Top tips

So having completed the planning, training & end to end cycle it's time to reflect & share my top tips for those that take on a similar venture in the future.

1) do it your way 

However much you read there is no proper way to cycle from one end of the country to the other. Do it however it suits you & that includes ignoring everything else below

2) personalise your route 

You can buy books or find routes others have followed, but detouring to places special to you makes it your journey. 

3) pack for rain

You'll be going through Scotland - it will rain

Unless you've decided to do it in winter chances are it will be fairly warm & a light waterproof will be sufficient. I carried a heavier jacket everyday & only wore it once - but it was worth it. 

3) pack light

Unless you have a tent 2 full panniers is too much, repack. I carried a foam roller which not many people would need but if you've used it or had issues during training it's bulky but light. You can live in one change of clothes for the evening & a change of kit if everything is wet from the day before 

4) take a spare pair of shoes

Lightweight travelling shoes are easy to find & I'd decided to only take my MTB cleats. What is not considered was after a day in the rain putting wet shoes back on to go to the pub was not particularly pleasant 

5) find cycle friendly places to stay

The best B&Bs we stayed at were regulars with cyclists & were already waiting with a washing basket, which after a wet day is exactly why you want. Drying rooms for shoes & a secure (dry) shed for storage are also good. In Moffat they even had oils, rags & a track pump at our disposal. 

6) the twisted towel trick

For those days when you don't have someone on hand to do your laundry revert to a travellers staple. Washing your kit in the shower & wringing it out in a towel - it should be close to dry overnight if you've got technical cycling gear.  

7) eat half, wrap half 

It took as a while to work this one out, but a large bowl of porridge & taking the cooked elements in a sandwich had 2 key advantages;

It's quicker to eat so you get away earlier

It's easier to digest so you get away earlier

Getting away early is often the nicest part of the day in summer, before it gets too hot. If you are cycling long days you may also come up against the 9pm pub food cutoff which seems commonplace. If you go for B&Bs however you will probably struggle to get breakfast much before 8, certainly not with out a telling look from your host. 

8) padded shorts

Possibly the most essential piece of gear you will buy. Not all shorts are equal. Make sure you've tested them out on a full length ride. As with most things price does not always correlate with quality if you are paying for branding, but within a brand the extra investment can be worth it. 

9) practice 

You can never do too much training, except perhaps in the week before you go when you should think about tapering (taking it easy). But the amount you do is so personal & dependent on what you are aiming to achieve I'll just outline roughly what I did 

10) enjoy

Whatever reason you've decided to take on this challenge & however you approach it you've chosen to do it & above all you should be having fun. No doubt the cycling will at times be tough but it gets easier. 

I'll refer you back to (1) do it your way & hopefully that means you'll have an amazing a time as we did

Training - for the record

Should anyone be thinking of following in our footsteps (or should that be tyre tracks?) here's an approximate summary of the training undertaken, starting when i bought my bike in January.

January, February, March were just building up a bit of time on the bike.  April was hijacked by spending 3 of 4 weeks in Bangalore with work, so restricted to the gym.

The aim in May was to do at least one long ride on the weekend, you get an idea from the graphic that was only partially successful.  he shorter rides in between are my route to work, which i tried to extend to an hour or so by performing laps of regents park.

Regular gym visits however is where I think I built all my hill climbing power - special mention to Jordan here for designing a program that worked around all the various challenges that came up, from my complete lack of flexibility, problems with my back, shoulders and the broken elbow. Along with a friday morning spin class the gym work also helped introduce variety into the training.

Broadway tower  

The longest training ride was 95 miles in the cotswolds when the 4 of us got together, having preceded this with a 60mile ride the day before this was the point we were confident our route plan of 80 - 100 miles a day was achievable, in fact we did start to think would it be too little - but photo stops helped slow us down on the real thing. 

training in the cotswolds

The Costswolds

somewhere near newbury 

If I was to do it again I think joining a cycle club would be worthwhile. The Sunday morning ride with Team Kennet (Sean's triathlon club) was one of the most enjoyable and with a group of people better than you it helps push you that bit more than you (I) do on your own.

