Day 6 - Kendal Middlewich

Yet again we awoke to a glorious morning, who says this UK weather is bad? There were also two new arrivals overnight - Benjy & Des. Des elected to ride with Froomey and Wiggo (Breaking News: the real reason Wiggo's pulled out of The Tour is that he's knackered himself out doing this!), while Benjy went team A.

 

There were two routes on offer today. One was flat, direct but busier roads and the other country lanes with hills. Team Froomey and Wiggo went for the former as did Tommy and Dayo. Team A with new recruit Benjy went for the scenic country lanes. With all set we were ready to go.   

 



Team A had the first of their mechanical issues for the day. Waltdog's Cosmic wheels had given him some more cause for concern by catching a gentle breeze and keeling over in the carpark. The result was serious damage to his rather tasty automatic gears. 5 miles on and they conked out. Bike shop needed and luckily we were near one in Lancaster. The OUTSTANDING The Edge Cycle Works. Three of the most helpful lads you could find.

 

  They were quickly on the case under the watchful eye of the Waltdog. After half an hour of emergency procedures it was fixed and off we toddled.

Just through Carnforth a big St Georges Cross flag stopped us in our tracks. It was Brenda Cordingly who had very kindly popped out to say hello with some much appreciated lucozades and chilled Mars Bars. Tommy and Dayo were just behind. Nice to get an action shots of them both. Tommy Snr was really chewing the road up.

 Back up into the hills for Team A and they were really beginning to hurt, but did give us some amazing views. The pictures don't really do them justice. The toll was causing Team A concern though, were they handing the yellow jersey back to Team Froomey & Wiggo?

 

 

 

Lunch in Preston was sorely needed. The aptly named Walton Fox looked perfect. Good to hook up with Nobby and his gorgeous daughter Mia. She had us all wrapped around her little finger (sorry picture not attached Mia, we will try and get in in for tomorrows edition).

 

 

 

Shortly after lunch Team A and Team Froomey & Wiggo ran into each other again on the other side of Wigan. The biggest concern was why Des had decided to ride with his helmet on backwards for 50 miles. Lots of laughs and he soon managed to figure it out!



 

 

Then it was the big race home between the two teams. Different routes, buckled wheels and missing team members all made it a thrilling finish. Team Froomey and Wiggo prevailed and take the yellow jersey into day 7 (a rookie win for Des too). Another cracking day from the gift that just keeps giving. Off for more curry, night everyone and again to our families we are missing you all.

 

 

 

Day 5 Lockerbie to Kendall

We had the best night’s sleep of the trip so far at the Ravenshill Hotel in Lockerbie, probably something to do with the gargantuan dinner’s we’d all eaten last night.  It has to be said that the breakfast lived up to expectations as well.  Happy Days.  A short one today, only 75 miles to bank, and by 9am most us were on the road after the usual  45 minutes of general faffing, drink making, bike cleaning and chamois application.

We left Lockerbie and carried on the B7078 southbound, through Ecclefechan (try saying that with a few drinks inside you..) and on to Gretna Green and the English Border, where the road quality improved.

 

 

 

 

From Gretna we made our way down towards Carlisle and filtered through the traffic jams and out the other side heading towards Penrith where David and Tommy  Snr enjoyed the 22 degree temperatures and caught some rays over a café lunch.  The A Team + Froomey and Wiggo had a pub lunch in the Lowthern Arms and enjoyed a refreshing blast of cold air when they let us store the bikes in the cellar.

 

The afternoon session was always going to be tough, we had Shap to climb and a few dreams were shattered when we climbed up and through to Shap Village only to be faced with the actual peak some miles ahead, and further climbing required – what a climb, but oh what a downhill on the other side.  Waltdog, CJ and Hamish hitting over 42mph on the 10% decline, it was epic.

 

 

Kendal looked gorgeous as we cycled through it, lots of folks enjoying the sunshine on the river banks and in the beer gardens, and as usual the Travel Lodge that we’d booked was on the far side of town so we bashed out the last three miles down the  busy A591 dual carriageway where we had the nice bonus of Sammy’s folks waiting to cheers us over the finish line!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job done.  Time for baths, beers, dinner and bed.  Night all.

 

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Day 4 - Dumbarton to Lockerbie

Another 95 miler today, we kicked off with a Dumbarton Travlelodge breakfeast box special, porridge, cornflakes, oj, pain au chocolate and a muffin - not too bad, but clearly the lads were missing the full scottish, and this must have had some effect. 

 

 

Tom and Sammy rode off into the Glasgow rush hour singing "You can stick your f***ing Garmin up your a***" with no maps, no navigation and only a tip from a taxi driver to see them straight through the centre of Scotlands busiest city, via Govan, no stops for them nor any pictures taken for fear of getting mugged, although looking at the size of our two lads we wondered who'd be mugging who.

The rest of us, spread out a bit, and took a more sensible route over the Ersikine Bridge on the A726, past Glasgow Airport, then climbing up through Paisley, and East Kilbride, and then shooting down hill to Strathhaven.  It was on that down hill that Andy, CJ and Hamish were flagged down by a van driver who insisted on inviting us into his bookmakers shop for a coffee, naturally we accepted. 

The driver turned out to be ex pro cyclist and cycling fanatic Norrie Drummond http://glenmarnockwheelers.co.uk , not only did he serve some great coffee's he also gave us a history lesson on cycling and racing and shared some stories of his own and from his famous friends including Wiggo, Eddy Mercx, Gino Barteli, Sean Kelly and David Millar - we were in great company!  Caffeine on baord, we batted on happy.

 

 

The quality of the road surfaces was mixed, ranging from downright shockingly boneshaking to super quality carpert.  We certinaly took more than our fair share of the rough today.

Lunch stop: Lesmahagow and Colin's van filled to the brim the pork pies, m&s sandwiches and monster munch, perfect! 

Bellies full we cycled 30 or so miles on down to Moffat, what a lovely village, where we enjoyed tea's, coffee's and ham and cheese toasties with Colin in the Black Bull.  David and Big Tommy arrived a few minutes later and ordered quite possibly the largest hummingbird cake ever seen.

The final 15 miles were wind assisted and downhill towards Lockerbie, and boy did we enjoy it.  The A Team (sponsored by Garmin) absolulty gunned it, heads down, in formation and balls to the wall, they arrived an hour up on Froomey and Wiggo & David and Tommy. It was only fitting to pay our respects at the garden of remembrance where the names and nationalities of all the Lockerbie victims along with individual funeral stones and memorials, a humbling and peacefull place.

The final stop was the RavensHill Hotel, with the sun still shining we relaxed with a drink in the beer garden, before enjoying a cracking dinner, many of the lads doubling up on smoked salmon starters. 10 out of 10 to the chef.

All in all, job done, 95 miles banked, good night and god bless.

Tip of the Day: Norrie Drummond, ride through the bonk and you'll lose a stone in weight. 

Tip of the Day#2: Norrie Drummond: Best post ride recovery meal, Smolked Salmon.

Comment of the day: Sammy D, that B7076 was like riding 50 miles across Brighton Beach, if I ever see that combination of numbers again I'm going to kill somebody.

Quote of day: Andy Walton to Lady we met at Moffat petrol station who was entering a triathlon the next week and was asking about a fitting for biclyle pump, Andy's respone "Do you need a pump now?"

Lack of investment road surfaces: Alex Salmond.