203 miles down / 753 miles to go.
A much better day today I'm pleased to say!
We were up about early this morning and ready to go around 8am. My bed looked like something out of a crime drama, the sheets covered in blood from yesterday's mishap. Fortunately that accident is behind us now, so Brendon and I can focus on more positive things.
Just as we set off Brendon got the first puncture of LEJOG, so he leads the chart 1-0, an ominous start to the day? I was hoping not!
The first 15 miles were a breeze, some reasonable ups and downs but nothing too hard as we cracked along at a good pace of 14mph. Some great progress after yesterday!
Then after the first 15 miles we headed across single track gravelly roads, steep ups and winding downs made it hard to build up rhythm. Too make things worse my right knee began to play up again, searing sharp pain on every downstroke made pedalling almost unbearable. I gritted my teeth, but to be honest I genuinely began to think it might be curtains for LEJOG and I began to think of the ignomy of pulling out.
We also had our first experience of being chased by a dog! Passing a farmyard a very angry Collie burst from behind a gate and chased us along the road for 20 meters or so! Thankfully we managed to get away!
Brendon was a saint with me, I must have been a complete pain in the arse, I was getting absolutely hacked off, cross with absolutely anything and really short with him. Quite rightly Brendon deserves Hero of The Day for sticking with me and bringing me through!
Our feed stop at 53 miles was incredibly sweet relief. Carla and Helen in attendance and a special guest star of the day, my mate Paddy who'd come to join us for the rest of the ride. We chilled for about half an hour and importantly I did some work on the right knee with plenty of stretches.
The stretches seemed to do the trick, my knee felt a lot better, even better, there doesn't appear to be a fundamental issue with my knee, it's just a tight fibre that can be resolved. We bashed through the next 20 miles, passed the Rose and Crown in East Lyng (for you Derek) and we arrived ahead of Herbie Swift and the girls at the next feed stop.
Paddy wins Dipstick of the Day, his general silliness brought a light relief to the day and it peaked at the feedstop - he found a flattened dead frog that had decicated and started mucking around with it. Somehow it ended up in Brendon's helmet which was laying on the ground unsupervised......
The last 10 miles took us up through Cheddar Gorge, Neil & Val (Helen's parents) we're lying in wait to cheer us on but sadly our route didn't go past them - what a shame. Despite getting a little lost we made it to the end in good time - a full 3.5 hours quicker than yesterday's finish!
A great day in the saddle
Happy cycling
Mike
PS here's our donation page:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/CycleOfOurLives
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