-The Last Post ?

I am writing this from the comfort of my own home and it feels good to be back on a sofa instead of a saddle.  Sofas aside it is also good to have a decent reliable broadband connection, 20 years ago who knew that would become a basic human need.  It was an early start today which even meant missing breakfast (sorry breakfast detail fans) with the team all meeting outside the hotel at for an 07:00 departure.  Everyone looked a bit confused, but not entirely upset that there would be no cycling today, a sentiment that would later turn out not to be entirely accurate.

 

Next onto the minibus for the one hour drive to Inverness airport.  The stench of the minibus aside, or more accurately the stench of the used cycling kit / used cyclists on the minibus aside, it was a great journey with typically Scottish stunning views for almost the whole route.  Inverness airport is a remarkable place, it features a range of shops and eateries all of which are land side making them more or less zero use when waiting for a fog delayed flight.  Having said that the one air side bar did offer twin packs of Walker's shortbread for a bargain £1,80 per pack.  The same shortbread that was on offer for free in our hotel, should have taken some and offered it for a quid.

The extra £8 that I had paid to secure Easyjet speedy boarding and more importantly the exit row legroom seats delivered at least £10 of value.  Firstly speedy boarding enables you to get on the aircraft some 90 seconds before other passengers and secondly you can sit in the exit row, this is of vital importance to a man of my stature:

On arrival at Luton we said goodbye to many of the group who were 'lucky' enough to live closer to Luton that some of us.  A taxi took seven of us back to TTP (our sponsors) HQ where I had left Clare's car.  The drive back to Cambourne was delayed by heavy traffic, so we passed the time by shouting 'wimps' and 'how far did you go yesterday?' at any cyclists we saw.  The wimps.

During the journey home Dave received a text from his wife suggesting that the family all cycle to the Bourn beer festival that afternoon.  Not having much to do ourselves I suggested that Clare and I also walk down.  The problem with this was Clare was finding walking rather painful, her solution:

Admittedly the 3.6 mile round trip was not quite as challenging as some of the rides of the last few weeks but it did mean an 11th consecutive day in the saddle.  More impressive was the fact our mountain bikes just required a dab of oil and some air in the tyres and were good to go after what must have been a 3 year lay up.  Actually claiming the ride was not a challenge is to denigrate the return ride across fields which were by then pitch black not helped by our lights still being on our other bikes which were still in Scotland!

Bourn beer festival was fantastic as always, but even better than the beer was seeing Clare smile for what felt like the first time in ten days.  Although now I think of it there were a few other smiles, usually when she was in a remarkably similar post to the one above, e.g. beer in hand.

Not quite my final blog post in the series, I still have a bit more to write about LeJog, training and the final push to hit 1000 miles this month!

I know most of you have but just if you haven't how about visiting:

www.justgiving.com/bigbensbike

With donations from colleagues and in cash I am very close to my fundraising target.