http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4657243
Before everyone gets excited I will start by pointing out that this post is still about cycling and not the classic 1962 war film. Hopefully it will be as entertaining but with fewer Nazis. It will certainly contain fewer pictures as I forgot to take many today.
I now need to take the time to make some apologies for the content of some of my earlier Blog posts (day 0 and day 3 respectively):
i) In yesterday's blog I may have suggested the hotel restaurant would be overpriced and below average food wise. A rain shower meant we did dine there and it was both good value and delicious.
ii) On day 0 I mentioned a cycling magazine and its banal list of tips for carrying out a long ride. I don't quite recall but one of the tips was surely "if it is raining wear your waterproof gear." More on that one anon.
A bit of a lie in today with a palindromic 7:37 alarm call before an 8:00 breakfast. This was the earliest the hotel could do which was a bit irritating as an early start would have been ideal ahead of this long day's ride.
We got off to a flying start this morning having made it to the end of the hotel drive way before spotting that Clare had a flat tyre. Back to the bus for a new inner tube, which we then pinched with a tyre lever and destroyed, then another tube which worked and we were on the way. If you ever wanted to know how many engineers it takes to change a bike tyre the answer is three......
The other good news at the start of the day was it was raining. Quite a lot. As the forecast showed it was supposed to stop quite soon I did not bother to break out my wet weather gear. What a mistake to make. The first 30 miles were pretty miserable until our first stop at the Telford equivalent of Cambourne Morissons for a muffin and coffee. It was here I discovered that hand driers are at an ideal height for drying your undercarriage / gentleman's area. It was also when the rain stopped and the sun came out.
Despite the rain we made quite good progress throughout the morning until our lunch stop at around 13:30. Again more or less at lunch time and for the first time on the trip we had lunch inside, this facilitated another visit to a hand drier, this time not because my shorts were wet but because I quite liked it the first time.
The afternoon took in a number of delightful Northern Towns such as Wigan and Warrington, we were running a bit late to visit Matt Griffiths at work which was a shame mainly as he had promised us coffee (and it would have been good to see him!). Instead here is a picture of a sign with a rude word in it.
You know you have been cycling for too many days when one of your team mates comes out with a line like "only 30 miles to go," as if it is nothing. And you nod in agreement. Said 30 miles could best be described as 'dragging on a bit' so it was with great delight that we arrived at the Preston Premier Inn where tour manager Carl was waiting with hot pizza by the van, it was good.
I had a bit of an odd experience during today's expedition in that I saw a taxi drive behave in a considerate way to us cyclists, not something that happens every day. I am not saying that all taxi drivers are w&nkers to cyclists but they are certainly over represented in the group of motorists that are.......
Tomorrow we head for Carlisle and is our last day in England........
114 miles makes today the longest stage of the LeJog ride.
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