Stu's big ride

Well, it's taken me a while to get round to finishing these posts, and I might yet do a final reflections one, but here I am, nearly three months later, finally giving an account of Friday 16 June; the last day of the ride. It was day seven, but in ride time, day seven was still several hours away from starting. What was bonkers about wondering the night before about whether I could complete the ride within six days, was that at the start I was really not sure if I could do it in seven, and was thinking eight or nine was more likely. Yet here I was, early on the Friday morning, thinking that if I'd pushed that little bit harder, or perhaps not got injured, maybe I could have done it quicker. I'd done something easy to make myself a little bit quicker as the weather seemed set to be warm and dry in Devon and Cornwall; I'd left my sleeping bag at home in Churchill and swapped my bivvy bag for my lighter one. Not only did that mean I was traveling a bit lighter, it also me...

It was great to spend a night at home and to see Kathy and 2/3 of the kids. Despite a couple of people warning that it might be difficult to get going again after a stay at home, this wasn't the case at all, I was itching to get going, as this 5.30 am video suggests. .   I was constantly having to remind myself that I wasn't nearly there, even though it was beginning to feel like that. Whilst there was only 306 km to go, it involved more than 3,100 m of climbing. Devon and Cornwall are hilly places, and as far as the end-to-end route is concerned, Cornwall is considerably hillier than Scotland.  The goal for the day was Camelford. After getting through the Mendips it would be flat through the Somerset Levels (the clue's in the name) and then the hills would begin in earnest, somewhere between Taunton and Tiverton.  Kathy had taped up my Achilles, but they were both pretty sore and I was concerned that it would be a slow couple of days. As I rode through Taunton...