Day 4 – 76 miles 5,400 ft climbing Chepstow to Clun
We left the lovely Elizabeth and Parkside B&B to sunshine, and had a great ride into Monmouth. The first 25 miles of today were up and down, with communication issues causing a few diversions …….
But the quiet country lanes of the Welsh borders were delightful
As we climbed higher and higher though, the clouds blackened and the mist crawled in. After a relatively easy middle 25, the last 25 miles made up for it. Long drags up the welsh mountains…
We left the sunshine for the welsh drizzle and gradually got wetter and wetter, but Clun laid waiting for us. A great pub, in the form of the White Horse (A micro brewery too !!) with great food led to an evening of laughter and reminiscing of the day……
Neil – Lovely Melons Ray !!!
Jon – First rain of the tour in Wales, typical ….
Iain – Bananas reach the part that others can’t
Stephen – I was a bit concerned for the sheep
Pat – So many different road surfaces
Bruce – My arsh is on fire …. (It was a hot day !)
Mike – I can’t think ….. so tired
Helen – If you think you’ve done the training, think again…..
Mark – navigation……. Lost in translation…. Busy making memories, Julie is with us, but we’re lost
Martyn – I counted them in, and then lost the numbers …..
Eddie – If I talked more slowly, I’ll stop….
Day 5 – Clun to Congelton. 76 miles, 3200 ft
We are settling into a routine: wake up (sometimes to appalling music), breakfast, apply creams in places many of us have never applied creams below, pump up tyres, cycle , eat, cycle, eat, cycle, drink beer, eat, sleep repeat.
But today the routine was disturbed by mechanical failures and incompetent cycling. In the latter regard, todays correspondent discovered that hitting the kerb with a pedal is not a good idea. On the positive side, it looks like we will be all be cycling again soon, Its not been an iconic day or even a day with significant hills but your correspondent has managed to stay in the saddle almost all day. Looking forward to Skipton…
Helen – Thanks to the Halford boys who mended my wheel in Shrewsbury.
Derek – Del’s problem rectified ….. hopefully.
Mike – No iconic hills today, looking forward to Scotland, he lied !!!!
Mark – Should have had your wheatabix this morning ……
Steve – I discovered some muscles today that I didn’t know existed.
Pat – If I hear one more ‘Off Course’, I’ll go nuts….
Bruce – People ‘SPOKE’ too soon about reliable bikes ….
Neil – On the day we had a few climbs, we just had to have a northerly wind ….
Jon – Ride leader takes shortcut ! SHOCK Horror
Julie – Leaving half an hour early meant I didn’t have to look at Martyn’s bum all morning.
Ray – One of those crazy days ……..
Eddie – First time I’ve been followed by a police woman for 51 miles without being arrested…..
Pat’s acquired some new hair
More at the pitstop than expected !
