Mostly Medics Blog

Friday 20th June: day 1 – Land's End to Okehampton (111 miles)

Well, we made it through the first day and what many say is the worst one – getting out of Cornwall up into Devon. Despite the awful forecast it all started well, and by 12 we were having our second coffee break in Truro at 39 miles. We can recommend the Café Nero for its exceptional efficiency in serving a variety of coffee and cakes in 10 minutes flat. By 130pm we had the best pasties in the world (bought by Charlotte from Phillips in Hayle) at our half way stop in St Austell (55 miles). Then things went downhill, or rather uphill, downhill, uphill and so on for the rest of the day, accompanied by heavy rain, although a reasonable wind. We even missed our break in Liskeard and opted for a full cream tea in Tavistock (95 miles). This was of questionable dietary wisdom, but allowed some rewarming of our core temperature and some change of clothing (yes it was that wet). We had stuck together for most of the day, but a fast threesome went on ahead for the last 30 miles. We finally got in at about 8pm – a long day but at a reasonable pace that will stand us in good stead for the rest of the trip.

Driver’s Blog (Part 1) June 21st

I’m not entirely sure whether I’m entitled to a blog entry - not being in possession of lycra garments or a pot of Sudocrem^®. However, I feel sure that my friend and colleague Laura Hole may have a thing or two to add to this when she and Avril take over driving tomorrow so here goes…..

“Fancy a weekend away Charlotte?” So, I find myself driving (quite a large) van around the southwest in pursuit of team mostly medics. Halfway through day 2 and I’m waiting for them in Bristol where we’ll meet before crossing the bridge to Chepstow. Having driven from St Austell to Tavistock yesterday up hill and down dale, with windscreen wipers on full, still unable to see a great deal due to the driving rain I remain full of admiration for the guys and their efforts. Three counties down…Despite months of planning, more and more planning continues. Planning coffee stops remain key as does tracking down cream teas. The conversation about the logistics of ensuring a stop to eat pasties before crossing the Devon/Cornwall lasted for some time. Apparently one should ingest 6g/kg body weight of carbohydrate within half an hour of finishing a day’s riding (AJH). Now that is a lot of pasty…….

Saturday 21st June: day 2 – Okehampton to Chepstow (121 miles)

A quarter of the total milage done and boy do our legs feel it! After our wet day yesterday the weather was kinder for most of the day, being mostly dry and a south westerly. An early coffee stop after 17 miles was oddly not accompanied by cake by the more serious riders – they’ve now realised that it’s compulsory so as to get anywhere approaching the 4500–5000 kcals we’re burning each day. The route was going well, apart from Adam’s idea of missing out a small section of dual carriageway – sounds sensible, but involved some cyclocross to get to the nearest lane, and then a few 15% hills…..We then had an early baguette lunch in Wellington (a slow stop due to Tom’s insistence on more coffee – sorry), followed by a fastish long stretch across the Somerset levels (untrue) to Cheddar at 80 miles. Please visit Simply Gorgeous in Cheddar who have contributed more than most tea shops to our dietary needs during training. After Cheddar gorge (yes we did this!) we stopped off at John’s house (best coffee and cake of the day), and then did the last leg to Chepstow across the bridge. We had our mandatory full on storm right at the end just to stop us getting too complacent or have any enjoyment. We all did really well today – big mileage after yesterday’s big hills. Simon left us this morning and Adam is back with us on Thursday, so we’re now down to 5. Avril is driver tomorrow (thank you Charlotte), and will have a full briefing over breakfast. Tomorrow’s ride is new territory for us all (3rd big day in the saddle), so feeling nervous…..

