LEJOG Sarah and Max

Up for breakfast at 8am today - that's a lie in! We set off in convoy again today at about 9.30am. Overall less climbing today except for the road leading out to the clifton suspension bridge in Bristol, we all knew that was the big challenge facing us today! Thanks to large stretches of flat road and a few downhills we led the group for most of the day. We even reached a maximum speed of over 50mph at one point!!  There were a couple of mechanical failures - neither of which were ours thankfully. Carl is always there when you need him and seems very resourceful which is reassuring to know.  We'd planned to stop for lunch after 40 miles cycling but ended up missing the cafe stop Carl had recommended for us. Luckily we found a really nice garden centre though with a fab outside cafe which served us well. The food was great and lots of ice cold water to help us to rehydrate - an absolute godsend as the temperature had been steadily rising all morning and we were all feeling it. ...

After a good night's sleep we were down for breakfast at 7.30am sharp. There was still a fair amount of faffing but we finally set out at 8.40am. It wasn't long before we faced our first hill and it was definitely a sign of things to come because it was rolling hills all the way today. On the plus side we had lots of steep descents giving us a decent momentum to break the back of the uphill climbs which invariably followed! We made good time throughout the morning and we were in second place (not that it's a race) at the first pitstop. This back fired a little though as we decided to have a proper stop at a nice garden centre just outside Okehampton for lunch. We over ordered and stayed too long and were promptly overtaken by some of the group as a result. The hills got tougher as the afternoon progressed and the sun came out and we started to flag. We battled on though and reached the 10 miles to go marker. The route veered off onto country lanes which whilst beautiful wer...

After a sleepless night (too excited?) we set off for Lands End in a taxi at about 8:15am. The weather didn't look promising and no sooner we arrived a heavy mist descended from nowhere giving us a pea soup view!! After the group photo call we all finally set off in convoy at about 9:45am. The weather brightened up pretty quickly, the sun came out and so we cast off our waterproofs. The first 25 miles passed quickly and when we reached the first official stop we were all feeling pretty good.  We were on a mission as we'd booked dinner with the Coopers at 7pm but little did we know just how many more hills lay ahead of us!!  As the afternoon progressed we seemed to be making good time and decided against having too long a stop for lunch settling for a meal deal from Sainsbury's eaten roadside instead of holding out for a classic Cornish pastie in Truro. We battled on again but those rolling hills kept coming. I've embraced the downhill speed as I've realised it's...

We’re on our way! There's going back now.  Carl {our tour organiser} picked us up from Milton Keynes station at 11am Sunday and after loading everyone's bikes onto his minibus we started the long drive down to Cornwall. On the journey down we met the other 9 cyclists doing LEJOG. Everyone is very friendly - two of the group have already done several tours with Carl so have been giving the rest of us lots of advice.  The weather travelling down was atrocious so we're hoping for better tomorrow🤞 Some anxious looks from the group 

We sourced a used Dolan racing tandem bike on eBay just before Christmas and now we've foolishly signed up with Great Bear Tours to do their 1000 mile  Lands End to John O'Groates in 12 days starting Monday the 28th June 2021. The previous owner of the Tandem claimed that he had the bike doing over 70 miles an hour. I have yet to see any hint of this capability. We've been spending our last few weekends of training trying to simulate the daily 12 x 85 mile slogs that we've been warned are coming. Instead of 70mph our average speed is more like 12mph which is going to translate into some very long days.  Testing out the Tandem We've managed the distance required a couple of times, but only half the altitude. If we can't do the distance and altitude three days in a row we will have to rely on grit instead of training and will probably be going home on day three at Bristol (in disgrace).