Day - 28/04/2011

Slept in till 7am and on the road by 8.30am. Both feeling much better strangely, hit our lunchtime watering hole having reached 50 miles so decided 3 pints of the amber nectar were in order to keep the body fluid levels up.

The weather has been fabulous and Mel now needs the ice cubes for his neck rather than his knees!

The final 30 miles to Gloucester through rolling countryside was rather beautiful.

Yes, we are finally beginning to enjoy it.........

Day 6 - 27/04/2011

We expected today to be a bit easier but with aches and pains early on, we soon realised that this was not the case. We made slow progress through Preston, Chorley and Leyland, eventually arriving at Whiston, where we met 5 nice people who bought us a round of drinks and donated £35 and gave us lots of encouragement.

For the next 30 mile, spirits were high and we made steady progress through to Whitechurch. Stopping at another watering hole, we collected another £10 and more encouragement. Arriving at Shrewsbury's hotel having done 9.5 hours in the saddle.

Day 5 26/04/11

We knew today was going to be hard as Scotland had taken its toll on us. We left Gretna fairly depleated, we both had aches and pains but most of them wore off, thankfully......

Our support team had gone to collect our hybrids hoping this would make a difference. We hoped to have them by dinnertime before the Kirkstone Pass, unfortunately, we didn't. We headed for Windermere via the Kirkstone Pass of which we both conquered, only to realise later in the day that in reality it had conquered us.

We made steady progress and eventually made it to Garstang and watched the match!

Day 4 25/04/11

Today was expected to be easier as most of the Highlands were behind us. We had readjusted geoffs gears and Mel's Knees had been on Ice unfortunately they didn't hold up long but he pushed his way through the pain and struggled on. The ride started to go really well for the remainder of the morning and as we started to get hungry we found a nice little pub. Mel sat in the pub eating his lunch with 2 tesco bags full of ice on his swollen knees which seemed to work as he was off like a shot well for the first mile anyway. 97 miles later we arived at the next pub, shortly followed by the hotel.

Day 3 24/4/11

We knew today would be hard as we had to ride up and over Glencoe and with a few injuries we expected a long day. The view was fantastic as we climbed and climbed and climbed, we eventually reached the summit about 1250 feet. Then came the downhill along with the bloody wind again. Geoff had a gear problem that ended up with a snapped lever a few adjustments into a gear he could use for the remainder of the day and we were off again. 110 miles later we arrived at our hotel.

Day 2 23/04/11

The day started really well there had been some rain in the night but had brightened up nicely. we set off about 7.45am and we made good progress for the first 25 miles then came the head wind that stayed in our face for 75 miles. We were introduced to our first mountain range up, up, up and up we went with wind in our face. On the way down we reached speeds only up to about 30 mph as the wind just held us back. We have now started to pick up some injuries Mel's left knee has swollen and Geoff has a calf strain. WTF are we going to do now out came the pr spray and the ibuprofen. But we stiull enjoyed the views bring on tomorrow.

Day 1 -- 22/04/11

The day started with us both in high spirits that changed when we looked out the window at breakfast fog, high wind and a bit of drizzle. We started off at 7.15 am with a 25 mph head wind for about an hour and a half. The wind died down and we started to enjoy it until we came to the first of two soul destroyers but we managed to make it to the top, the down hill most enjoyable. Six hours later we made it to the B&B where our backup team were waiting with some cold beer kept cold with an ingenius idea frozen sweet corn fab.