Sunday 22nd June: day 3 – Chepstow to Higher Burwardsley (Cheshire, 123 miles)

AKA “Things that Anth Carey should never have agreed to – Chapter 463.” Boy oh boy oh boy. The lunacy of what we are attempting was underlined by one of the young waitresses at out hotel last night in Chepstow (-who, by the way, had eyes for John H in his snazzy sweater) “Where are you cycling to?”“John O’Groats”“Well, I’m from Wales and even I don’t know where that is.” Today was tough and after a slow, achy 15 miles to Monmouth one of the team almost made a runner for his bed in Bristol. But with soothing words from the rest of the team – “Get on your bike and b****y pedal” – the unit remained intact. Slow steady progress ensued fuelled with some of Mrs Carey’s Special Flapjacks (God bless her) and we were subsequently topped up at lunchtime by our team mother-in-law - Avril. At this point after 6 hrs we’d only made 56 miles but after lunch and with the help of an extremely welcome tailwind the subsequent 64 we’re knocked off in five hours. Unfortunately this left time only to appreciate some glorious Shropshire countryside, by far our best cycling yet, and therefore I missed out on a visit to the Percy Thrower Garden Centre. However, as at the end of every day so far, we’ve all arrived at the hotel proud of our day’s work. Bring on tomorrow.

Monday 23rd June: day 4 – Higher Burwardsley to Ings (Lake District, 115 miles) aka reflections from the back of the peleton

It has been a joy and a mystery to see our finely-tuned team work together (well, most of the time) as we rode our way through the Lancashire countryside in glorious sunshine. One becomes intimately acquainted with the oddities of each other’s riding style and the accompanying grunts, groans and squeaks. John’ signature is his squeaky rear mechanism (and his bike is quite noisy, too), Andy has a gentle rocking action of his hips when he puts the hammer down (could be useful in future Latin-American dance competition), Anth emits the sound of bearings being ground down (back hub, hip and knee joints). We all miss Adam’s telephone conversations, held whilst riding full speed up the hill (although he has had to rest up for a few days before he is up to re-joining us, poor lad – some feeble excuse about having to do some work). Mind you, Tom is stepping into his shoes admirably and can now hold a mobile phone conversation with Charlotte whilst riding, eating a banana and changing his bib-shorts at the same time. Somewhere on the left-hand side as you go up the A6 – a pet crematorium. Next door – a garden centre and pet centre. One feels there is a business opportunity going begging….Anyway, back to the stage. John attacked whilst the peleton were having mechanical problems and were in the process of receiving assistance from the team car in Warrington. This was felt by all to be rather unsporting and so his 25 mile lone breakaway was put to an end, not by a peleton chase down, but by Avril and Laura who had caught him up in the team car, tying him to a chair with bungee cord, ready for when the peleton arrived to offer him some polite advice about his foolhardy actions (further details available upon request).

Once the bunch reformed, it was back to a sprint bonus at Bolton-le-Sands (first one to see the sea gets the ice cream). After the feed station, the last leg was into the evening sunshine and the splendid panoramic views of the southern part of the Lake District – the cross country “undulating” route, kindly provided to us by a passing member of the Lancashire Cycle Club, resplendent in his club colours. He thought it would take us an hour – he is either a poor judge of form or has a dry irony that was lost on us – two hours later saw us sprinting down the final straight (A591) into Ings, in a desperate dash to arrive before 2100h, in time for dinner, having telephoned the orders in ahead.

The next day’s route is shorter, so naturally the timings will be less of a problem…..hmm, we shall see.

Driver’s Blog (Part 2) June 24th, 2008

So the baton has been passed on. Charlotte is back saving lives in Gloucestershire and has been replaced by “Team Hole” and thus begins our blog (or ‘blob’ as my mum calls it). Mother and I have had plenty of time to think whilst sitting in (not so) picturesque lay-bys on major trunk roads throughout the UK. A number of working titles for a best-seller have come to mind. Maybe “50 ways to fortify a flapjack” or “What not to wear (anything made of lycra)”.

