Tintagel to Street

this day was going to be a tough challenge. 130miles through Cornwall an Devon, heading towards Glastonbury. We left pretty much on time but again the group split into two and Damian, Oli, myself went with the Garmin whereas Jorrin went with Ian as he wasn't ready when everyone else was. Again, there are two sides this - one, getting up in time - the other, being a team and pulling together.

We made good but slow progress through the Cornish Countryside. We went Tentagel, Tiverton, then to Withereadge where we met with Tom Staniford (member of the GB paralympic cycling team) and were also joined by Jorrin and Ian. We did a couple of miles him and his girlfriend. The good news at this point was that we already clocked up 78 miles. The very bad news was that it was 5pm and we had to do another 50. This really was bad news. At the speed we went it was going to take us another 5 hours. The Garmin took us onto and off the b roads which mostly was a waste of time and we had to make about 5 or 6 u-turns before it adjusted itself. We ended up using the map and Garmin alike to get the best compromise between being off the main roads and seeing nice country side and being on the main roads to go at greater speed, doing more miles.

It got dark at about 9pm and we still had another 20 miles to do and they seemed to last forever. I n the dark it seemed like we did a lot of miles but we didn't . The street signs were especially confusing as they seemed to indicate a certain mileage only to reach another village which had the same mileage written on their signs. frustrating. We all put our lights on, stayed as a group, warned on impeding/ preceding cars and just kept on pedaling. I at about 10.30 I felt like dying. I had absolutely no energy left, my mouth was dry and my concentration level was at a low point. Not ideal conditions to ride in the dark, on unknown roads, after 11 hours on the road. The energy drink made my stomach really sick, I had heartburn and just wanted to fall over and lay wherever my head hit the road.

We saw Glastonbury Tor in the distance drawing ourselves closer bit by bit. We knew that our final destination, Street, was close by. After another agonising 5 miles we reached YHA Street at 11pm, Deuan coming out on the road to meet & greet us. I really didn't register much anymore. This went for everyone. All we wanted was to shower, eat, sleep. I stumbled into the room, undressed, showered and collapsed Deuan and Ian kindly made dinner, showered, crushed into the bed Deuan laid for me. My mind was absolutely blank, there was nothing happening. After about 10 minutes Deuan called me for some food downstairs. Ian and Deuan kindly made pasta, rice and sauce together with a nice cuppa. This was very welcome. I could hardly hold the fork and coordinating food intake also proved challenging. I managed a plate, said good night, stumbled upstairs and straight into bed. This day is to be remembered!!! 13 hours on the road, 11 hours on the bike covering 130 miles of amazing countryside - but nothing for the faint hearted.