Day 13 - Lands End and The End...well nearly

Firstly, I will apologise again due the lateness of this blog, in Watergate Bay, Newquay we have had no mobile reception and I must admit after finishing Friday my mind was on family and alcohol and not updating the blog....so the combination of everything has meant I am now updating this in the comfort of my home!!! So here goes.....

On day 12 we managed to complete 84 miles in the torrential rain basically riding down the A30 as this was the most direct route to Lands End although awful in terms of safety...not really recommended as a cycle route, but when needs must!!

We awoke this morning in our luxury holiday accommodation in Watergate Bay (The Beachcombers accommodation), my wife and kids and Steve's wife had been there since Tuesday so things were already setup and organised for us when we arrived Thursday night. We went to the The Phoenix restaurant on Thursday evening, defintely recommended, they have fantastic food and a good selection of beers (local and other)....I cant wait to read back over these blogs as I get the feeling it may have become more of a pubs\beer guide of the UK rather than a cycle challenge!!! We only had 27 miles to cover today and we decided to take it a bit easier this morning and not set off in the van to Redruth (our stopping point of yesterday) until about 8:15 this allowed me to have a family breakfast which was great. Today was not bad weather at all, completely different to yesterday so it already felt the right thing to have done to stop yesterday and complete our ride this morning. We were all feeling good today, its amazing how the aches and pains soon disappear when things are looking up and the adrenaline starts to take over. We got to Redruth, got our bikes out, had a group hug...well kind of..you have to be careful having group hugs at roundabouts off main roads wearing lycra!!! Off we went back onto the A30 for our last 27 miles of this challenge...this felt good...the roads were undualting and although hills will never be the same as those round Loch Ness on our way to Fort Augustus there were still some challenges for us to overcome on our way to Lands End. We all had different timings for when we felt the adrenaline really kick in that we had made the end....mine (Damo) kicked in at the 16 mile sign for Lands End....I was like Tigger on drugs and couldnt stop talking and becoming the american style motivator..at the 8 mile stage Steve and Jen and to give me some sedation to bring me down as I was on a really high (p.s. for the children reading this, no drugs were really taken this is all metaphorically speaking....do kids understand this word?) I think Jen and Steves adrenaline kicked in at the 4 miles left stage.

The ride to Lands End wasnt as bad as we had imagined given all the stories you hear about lands end being very hilly etc..we will admit it did have its hills and some were definetly unwelcomed when you are trying to get to the end but nothing to major to slow down the adrenaline. These last 27 miles were ridden straight out, so there is not much in terms of events on the ride itself......a few things I can think off were the hills (already mentioned), seeing others cycling towards having just set off on their LEJOG adventure and us being very glad that wasnt us and perhaps my most memorable moment of the ride was seeing my family drive past us as we cycled up one of the hills racing towards Lands End before we got there to great us...see them this just found me more speed. Upon seeing the finish line we all lined up to cross the line together with John and Laura holding congratulations tape across the line and our families and a crowd of tourists all cheering and clapping us as we finished....this was just a wonderful feeling and something I don't we will ever forget. This was also the point (just as we finished) that a complete stranger came out of the crowd and gave me £5 sponsorship. As I have commented so many times throughout this blog, we am humbled and overwhelmed by the generosity of people throughout this whole experience..this started from our friends, family and work colleagues donating so much money to get us to our £10k target before we started to the complete strangers who gave us cash on route across the whole of the UK....a huge thank you to everyone you know who you are.

At the finish we had banners wrapped rounds us, champagne was popping and photos were being taken by the dozen. We also went and sorted out our certificates with the End to enders club and then as per usual went in the bar at Lands End to celebrate...all in all we were at Lands End for about 4 hours before we left. ...we left back to our base in Newquay and went back to the Phoenix to celebrate and have dinner. Tomorrow (Saturday) we are booked in at Jamie Olivers restraurant (Fifteen) at watergate bay (just across the road from our accommodation)...which is our proper celebratary lunch.

We covered 27 miles, at an average of 14.5mph in a riding time of 1hr 55mins.

Why The Title: Well has you can tell the weekend continued for us so although this is Lands End and the end of our cycle challenge...we want to update you on the next few days after our ride and for you and for our memories we want to read over the blog we captured and add lots of other stories to it that we never wrote during the ride and finally I would like all the team to write something of their personal experience of the challenge, the highs and the lows, the experiences, favorites memories, what it felt like when we finished, how it was to support the challenge etc etc....so Lands End and the End .....well nearly.

P.S. not forgetting putting together a slideshow of all the photos....so keep this link and come back soon.

Day 12 - The best shower we have had!

Firstly I must apologise for the delay in updating the blog over the last few days. My excuse is that where we have been staying each night has not had the connection for me to update. I can honestly say it is nothing to do with the fact that my alcohol intake has increased each day and that a very fine Cornish beer called "DOOM" something or other has taken over my life! Anyway, on with Day 12. Day 12 started very early; we awoke at 06:15 and were on the road by 07:05. We wanted to make an early start and a good inroad into the mileage today. After I wrote the blog for last night the landlady of the pub gave Dave his money back for his dinner which, given that he did actually eat most of it, he has donated the total to the cancer research fund. I think I mentioned it already, but the Dolton campsite was truly awful and for the first time in history Damian didn’t have a shower (nobody else did either for the record) ...purely based on the fact that you came out dirtier than when you went in! What I forgot to mention was that in the pub last night we decided to scrap the planned B-road route and go for the A30 road all the way which meant a 12 mile shorter route, with it now being 110 miles to Lands End although a very fast and boring road. We set off and after about 10 miles Steve (The Puncture Man) Ball suffered his 1st of 3 punctures for the day - just unlucky really but good fun taking the Mick - not sure he appreciated it though. The big issue with today was initally the terrain as it took us twice as long as normal to cover the 17 miles from Dolton to the A30 and the rain...this was no ordinary rain - this rain was the worst of the challenge yet and was torrential, relentless and bouncing. We then had to ride through it on the A30 with serious visibility issues, soakings from lorries as they went passed us and floodings in places which really don’t suit road bike tyres. As you can tell, the weather wasn’t good! We had this for 65 miles of the 84 miles we covered today and the roads were very dangerous ,and just as we decided to call it a day at 65 miles the weather started to change and we decided to continue as far as we could either before we ran out of energy or when it started raining again.

Due to the violence of the weather we skipped stopping for lunch just eating what we had in our frame bags which isn’t normally the best of decisions, but based on the fact that we were drenched and cold it worked out OK. Apart from Steve’s punctures and the weather, today was very uneventful due to being on one road all day. We eventually called it a day, after 84 miles, at Redruth and headed to our base and luxury accommodation at Watergate Bay just outside Newquay. The accommodation is fantastic here and although quite expensive the location, size and quality of it really does justify the cost... which is a first for me in saying this about UK accommodation. We now have less than 30 miles to complete tomorrow to get us to the finish line.

All of us have drunk more tonight than the last fortnight.... pretty much like we finished today... I hope our heads don’t bang too hard in the morning. See you soon.

The Smiley Milers.

1. See the spray from the car

2. At Redruth