The Epic Cycle Ride

17th September

“Heya. We made it to Bristol last night, stayed in the youth hostel. Had to stay this mroning to get Jack’s bike fixed. All looking forward to finishing and getting home. Any news about the knee?”

Today’s message - no idea what happened to Jack’s bike but I guess it will come out in time. In answer to Helen’s question, it’s still niggling so the already-distant idea of rejoining the ride is a certain no.

15th September

“96 miles yesterday, 85 today. We’re just south of Shrewsbury. Sorry for lack of news, phone’s running out of battery. Hope all’s well your end. The pedals are still turning but the saddle sores are getting v. painful! Will try and recharge phone and keep you posted. Sorry you can’t make it.”

Took me a couple of days to get this up, for which I apologise!

13th September

“Yesterday was rubbish, 10mph downhill into wind and rain for 55 miles. Today better, dry and not windy. Rob’s handlebars now fixed with BMX handlebars! Carlisle is a dump, but we’ve done 80 miles to Dalston.”

Out for the Count

I’m on a train from London as I write this - I’ll type it up when I get home.

From that sentence, two facts should be evident - firstly, I am writing with the olde school pen-and-paper method. The second and more important fact is that I have failed to complete the John O’Groats to Land’s End cycle ride, and the others continue without me. Those of you who followed this blog will know that I was having trouble with my knee, and yesterday I was forced to concede that I was hardly likely to be able to finish the 600-mile remainder of the ride if I couldn’t even finish the 70-mile day.

As such, here I am spending another day on the rail network, albeit an despondent one as opposed to the excited one of yesteryear. This morning I was actually very low indeed, but 11 hours of trains has blunted the rawness.  I’ve hadtime to go through the ‘what ifs’ and all that rubbish, and I realised that I failed due to circumstances about which I could do nothing (save in retrospect). It’s still an enormous disappointment, but at least my muscles were still easily capable, my bike in good condition, my willpower still firing on all cylinders. It is simply of huge regret to me that I won’t enjoy the rest of the ride, the camarderie, the sights and sounds and stories. I was loving it, laughing and groaning with the rest of them, and it was wonderful. To the team, I say thanks for the memories.

As for the ride…well. I’ve got plenty of holiday next year, and plenty of pent-up cycling waiting to be unleashed. I’ll ‘ave you, I will!

11th September

Bit more doom and gloom:  Callan is having to drop out.  Possibly permanently, but he may be able to rejoin later on at Bristol or similar.  I presume the others are all fine- no idea if I’ll still be recieving updates or not!

10th September

“Made it to Saltcoats today in a day filled with rain, wind and ferries.  Tom the Machine cycled an extra 8 miles after he missed the pub we were stopped in and then skipped the town we were due to camp in.  Legend.  My knee is in a bad way- took the last 15 miles of today on the train as I couldn’t cycle.  I will probably have to take the train ahead and take some days off with a knee support, and hope I recover enough to rejoin the ride  further down.  Very disappointed, especially as the rest of me is in perfect health!  Campsite is a ‘holiday park’ and is dire.  Would be the worst holidays ever.  We got a good spot amongst the mobile homes, next to both the toilets and a train line for coal freight trains.  Luckily, it’s not anywhere near flat so we wouldn’t sleep anyway.  Life would be good if not for knees.  My path will divert from the others for a time so not sure of the updates, but we’ll see how it goes.”

Claire:  I’ve told Callan to pass my number on to one of the others so that I can keep up with the updates.  Also, Mike and Thea, if you’re reading this- I’ve told Callan to try to go to Minor Injuries to get his knee looked at, cos it doesn’t sound good.

Alive…10th September

“Made it to Dunoon where we are catching a ferry to Gourock.  Got up at 6 this morning but it was raining so we went back to sleep.  Still were on the road by 8 and managed to stay largely dry.  Knee is slightly dodgy but currently holding.  Not optimistic just yet though.”

8th September: Doom and Gloom

“My knee gave way on a long hill climb and then seized up during lunch, meaning that I couldn’t really cycle anymore.  We phoned the glamourous Claire [Ed:  Haha.  Priceless.] and located a youth hostel with her internet in Inveraray, which is where we had lunch.  We’re going to rest up for a day and see how it goes from there, but needless to say it’s a pretty major setback.  It’s disappointing.  Very.  Seeing as there was already major despondency about the rain, the midges and the bites - Tom looks like he’s got chicken pox, he got so  badly bitten - things aren’t looking good.  Rob claimed the midges didn’t bite, but he was wrong.  Got us out of the campsite quickly though.  Last night I was snoring, and Jack inadvertantly reached over and thumped Helen instead.  Wasn’t conscious but sounds very funny.  Pretty mixed feelings today, overall, not a good one.”

Claire:  To be fair, when I spoke to them on the phone they were giggling, but it was sort of a ‘laugh-or-cry’ type giggle.  Poor things.  Sympathy etc.  I’ll resist the urge to say that I told them they were crazy….

7th September

“Good day.  Left the highlands at Fort William after doing the remainder of the Great Glen from Fort Augustus.  Stopped to snack and sleep in the sun at Fort William, best lunch so far.  My knee was pretty crap in the morning but it cleared up and there is general soreness about the group!  Rob is especially sore as he tried to vault a fence yesterday and landed flat on his face, and this morning the verge gave way under him leaving him in a 1.5m deep pit with his bike ontop of him.  Collective amazement at his lack of injury.  We are now in Barclidine for the night, before hitting a longer day tomorrow.”

The last few days

Apologies for the delay!

4^th September:

“We are alive! Showers are beyond amazing, weather is unreliable by the half-hour and there is a Lidl not 50m away. Hmm.”

Later…

“We have arrived at the start…so far all is well. Rain has started so we’re on our way. Leaving at 12:50.”

5th September:

“Our home for the evening, Dunbeath. Spent today dodging rainstorms (they were never out of sight), occasionally failing. Everyone was sodden. Lots of long slow uphills (miles of them).  Tough but manageable and we’re going to need to do a lot more in the coming days.  Almost died of hypothermia, but sheltered in Tesco’s and it was okay. Sat under the dryers in the toilets to warm up!  Last night cold but okay. Pasta and tomato sauce tonight. Rob’s bike was trying to eat his panniers but all fixed now.”

6th September:

“Very long day today, 80 miles from Dornoch to Fort Augustus past Loch Ness.  Many knee/wrist/back/bum complaints! Campsite we arrived at around half 7 doesn’t take groups but the lady on reception took pity on us and let us in! Some fantastic downhill today, and good weather with the wind. Pub lunch excellent. Bacon breakfast took a long time as stove wouldn’t get hot enough to fry properly!”