Bluebells

Leith Hill

My 3 regular training routes were:
Regents park - completely flat but near my house & 10 laps + a return trip was almost exactly 50km which was a good target

Richmond park - cyclist friendly with some hills, nothing too extreme, but better than flat

Surrey hills - I ventured out on longer rides to tackle the surrey hills, box hill rose to fame with the olympics but is a pretty gentle ascent. Leith hill nearby is on the Surrey 100 cycle route o well known in the area & is a bit more challenging going up to 18% gradient

Box hill

sympathy vote

just for the record some evidence of a cracked radial head - or in other words the time i fell off & landed on my elbow.

Really I'm just looking for the sympathy vote & to raise some extra sponsorship for my commitment to the cause.

The broken elbow slowed down the training for a couple of weeks but luckily it takes 6 weeks to heal & I had 7

The final stats

Safely home & having added up all the numbers here are the overall stats:

Total distance: 1,646km (1,023 miles)
Total ascent: 17,700m (58,071 feet)
Total saddle time: 75hrs 31mins
Average speed: 21.7 kmph (13.5mph)

Incidentally total ascent is almost exactly twice the height of everest (8,848)

Current fundraising stands at just over £2,000 - fantastic generousity

13 - Four Lanes to Lands End

Stats for the day:
Distance: 44.2 km (27.4 miles)
Elevation: 412 m
Saddle time: 2:04 hrs
Total time: 2.42

Average 
Speed: 21.3km/hr

Maximum
Speed: 54.7 km/hr

Elevation profile

St Michael's Mount

And so the adventure draws to a close. Sitting on a train with grey Cornwall whizzing past I think we were in the only part of the British Isles with rain today but fortunately it held off for the morning. 

It's all a little anticlimactic, having got close last night it was an easy 30 miles to the finish & even the hills seemed to flatten out.

The main tourist highlight of the morning was St Michaels mount sitting off the coast just before Penzance. We considered a short detour around it, but the cobblestones were a bit off putting. Save that for Paris-Robaix.

Just before midday we rolled over the finish line to a surprise welcoming party. Emm had endured an epic drive the previous night from Newbury to be there with the boys. 

The finish line

And so a final few thank yous

First & foremost to Emm for letting Sean live out a dream & supporting us both from afar

To Bernard for turning up each night in the first week with a set of dry clothes & getting us to the start line

Nick for coming up with the crazy idea in the first place - maybe it was the altitude 

Stephan for the company & weekend training rides - how far is it to cycle New York to Seattle?

Sean for constant enthusiasm & turning talk into reality

Everyone who sent messages & texts the past 2 weeks - you know who you are

Finally, everyone that showed their support by donating to our 2 charities; The British Heart Foundation & World Bicycle Relief  - 2 very different charities performing valuable work. You can still add to the total by clicking through the link on the right hand side of this page. 

12 - Dartmoor to Four Lanes

Stats for the day:
Distance: 118.3 km (73.5 miles)
Elevation: 1942m
Saddle time: 6:09 hrs
Total time: 8:34 hrs

Average 
Speed: 19.2 km/hr
Cadence: 67 rpm

Maximum
Speed: 68.0 km/hr










Elevation profile

If yesterday's ride was a bit like Readings last 10 seasons - more ups than downs. Then this morning encapsulated Lutons - nearly all down. 

And on a footballing theme we passed our 4th stadium of the journey, Home Park, Plymouth. Previous grounds were The Reebok, Ewood Park and Inverness Cally Thistle. Actually we did pass another ground today - The New Camp, home of Polperra town, no doubt a force in non league football. 

Coast line view

So having left at 9 - easily our earliest start yet - we ate up the 18k to the first ferry of the day in just 40 mins. But as soon as we left the ferry at Torpoint we were back climbing up a hill. From thereon in the day resembled a heart rate monitor with the continual ups and downs. It's difficult now trying to compare it to earlier in the trip; have we got fitter? Are the hills more gradual? Are we just attacking them less? Whatever it is the day didn't seem too tough other then the recurrence of cyclists bottom - the effects of spending this many consecutive days in the saddle have taken their toll & although the last couple of days were better today was a constant battle to sit comfortably. 



