We managed an early breakfast at the B&B in Bilsborrow (just outside Preston) and were on the road at 8:20. This was part of the plan, knowing that at some point today, we would be straining our way up Shap Fell. Martin back in the office sent me a TXT with a few stats: "Basically, you'll be climbing for about 18 miles to around 1400ft, but there's not many bits that are steeper than 10%".
Before hitting those delights, we had to cover the leisurely 40 miles to Kendal - home of mint cake. This should have been a snap were it not for the 20mph head wind trying to push us back to Preston. Why are we going fromLand's End to John o'Groats and not doing the trip the other way round? Well, it's because of Britain's prevailing south westerly wind - it's just not sensible to cycle against it all the way.
Well, the south westerly has yet to prevail, as the north-easterly is currently beating the living daylights out of it, and making our journey a little more painful to boot.
Still, we arrived in Kendal and worrying about Patrick's infamous 'Dad Nav' abilities, Julian actually stopped and asked directions to the nearest supermarket where Patrick would be able to impress us with his shopping abilities... He returned from Morrison's foyer with cheese rolls. Now that may not sound too bad, but our choice of filling was peanut butter and jam. Apparently we were not to worry about the funny taste and just think of all that extra cheesey energy. Still, the malt loaf and chocolate slices went down fairly well.
After that gourmet lunch, we began the ascent of Shap Fell. A fellow cyclist may well have had a similar gourmet lunch - he was seen hunched over at the other side of the road, throwing up - and he'd been going down hill!
It was tough and slow going - particularly for me since hill climbing is not my forte but after the first 7 miles of pain, we settled into our respective rhythms and stopped near the top for a photo opportunity.
The descent was meant to be a piece of cake, but that headwind made us pedal all the way down to Shap (where we bought a piece of cake to go with our cups of tea) and on to Penrith. More supplies were gained there, then onto Carlisle and out on the A7 towards Scotland.
Patrick had a near accident experience when a local boy racer came up behind him too fast and slammed his brakes on, leaving ten feet of skidmarks on the road ... (oh go on, you can make up your own jokes from here).
Reaching the border seemed like a real milestone even though we still have 360 miles to go. We took some photos at the sign and tried to get our heads around the fact that 5 days ago we were in Cornwall...
Julian's statoids - Day Six
Daily Distance: 98 miles
Cumulative Distance: 511.5 miles
Ride time: 7 hours 1 mins
Top Speed: 33.3 mph
Average speed: 13.9 mph
Calories Burned - 4500
Terrain - Mostly flat
Key Events: Shap's 1400ft ascent. Cheese rolls.
Posts
From Cornwall to Scotland in just 5 days, that's amazing - it puts the commute to work into perspective and might inspire me to get on my bike again.
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting geography lesson in that Carlisle is only half way up to JOG... seems like 80% of the UK is 'The North'.
thierry
Forgot to say, well done and keep it up!
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to forget how much of Scotland there is as well! Well done you guys for getting to the border, it must have been a good feeling when you were doing the picture :)
ReplyDeleteYou guys are seriously fast, averaging 13.9mph with all that wind and the big Shap climb - respect. I'm suspicious of the calories stats though, that must have used way more energy. Make sure you gets lots of pasta in when you can and stop Patrick from doing any more food purchasing!
ReplyDeleteBill
Judge Jules and his wheels, quite literally, of steel...
ReplyDelete13.9MPH? - you've never moved so fast!
We'll never do our trip as fast as you! Well impressive guys, keep it up. We're not at JOG until Tuesday so I guess we won't see you ;). Hopefully the wind will be behind us all the way home.
ReplyDeleteJames