Friday 1 June 2012

Day Nine - (1st June)

Day nine started off the same way as the other eight of our adventure - albeit rather earlier. With the final 96 miles ahead of us and an appointment with the Land's End fingerpost photographer (a date he didn't yet know about) we had a lot to do and a window of time to do it in.

From our overnight accommodation in Okehampton we opted for the most direct route to take us to the finish line. That route being the very busy, very fast, very (mainly) dual carriageway, A30. Now anyone that knows this road will understand it is not for the faint hearted....

Our day started in grey misty drizzle, a common climate in Dartmoor it seems, and thus we donned reflective wear and lights for the journey ahead. And what a journey.....

The A30 turned out to be everything we hoped it wouldn't be. We shared the road with gigantic trucks, 4x4s towing caravans the size of maisonettes, tractors, cars and pretty much every other kind of road going vehicle. All except bikes. Now why might that be....? The ride demanded absolute concentration, sticking inside the white line, avoiding debris and dealing with some huge climbs and huge decents. This wasn't cycling, this was hanging on. It was the A30 that delivered the first puncture of the entire journey when Simon's back tyre started hissing after a rocky decent. A quick change of inner tube and fifteen thousand blasts with the mini-pump and we were away. For now, as Craig was next to grind to a halt around ten miles later when his front tyre blew in spectacular fashion. This resulted in a replacement inner tube and tyre being required. Fortunately being proper adventurers we were equipped with both.

Having been delayed by these two breakdowns we pressed on, mindful of the four o'clock photography and the long drive home afterwards.

And so, at around 3pm we were rolling around Penzance with 12 miles to go and looking forward to a gentle run in along the coast. Wrong. Jogle has one last sting in the tail with a set of vicious climbs over the next six miles. Still having seen off Glencoe and Shap we weren't about to let these stand in our way and at 3:45 we arrived, jubilant, rolling the last couple of miles three abreast into Land's End. Job done!

A quick photo opportunity with Tony Pulis (Stoke City manager) and Nick Hancock (comedian/presenter) ensued as they too had just completed their own charity ride (but as a relay). So that was nice.

Photos taken at the fingerpost - it was time to load the car and head home. Upside Down is done, we've cycled every one of the 874 miles from John O'Groats to Land's End. No walking, no fighting, no falling out, no food that didn't contain serious amounts of carbohydrates, no blood and no tears.

Stats the way the cookie crumbles....

Miles done today: 96
Miles done in total: 874
Climbing done today: 1371 metres (4498 feet)
Confidence score: Need we say?

All of which means we have:

.... covered, by pedal bicycle alone, 874 miles.

.... burned 56,867 calories (the equivalent of 406 Wispa bars).

.... climbed almost 41,000 feet (40,941) to be precise. So, the height of Everest, and then a third of it again.

.... raised (so far) almost £2,500 for children with life limiting ilnesses for charity Promise Dreams (www.justgiving.com/upsidedown).

Thank you for reading and being with us in support - this is the last post for Upside Down 2012.

Todays photos are now uploaded and photos from the first 2 days will be online soon

Simon, Pete, Craig

(and Paul... still busy updating these Blogs and photos)