Day 1: Land's End to Liskeard

Total: 75.8 miles

Time in saddle: 4 hrs 42 mins
Average: 16.0 mph
Max. Speed: 42.4 mph
Chafing score: 1/5 (nice)

Day 1 is done! I had hardly any sleep thanks to racing thoughts, a steaming sauna of a hotel room and the loud intersection beneath the window, but a strong coffee and a whole load of nervous energy dispelled any feelings of tiredness. The buoyant conversations of the night before had been replaced at breakfast with wan faces not making much sound at all as reality began to set in. But the weather was glorious as we rode the 10 miles in the coach to Land’s End, where the joy reached fever pitch as we were reunited with our bikes. And then we noticed something. We chose the south to north route as it took advantage of the more commonly prevailing winds. And whaddya know …?

These should point the other way

This lovely headwind accompanied us the whole way to Liskeard. Mind you, the sky was a beautiful colour and the sun really warm. I’d rather have that than a tailwind and driving rain.

Land's End (photo by Vajrin)

21 cyclists made quite a commotion riding round in circles, wise-cracking and then running to the loo before coming back out to ride around in more circles, wise-crack a bit more and then head to the loo again.
 

Final preparations

We all had the obligatory photos taken by the Land’s End sign, and then a big group photo before the off.

Butterflies

The team briefing contained a story designed to sober us up. Jen, from DiscoverAdventure, informed us firmly that company policy, quite rightly, is “No helmet, no ride” and that this policy had been vindicated on the LEJOG that took place 1 month ago, when on the first day a cyclist was hit on the head by a telegraph pole that fell down as it was being erected in a field!

Briefing over. And then we were off. Well, almost. I found this a bit confusing …

The first few miles were very leisurely. We must have been so annoying to the traffic as we rode along chatting but it was amazingly patient and polite. Cycling through Peckham every day conditions you to expect the worst. 10 miles in we rounded a bend and saw St Michael’s Mount bathed in sunshine and needed our first picture stop.

L to R: Don, Philip, John, Colin at St Michael's Mount

Miss September

Gradually a group of Craig, Philip, Colin, John and me emerged at the front and stayed together for most of the rest of the day. Nick was enjoying a very gentle time further back riding with Tommy, who has earned himself a pint from the rest of the group tonight for having the honour of getting the first puncture. In fact he had two and Nick was on hand to fix them. But he only gets 1 pint.

It is good cycling manners to take your turn at the front of the group, riding ‘point’. My tactics are to do this when going up a long hill or straight with no junctions. I don’t want to be the starling that leads the others in the wrong direction and is then attacked by the flock. But somehow, with me at the front, we found ourselves on the A30 dual carriageway near Truro. This error was a team effort with John who was at the back of the group desperately trying to read his computer and barking, “Left, no Right, no Left, LEFT, I mean RIGHT”, meaning 5 cyclists were weaving in all directions like the Red Arrows and ended up being spat onto the A30. The flock was in a forgiving mood thankfully. John and I are already tarred as ‘London cyclists’ so I think we can get away with one now and again.

First water stop

In fact John is already acquiring a reputation. At the morning water stop he looked at the gradients for the afternoon and said we’d done the worst hill by 11am and it should be easy from here. That came back to bite him later.

Lunch was in Probus and had to be earned with a loooooong hill. DiscoverAdventure served up cold meats and salads, hot pasta and veg soup AND Swiss Roll. (They must have known I was coming.) While at Probus, I went and stood at the side of the road to help direct cyclists into the village hall car park and a man of roughly 80 approached me and asked how far we were going and why we were doing it. The first question was easier to answer. For the second, I explained the charity fundraising aspect and told him about AdoptionUK. He took £2.50 out of his pocket and handed it to me. A true gentleman.

The long hill into Probus was a portent of the afternoon’s riding which contained some real horrors. Most of the afternoon we spent on the unforgiving A390, past St. Austell and Lostwithiel, with white vans, school buses and tractors for company. One of the hills coming out of St. Austell was just awful. At the water stop at the top, cheery old John ignored all the heckling about his morning prediction and informed everyone that tomorrow, on Dartmoor, we have 9 hills worse.

One final brutal hill took us into Liskeard and the luxury of the Premier Inn. I am sharing a room with Colin who seems a thoroughly decent chap. He’ll be up running in the morning. Once upon a time (ie. about 2 days ago) that would have made me feel guilty and I would have gone out with him, but I deliberately left my running shoes at home so I wouldn’t be tempted. So many people have told me I am mad for doing this ride but I am surrounded by kindred spirits here and I feel that (a) I belong, and (b) I am only a mild case.

We’re up at 6.00 tomorrow for a 7.30 start. The weather forecast is pretty good. Day 1 was excellent. Day 2 feels like a massive barrier between us and the rest of the ride and will require a different approach. Can’t wait to be up on Dartmoor.