http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2287397
I will start out by saying that I have only once ridden more than 100 miles in a day. Sorry that is not true I have now done it twice. Problem is I have to do it again a good few times more in the coming days.
Today's ride started with a great plan to have a nice early breakfast before an early departure. Unfortunately the service in the hotel did not match our sense of urgency so we set off at about 8:30. We had a couple of guest riders today. Firstly we were joined by my 'brother from another mother' Christopher who was dropped off by his dad Uncle Peter. Here we are posing under a digger with Clare.
Christopher did his best to raise the spirits of the team throughout the day by repeatedly falling off his bike whenever he came to a stop. Luckily without too much injury!
Today was scarcely less hilly than yesterday but instead of lots of up and down there were a few very large climbs (3 Cat 4 climbs today) which were off set by lots of nice gentle descents. By the close of yesterday I had grown to hate downhill sections as they were inevitably followed closely by an uphill. Today it was not a problem and every actually seemed to be enjoying themselves.
One let down today was the county of Devon had not arranged a ticker tape parade to welcome home its favourite son (me). Unless we had taken a wrong turn at that point. Lunch was a couple of low cost steak pies from a one stop shop, we have proved really bad at planning where we stop and this needs work, today was fine because it is sunny but sitting on a grass bank in the rain would have been a bit sh*t. The following picture shows me and was taken on the grass bank where we ate lunch.
At Taunton we were joined by our next guest rider, Peter Simpson who I have known since shortly after moving to Cambourne. Pete moved down this way a few years ago and is friends with all the Cambourne riders so it was good to see him.
Much to the annoyance of my riding partners (sorry all) I made everyone stop whilst I took this final picture of the day, they were annoyed as it was really near the end and everyone just wanted to get there. Having said that I am sure they will see it was the right decision when they see the quality of this bad boy.
At the finish we were greeted by Nicole (Mrs Simpson), Uncle Peter and Sarah, who is Christopher's sister and another lifelong friend, it is really good to see so many different people today as frankly after just two days the others are getting right on my tits. Anyway enough on guest riders and the like, there is a beer in the bar with my name on it.
More LeJog blog tomorrow.
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