The gents continue to impress and there isn’t the slightest chink in the formidable team. Initially they seemed reticent to “exploit” our better natures but thankfully they have settled in and put us to work. We’ve been sent on a number of missions to purchase some PSP22 (not watermelon), a bottle cage (black – not carbon), leg warmers (black, extra-large), a haggis (boiled not grilled) and been requested to find a swimming pool (with a Jacuzzi) and launderette (don’t worry you can do a service wash). The trip is a real learning experience. Tom had learnt why trying to pass a banana into a moving campervan (for a joke) whilst cycling on a major A road isn’t a good idea. I have come to realise that neonatologists aren’t just obsessed over what is administered to their young charges – moreover the EXACT number of millimoles of sodium, potassium, glucose etc are all carefully calculated using an equation consisting of : V2 cos θ +ln(y ) + z/(5a - b) Where V =miles travelled, θ = Angle between wind and direction of travel, y = temperature in degrees c, z = incline in %, a = flapjacks plus bananas ingested per kg, b = humidity Another day down. Time to don my kilt and a Tam O’Shanter and commence my Taggart impressions whilst the men apply cream to parts that just can’t be mentioned in polite company.

Chocka-girl, checking out.

Tuesday 24th June: Day 5 – Ings (Lake District) to Moffat (north of Gretna Green) – 94 miles

It’s been a day of two countries, quite literally, and what we had thought would be an easy 90 miler has still left us falling asleep over dinner and suggesting an even later start for breakfast… We left late at 10am, partly due to needing to find a nearby bike shop for Anth’s rear hub, but not helped by my (Tom’s) failure to pack my shoes in the van before it left. I bravely cycled for 30 miles with them dangling off my handlebars, but can vouch for how useful they can be for holding things like bananas etc. We had an early big climb through beautiful scenery up to Kirkstone pass, with the descent allowing David to break an all time local record at 50.2mph (probably true) on the approach to the (re-established) morning coffee shop break. At Penrith the group split, with my bike needing to visit a local bike shop, and David and I chasing down the breakaway group for the next 30 miles. We spent much of this time calculating the time to catch them, estimating our likely speed differential, but the unknown factor “P” was Andy’s need for frequent “micro breaks”. We finally caught them at Gretna Green where an emotional John was tightly holding on to a flask of Bowmore. The final leg to Moffat was brisk, accompanied by the obligatory evening rain, but for once I had booked a hotel on the route as opposed to 10 miles uphill away from it. We’ve been cycling really well together for the last 3 days, and with more than half done we know we can do it now. Before we left many people were concerned about how our bottoms would be. Although I can only report on what the others tell me, as opposed to any more objective evidence, they are doing ok and we are eating sitting down in the evenings. Laura and Avril have yet again given us superb service, with vital help for mechanical problems and frequent stops for all manner of calorie ingestion. We couldn’t do it without them…..

Wednesday 25th June: Day 6 - Moffat to Balloch (north of Glasgow, 77 miles)

This was to be our easy rest day but proved frustrating in lots of ways. We had an extremely wet start, which saw us huddled in a service station café off the A74(M) by 1030 shivering into our lattes. We had some limited core re-warming from the hand dryers in the gents but could take the looks of the other men no longer. A dangerous pattern emerged during the morning - a constant invention of badly judged puns being shouted over the wind. Anth was the index case and the symptoms spread rapidly through the group. We should have known this was a warning sign in cyclists having already done 550 miles. However, we pressed on to the outskirts of Glasgow, when we had the first of our 3 punctures that day. David did sterling work in being the group mechanic for the whole tour, and Anth then successfully steered us into a huge Pizza Hut on a retail estate. We knew we were in Glasgow when the manager encouraged us to take our bikes into the restaurant next to us rather than leave them outside….Although we got through the centre of Glasgow with some ease, we then had a further 2 punctures and hit a strong Westerly on our way out. Our easy day was slipping away from us and it was a struggle to even get in by 8pm. Our idea of a group spa was scuppered. We ended the evening a bit tired and emotional with various discussions of what went wrong …. and nervous of our big day on Thursday. However Adam arrived with fresh legs and mind. Adam is a bit like the Tour riders who get flown between stages, while the mere mortals have to cycle between them. However we knew we were grateful for him being there.