Fowey

King Harry chain ferry

Two more ferry crossings followed with a surprisingly brief glimpse of the coastline. 

We made it to Four Lanes with a cumulative trip mileage of approx. 990. So a short morning tomorrow will see us break the 1,000 miles & onto the finish line. 

Thank you for supporting us

We've had some fantastic support from friends, family & work colleagues helping to raise over £1,300 so far for our 2 charities: British Heart Foundation and World Bicycle relief.

Here's a short video on how your money is being put to a great use by WBR. 

Than you everyone for your support. 

11 - Street to Dartmoor

Stats for the day:
Distance: 141.65 km (88.0 miles)
Elevation: 2085 m
Saddle time: 6:40 hrs
Total time: 9:34 hrs

Average 
Speed: 21.2 km/hr
Heart rate: 77 bpm
Cadence: 74 rpm

Maximum
Speed: 71.6 km/hr
Heart rate: 138 bpm

Elevation profile

Leaving Street we motored along through some nice, generally quiet roads. There seemed to be an inordinate number of Royal Mail vans around, in retrospect I guess it's too far/difficult to cycle or walk. One particularly cheery postie let us know that the hill we thought was about to finish went on for a long time, and indeed it did, for a while it seemed endless but even after the summit there wasn't the instant reward of a nice downhill.

We'd just passed the halfway point for the day when we saw a beautiful looking country pub in Talarton. It later transpired the owner for some reason thought cyclists were taking liberties asking for water bottle refills and seemed to think that she was doing us a favour letting us buy food just before the kitchen shut. However, stopping there meant we met a Lizzie & Abi heading in the opposite direction. We were able to bore them senseless with our tales of wisdom & vast experience having nearly finished, whilst they were just on the first few days & have much to look forward to. A bit of a contrast to yesterday's lunchtime conversation with a random guy in clifton about his goth punk youth & std test. 

Abi is raising awareness (& money) for Ovarian cancer. Please take a look at her page here: 

https://www.justgiving.com/abi-frankish/

We set a course for Exeter & managed to pass by a second cathedral city in as many days (Wells) without seeing the Cathedral.

Stone bridge

Dartmoor pony

Dartmoor

The reminder that we are partaking in a sporting challenge, as opposed to yesterday's sightseeing jaunt, came as we hit Dartmoor. Looking at the elevation profile is like looking at a family of giraffes lined up facing you with their legs slightly spread, you get over one hill, down the other side only to find another waiting for you. At least initially, the scenery was a little disappointing, I had high expectations. However, eventually the views came, along with the ponies, sheep and cows. 

We had to break a police road closure with about 4 miles left in the day, as there was only one road to our lodgings.  Somehow a car had managed to flip off the road & there were 4 police cars in attendance. We rapidly passed that sorry scene & continued to climb upto 450m. With a nice downhill stretch to the pub we are staying at it's all set for some early morning climbs tomorrow. 

10 - Monmouth to Street

Stats for the day:
Distance: 134.7 km (83.7 miles)
Elevation: 1263m
Saddle time: 6:40 hrs

Total time: 9:55 hrs

Average 
Speed: 20.2 km/hr
Cadence: 70 rpm

Maximum
Speed: 55.4 km/hr








Elevation profile

We were heading for our earliest start of the trip yet at 9o'clock which gave Sean a little more tinkering time. So we set off as normal around 10, but with freshly oiled chains, tighter brakes and cleaner bikes. 

Tintern Abbey

To prove yesterday was not a fluke, the cycling was again easy so perhaps it takes a week for the body to fully adapt. The first 20k went by quickly down to Tintern abbey, where we paused for some photos. Then onto the only bit of motorway you are allowed to cycle along, the M48. Well, it's the M48 on the sat nav but really it's the cycle/pedestrian path over the Severn bridge. Sean's curiosity got him some wet paint on his hand looking at how the bridge was constructed, but a friendly worker was on hand with some cleaner & information about what was under the hatch. 



