We were both slightly dreading today! I think we'd both imagined that as the ride went on things would get easier; our legs would get stronger, we'd get accustomed to the early starts, the pace and the mileage. But the last couple of days, despite being short in terms of mileage, had really taken it out of us and it felt that our task was getting harder with each stage! I really struggled to get up at 5.30am this morning and had to drag myself out of bed for my giant muesli bowl and cup of tea! We got going at 6.49am, dressed today in bib shorts, cycle top, and rain jacket. It wasn't yet raining but was very foggy so the air was quite damp and cold. Not long having set off from the campsite we were whizzing down a hill when Pete hit a huge pot hole and both water bottles on the back of his bike flew out and hit the ground. One had smashed at the lid and lost some of the drink. The impact had also broken the bottle cage! It was just about able to hold he bottle so we put it back on and carried on, intending to find a bike shop en route to get a new bottle and cage. The first few miles down through Blackburn and towards Bolton were vey slow going. I for one was really feeling knackered from the start, and the terrain was very hilly, forcing us to constantly climb small but steep gradients. We just couldn't get a good pace going and our average speed was sitting at around 12.6mph. We were getting a bit worried as we had 92 miles to cover, and at that pace we'd be spending 8 hours in the saddle, not including breaks. Fortunately after our first break at 22miles things got much better. The ground evened out and the hills became more like gradual inclines so that we could climb them at a good pace and get some good strong speeds up along the flats and downhills. Our average started climbing and we got some good fast miles under our belt. The days route took us through a series of town centres and at each one the satnav kept sending us the wrong way round roundabouts and the wrong way down one way streets!! Needless to say there was a lot of pavement cycling and going through pedestrian precincts!! Luckily beig early on a Sunday morning there wasn't anyone around, and certainly no policemen to be seen!! :o) Coming out of Warrington we struck the A49 which was to take us right down to near the campsite. Passing through Cheshire things got a bit more scenic as we got out from all the built up town centres and into the countryside. It was still a nice cool temperature so we were able to ride feeling quite refreshed. As the ride went on we made sure to stop at more regular intervals to keep up our energy levels. Approaching our 60mile break we suddenly had a fighter jet flying right over us. It kept on banking round and doing flyovers with barrel rolls! We could see the bright orange glow from the burners as it banked round, and the white vapour streaming off the wings. We stopped and watched this amazing sight. It had such an immense sound especially when it's burners were facing us! At one point we both waved as it came over for another flyover and it did another barrel roll for us before turning and heading for home! After this entertaining pit stop we carried on in high spirits knowing we now had just over 30 miles to do and our pace was good. At Whitchurch we stopped and phoned our 'support team' to see if they'd be passing us anytime soon! It was getting quite warm now and we were hoping they might relieve us of our rain jackets! We were amazed they hadn't already overtaken us! Apparently they were just approaching Whitchurch so we carried on cycling fully expecting them to pass us at any minute. We had 16 miles to cover to Church Farm campsite and we made it in under an hour, arriving just as they had!! As if on cue the rain started as soon as we'd arrived! We had a quick rush to get the camp set up so we could relax in the dry and have sandwiches, muffins and tea!
Our dreaded day had turned out really well and given us a much needed psycological boost. We had really picked up our speed during the course of the day so that our finishing average was 15.2mph and our total time cycling was under 6 hours. The total mileage clocked in at 92.1 miles. My legs felt much better today and thanks to Pete jiggling with my gears the night before, they worked flawlessly making me a much happier bunny!! Tomorrow we have a slightly shorter day of around 88 miles taking us down to Cambridge in Gloucester by the River Severn. Hopefully we might actually manage to pick up a new water bottle and cage too!
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