Thursday 26th June: Day 7 - Balloch to Fort Augustus (115 miles)

We had an early start and decided to forgo our usual fry up for a continental breakfast Scottish style. Andy made an early break and was followed by David who proved to be the “policeman” of the group. Those at the back went for a steady pace, not overdoing the coffee and superb bacon rolls and scones at various stops en route. Please go to the teashop in Tarbet if you are passing as 3 people spontaneously gave us donations. We knew we had the big climb up on to Rannoch Moor to come, but in the end we glided up it, and the scenery is even more stunning when you’re cycling. John was ecstatic with the landscape and the comforting drizzle & Anth had his first sight of the Highlands. Despite the Westerly into Glencoe the descent was joyous, with the added pleasure of about 40 Minis doing a charity LEJOG waiting patiently behind us before they had a good place for them all to overtake. Never has there been so much waving and good naturedly hooting of horns between cyclist and motorist. This was topped only by camper van hand-made bacon and cheese sandwiches by our support crew at the bottom. We then had a slinky smooth chain gang leg to Fort William. Yet again Tom’s freewheel started to play up, and by the time we made the bike shop I had no power transmission and was pushing myself with my feet on the ground. With a new freewheel fitted in 45 minutes, and we then pressed on through the final leg to Loch Ness, with Adam giving us a superb tow. Appropriately, we stayed in an old hunting lodge with a very large collection of malt whiskies and Croatian waitresses.

Friday 27th June: Day 8 – Fort Augustus to Lybster (118 miles & hard!)

We were nearing the end today but hadn’t quite realised how hard it was going to be. With an unwarranted lack of anxiety many of the group had kippers for breakfast, but the rest of us were able to share their aroma at various points during the morning as they came up for air. A shortcut away from Loch Ness seemed sensible until after a sharp right turn we had a large hill of over 15% staring right ahead of us. David’s story was that he spotted the double chevrons on his GPS only when he zoomed in and by that stage it was too late…. Mmmmm… However once over the top there was a gorgeous drop down into Beauly, where by chance we came across one of the best coffee shops in Scotland. We then set off for Tain (Irn Bru taken) and eventually got to our afternoon tea shop by 5pm. With only 30 miles to go that day out of almost 120, we were full of confidence, which was entirely misplaced as only John knew what was ahead and he was keeping that to himself….. About 2 ½ hours later (about 40 minutes less for Adam and David) we got to the hotel, having done 2 big climbs which would be challenging even if you hadn’t done over 800 miles in the past week. John was in buoyant mood, and we were glad he hadn’t told us the truth…. It had been a big, big day, and although we knew it wasn’t over yet, John O’Groats felt close for the first time.

Saturday 28th June: Day 9 - Lybster to John O’Groats (30 miles)

This was it – the final day. We even skipped a proper breakfast to set off early, but by 12 miles called in for our final coffee stop of the tour. We were cautious in our confidence but the group was back on track and we were going to do it. The next 18 miles seemed the shortest of all, and were massively enjoyable. The rain had set in although it was probably good weather for the locals. At the final approach our relief was palpaple (unlike our posteriors), and before we knew it we had our support crew offering champagne and gifts (thank you – you have been so generous). There was a strange ritual of paying for an official photographer to assemble the sign for us, using a camera that actually had a winder and 35mm film it. Photographs were to be sent on at express speed in 10 days. There was a massive sense of achievement, and with due respect we changed out of the lycra that had been glued to our skin over the last 8 days and packed our bikes away in the van. Then off to the airport for Tom, John, Adam & Andy, Anth to have a day with Avril and Laura in the campervan, and David to generously drive the bikes back to Bristol (thanks David). All of us have worked hard every one of the last 9 days, and we made every mileage target we set. And now to rest our limbs, and see when we next get on our bikes…….