Severn Bridge

Clifton suspension bridge

We skirted around Bristol & up to Clifton for a lunch stop, then across another suspension bridge. The back roads took us through the incredible Cheddar Gorge, which dropped the average speed considerably as turn after turn a new photo opportunity revealed itself.

Cheddar Gorge

Cheddar Gorge

The trip took another turn for the touristic as we climbed up to Glastonbury tor, visible from at least 20k away. Again, some great views to be had from the top, although we did have to walk up the final 50m of altitude.

Heading towards Glastonbury

St Michael's tower, Glastonbury tor

A final couple of miles brought us into Street as our resting place for the night. 



9 - Shrewsbury to Monmouth

Stats for the day:
Distance: 150.2km (93.3 miles)
Elevation: 1876m
Saddle time: 6:49 hrs
Total time: 9:53 hrs

Average 
Speed: 22.0 km/hr
Heart rate: 104 bpm
Cadence: 73 rpm

Maximum
Speed: 61.2 km/hr
Heart rate: 156 bpm








Elevation profile

What a fabulous day. The last couple of days, although not bad, in retrospect were a little bit of trying to get to the end of the day. Somewhat inexplicably today we both felt strong and even added a little 4 mile bonus at the end to go to Symonds Yat viewpoint. 

Starting the day in freshly laundered clothes thanks to the lovely Annette we headed out of Shrewsbury & soon saw a number of cyclists out for a Sunday morning blast. One local club of around 8 had been passing us up some hills, or rather, one very long hill, & were all quite friendly, as they gathered at the top we carried on by, but a few minutes later they came pelting past with a cry of "us again". This time we tagged along for the ride & managed to stay on the back of the peleton for about 5 miles cruising mostly downhill at almost 30mph. I was dropped first & Sean kindly waited for me to catch up. 

Clun Castle

Sign on the other side of the ford - a little late

We stopped for a little walk up to Clun castle, by which time the sun was really beating down. Leaving Clun we had to cross a ford. Well, I say had to, one of us took the little footbridge while Sean decided it didn't look to deep. The most unfortunate thing was that I wasn't quick enough with my camera to capture his fall almost immediately after entering. He had to get up quickly to catch the contents of his handlebar bag which started to float down the river. Undeterred he went back for a second attempt, and this time made it about three quarters of the way across before coming a cropper; most importantly this one was recorded in HD video.





looking into Wales

Within two hours we'd already climbed yesterday's cumulative altitude, but in the sunshine we powered through to Hereford and onto Monmouth.  The upside of all the climbing were some wonderful views, in particular a hillside road (think movie style mountainside pass on a smaller scale) with trees lining the  edge & a spectacular view across into Wales. 



Closer to the finish than the start

From Monmouth we were rewarded with another big climb upto Coleford, with a bonus section due to some erroneous GPS guidance that wanted us to take a path only suitable for mountain bikes. We dropped our bags at the B&B and jumped back on the bikes for a couple more miles down to Symonds Yat Rock. This was particularly badly timed as first rain of the day hit us and we took shelter waiting for it to pass, which it duly did. This actually worked in our favour as the was a huge rainbow from the viewpoint, which, on a good day, has a view across 5 counties. 

View from Symonds Yat

We finished a great day at the pub 2 doors down, which unfortunately didn't serve food on a Sunday (this is the only way I know know which day it is). No problem, we got a Chinese takeaway from across  the road & were given plates at the pub with a couple of local ales, a game of pool & darts - multi disciplined athletes. 

8 - Bolton to Shrewsbury

Stats for the day:
Distance: 125.5km (78 miles)
Elevation: 494m
Saddle time: 5:23 hrs
Total time: 6.54 hrs

Punctures 1/4

Average 
Speed: 23.3 km/hr
Heart rate: 100 bpm
Cadence: 76 rpm

Maximum
Speed: 42.5 km/hr
Heart rate: 133 bpm

Elevation profile



Tyre change

Today had most of the ingredients for another tough day; thunderstorms forecast, fully loaded bags for the first time & busy A roads. It was already raining when we left Bolton & within a few minutes we hit roadworks with a bridge shut we had to find a detour. However it turned out to be quite fun, the rain was only light & the lack of hills made the going easy.

