Hi y'all... Well, made it, John O' Groats to Lands End in 9 days and last one was Penzance to Lands
End, i.e. 10 miles. Extremely lucky with the weather, only finally raining on me about 20 miles
north of Penzance, not bad for end of March. Scariest bit trying to get to Penzance from Barnstaple,
about 110 miles, dashing down the A30, which is almost as scary as being on a motorway. Had several
cop cars go by, kept expecting them to pull me over as it felt as if I really shouldn't have been
there !! Steepest bit, funnily enough wasn't Scotland or Cumbria but Devon / Cornwall, mainly
Porlock (1in4, chose easy option of 1in14 but for 4 miles!!!), then Lynton/Lynmouth. Didn't realise
you could bypass it, so went
in. Sign recommends cyclists get off and walk *down* the hill 'cos it's so steep. Cycled anyway but
had to get off and push up the other side out of the village.
6 punctures all between Glasgow (1st in the Clyde cycle tunnel for Gods sake!!) and Wigan, 4 on my
birthday (thanks God!) No other mechanical failures but chain was definitely tired, had to keep
flexing it across, rather than along the length to stop it from kinking and slipping. Not bad for a
25 year old racer with no maintenance or servicing beforehand. It's gonna get major attention now
though by way of thanks......
Deep and interesting thoughts from trip.....
1. It's just like life, got a beginning, an end and lots of variety and challenging bits in the
middle..... or (my personal favourite)
2. 'S a nice ride.
No doubt I'll become an end to end bore and post some more about this in the very near future ;-)
cheers,
Dave.