Wellington to Glastonbury – 31 miles Our first day off had become a day of catching up on lost miles. Only 31 of them, but still. When I took a look at the Komoot profile I texted it to Jools in Bristol with a simple ‘Hallelujah!’. Jools meanwhile had looked into replacing all our remaining campsite bookings with B&Bs or…
Lydford to Wellington – 59 miles We decided to set off early this time. Early for us meant 8.30am. We had a long way to go, and our faith in our ability to go the distance, especially in the land of hills like Uruks, had taken a knock. So we skipped breakfast and hit the Granite Way, which turned out…
Warleggan to Lydford – 31 miles Leaving the highest campsite in Cornwall (at least it felt that way) the next morning, we turned left and were immediately faced with a steep hill. I had begun to realise that there’s a warm up period at the beginning of every day, when limbs feel stiff and leaden, and everything else feels 30%…
Carnon Downs to Warleggan – 40 Miles I woke up to the sound of owls, one to the left, one to the right, one in the middle. Their conversation was steady and monotonous, the left one asking ‘Teeew Wooo’, the right one answering ‘Wooo’, and the middle one butting in with a ‘Woowooo’, as if to add a sage observation…
Lands End to Carnon Downs – 44 miles The day dawned blue, the first serious break in the weather for weeks. As we loaded our bikes, two vans were getting ready to support a group of twelve riders who were setting off to do the End to End in little more than two weeks. We felt happy, even a little…
The train trip from Bristol was a kind of calm before the storm. Getting the bikes into the tiny space provided on today’s inter-city trains was a battle. Someone’s missing the glorious transport solution that train + bike could provide. Once settled we watched the west of England slip by. After Dawlish the train track is so close to the…
Molasses. Not a word I was very familiar with until day before yesterday. But then Jools reminded me of the homemade slabs of deliciousness that our friend Ricardo had brought along on one of a ‘training’ rides a few weeks ago. Cyclists know a fair bit about sugar highs. Let’s face it, on a long and arduous ride carrying weight,…
My friend Sam Cole did this dinky little clip about our visit to Oxford Bike Works last July to pick our rides for LEJOG. Richard Delacour, founder-owner of Oxford Bike Works, hand-makes some of the best touring bikes money can buy. His tough steel-framed machines are revered by touring cyclists the world over. One of the UK’s leading touring gurus,…
Two days to go and the nerves are beginning to tell. They’re not helped by delving into End to End, Paul Jones’ excellent account of the various heroes, dreamers and unhinged nutters who have attempted to the break the End to End record. Jones starts with a pair of late Victorian adventurers who completed the 874 miles between Land’s End…
The pandemic’s to blame. Before that little bug turned up, cycling for me was like driving a car: purely functional. I only ever got on two wheels to go to the city centre and do a bit of shopping, or avoid parking hassles at a gig, or as a way of drinking without being pulled over by the rozzers on…