June 30th, 2008 EpiBlog – reflections of a long-distance cyclist

Well, we did it! We had our moments of doubt but continued to make our daily mileages before collapsing into a post-prandial stupor after late night consumption of three course meals for which we barely had an appetite but knew they would sustain us the following day. Now catching up on sleep debt – mostly brought about by anxiety about the following day’s ride (rather than my otherwise estimable room-mate’s snoring). The enormity of the overall trip still hasn’t sunk in – so used have I become to dealing with each 20-30 mile bite as an individual achievement – but the drive back from John O’Groats to Inverness made me realise the distance we’d covered in our final day and a bit.

So to reflections: The cold and rain of the first two days, coupled with the climbing involved in crossing Cornwall and Devon really tested the mettle – shivering in a teashop in Tavistock & the start of frequent visits to the men’s room to test the hand drier’s capacity to warm a body (the Dyson Air Blade almost had it but for the RB211 model in our hotel in Ings). The OCD I developed in checking the wind and weather forecasts throughout May and early June & the almost constant northerlies that preyed on my mind but which transpired into glorious south westerlies that helped us along throughout – including the gentlest of breezes that lifted me over the final 15% of Kirkstone Pass. The beauty of Lakeland sunsets as those last 5-10 miles seemed to drag on forever. The kindness and generosity of people we met along the way (especially once we got North of Glasgow – well I would say that wouldn’t I?). The climb from Tyndrum to my favourite place – Rannoch Moor & the swoop down Glencoe as reward for the effort. The climbs out of Helmsdale and Berriedale that hung over me from day three until that penultimate day when they didn’t seem so bad – even after 100+ miles – and the elation of completing that section and being within touching distance of the finish.

And the team: David, the ultimate long distance cyclist whose metronomic cadence set the standard for which others aspired – but also for his tireless good humour and infallible mechanical skills (despite my best efforts to wreck his systems). ‘Twas amazing the amount of kit he was able to fit in his waist pack – a latter day Mary Poppins! Tom’s meticulous planning that meant we had the security of fine bedding and dining every night in some fabulous places – even those up precipitous inclines at the end of long days. Tom & David also put in so much work at the front of the group to save the legs of us lesser mortals in the rear. Anth for his appalling jokes when the elements were against us, for his loud guffaws at the base of 15% climbs & for his ability to receive wrong numbers on his mobile virtually every time we came to a hill (is Keith there?). Andy’s tenacity in the face of adversity was an object lesson in sheer bloody mindedness overcoming physical obstacles & what a great achievement it was for him to finish this from a standing start 4 months or so ago. Simon’s riding remains a source of inspiration to me & it was great he could join us for the first two days – until he sped into the blue yonder in indecently little time. The idea of pursuit by the peleton lasted about 15 microseconds before we realised it would be futile. Adam got us on our way & was a tower of strength in the final days when minds and bodies were starting to crack. His reintroduction to the team raised everyone’s spirits and his selflessness on the road came to the aid of many a straggler who was towed back onto the group. I especially remember the Finn train from Fort William to Fort Augustus that pulled us along at 20+ mph by the Caledonian canal – some of the best riding of the trip.

But without the dedicated support (way beyond the call of duty) of Charlotte, Avril & Laura, we would have been struggling to complete this act of benign lunacy. They provided great physical support by always being willing to drive to remote laybys on barren, forgotten highways to bring sustenance & bike parts but their continuous good humour and professed admiration (although I’m sure they really thought we were completely barking….) for what we were doing kept our spirits up during the dark (& wet) days when things weren’t going so well. So what next…….lots of walking holidays according to Tom! Throughout the trip, we were aware that many of you were following our progress on the Blog. This was awe-inspiring for us & knowing so many people were behind us added to our determination to reach the finish line – or at least the rather quirky photographer with his signpost closely guarded. When handed Tom’s digital, we assured him it’s what we in the 21st century call ‘a camera’……. Thanks for all your interest and support along the way. Thanks so much for your generous sponsorship & thanks to all my team mates for putting up with the Grumpy Old Man of the group - couldn’t have made it without you guys. The End (…or is there yet to be a sequel?)

John