was going to drive me mad over 1000 miles. I got a new one which delayed me packing the bike to be transported to lands end. Then I had another panic when I realised the bike wouldn't fit into the bike box I had borrowed without being completely stripped down virtually to the last ball bearing!

I decided to revert to a very old bike bag that has not seeing active service since baggage handlers dropped it from a great height and trashed the bike inside but it'll be fine for this trip.

All packed and ready to go now though as can be seen from the before and after photos below.

My fundraising is really taking off now. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed and for the rest of you - it's not too late! Just click on the link to my Just Giving page alongside.