In a change from the original plan we headed for Nantwich at which point Nick left us to head back to Warwick - an impressive 133mile ride for him. A fairly uneventful morning with just a quick puncture stop for Nick which tested his tyre change times in the rain. 

The lunch stop cafe was an example of the small world we live in. The jovial owner, in his 50s, had been sacked from his first job as a fifteen year old having been caught in the stockroom with a shop assistant in Camp Hopson, the local department store in Newbury where Sean & I grew up. 

how not to hide your bunker



Another of the highlights of B road travel is the small towns and villages you get to pass through that would never ordinarily cross your radar.  Today for example we passed by the delightfully named Cinnamon Brown and the more bizarrely named Preston Gubbals. 

Not much else to report, as you can probably tell from village names being a highlight rather than any scenery. We motored into Shrewsbury for the earliest finish yet at around 5pm. Pre trip we thought we'd be finished by 4 or 5 every day, although we so thought we'd be leaving between 8 & 9 - which as it turns out is the exact time to serve breakfast by the B&B rule book, along with an offer to do it earlier in such a way it's obvious they don't want to get up any earlier. 

And then there were two..

Thanks to Bernard for his evening companionship & reducing the load we had to carry, and even remembering to turn his phone on occasionally.  

Thanks to Nick for coming up with the idea in the first place and being a constant source of entertainment, despite a slight obsession with Germans and showers. Happy Birthday!

7 - Kendal to Bolton

Stats for the day:
Distance: 126.0 km (78.3 miles)
Elevation: 1966m
Saddle time: 6:24 hrs
Total time: 8:44 hrs

Average 
Speed: 19.6 km/hr
Heart rate: 97 bpm
Cadence: 68 rpm

Maximum
Speed: 58.0 km/hr
Heart rate: 158 bpm

Elevation profile



TOUGH DAY!

Perhaps we'd been lulled into it, focusing on Kirkstone pass, but today we climbed an extra 25% on yesterday in 15 fewer miles and it really took its toll. 

400m doesn't sound very much but hitting that climb at 10 - 20% into a serious headwind is draining on both the body & mind. To try & put the wind into perspective yesterday on a similar descent I hit 60kmph, today touching just over 30.

Forest of Bowland

This all came about in the forest of Bowland, confusingly titled given the lack of trees since it's a huge expanse of pretty desolate moorland. Having now researched thoroughly this (all 30 seconds of google/Wikipedia) apparently forest traditionally was a term used for royal hunting ground. This was also the location of my first fall of the trip, virtually on the Lancashire border I'd stopped to look at a big stone & the information boards (or at least pretend to while recovering from the hill climb). In attempting to start off again I'd clipped my cleats into the pedal and tried to push off, however the hill was too steep (have I mentioned hills enough yet?) & without any forward momentum I landed on my side in a slow motion comedy tumble. Luckily no one other than Sean or Nick were around to witness this embarrassing moment. 

Forest of Bowland

We were determined to make it past half distance before stopping for lunch today so we pressed onto the little village of Slaidburn, where an elderly couple sitting on a bench at the crossroads pointed us in the direction of a cafe on the green, a rather idyllic setting & a good spot for apple pie & ice cream. 

Lunch over & within 5 mins we were back grinding up a 16% incline. The constant up & down seemed to repeat itself, but I think I may have just blanked it from my mind. 

Eventually we reached the road into Bolton via Blackburn the A666. Now without wanting to be disparaging about either post industrial northern town the joke rather writes itself.  A missed turn out of Blackburn also contributed to spending longer on the 666 than we would have liked. However some judicious use of the garmin spotted a shortcut back to our planned route. Of course shortcut = hill climb and we ended up with a great view of Bolton & beyond in the late afternoon sunshine. Powered on by jelly babys and the knowledge we had less 10 miles to go we flew down the final few hills to our classy premier inn. It happeneds to also be the weekend of a Bolton ironman so the the sight of Lycra clad cyclists is the norm rather than exception.