Day 6 Tarporley Cheshire to Lancaster

The first Wednesday of LEJOG is done and the stats for this long eventful day are:

Miles: 79.6
Climbing: 2762 ft
Average Speed: 14.0 mph
Max Speed: 30.3 mph
Time Riding: 5 hr 40 mins
Total Duration: 9 hr 14 mins
Steepest Gradient: 10.4%

Day 6 was for sure a long, stressful and hard day. Again the day's ride started out fuelled by a full English breakfast, which put me in a good mood as I headed north from Tarporley to Runcorn, where I would cross the River Mersey on the Silver Jubilee Bridge. Unfortunately or possibly fortunately (see below for events that transpired) I missed the sole sign directing foot and bike traffic across the footpath and ended up in the center of Runcorn. Now is probably time to tell you that Norman has been suffering from a few aches and groans appearing to come from the bottom bracket, so when I spied the Cycle Center, as I wandered around the town center, it was time to get a diagnosis for Norman. The news wasn't good!!! After popping out the pedal crank it was confirmed that the BB30 bottom bracket bearings were shot. Unfortunately they didn't have any in stock but Ian ( I think that was his name) started to phone round a few other stores and found one in St. Helens that had the bearings in stock and would fit them while I waited. So after thanking Ian for his great friendly service a slight detour was in order to get Norman into surgery at Thatto Cycles. I arrived at Thatto and Norman was whisked immediately into surgery, well the mechanics stand and was under the knife for 30 minutes. During these nerve racking minutes I was served a fresh cuppa tea and sat and chatted with the hugely friendly staff. Norman rolled out of surgery and is now running smoothly with no groans from that previously annoying bottom bracket.

So a big thanks to both Thatto Cycles and the Cycle Center for helping an End to Ender.

Whilst the fix to Norman hadn't taken too long I was now feeling the pressure to push on so the picture taking for the day was minimal as I pushed on north through Skelmersdale, Leyland and Preston.  The final 5 miles of my route took me through Glasson Docks, it was here I met LindaB from the CTC Forum who is also riding LEJOG. I have been reading her blog and it was good to meet up and have a brief chat with other end to enders. After bidding goodbye it was a 15 minute ride along a very nice trail along the Lune River into Lancaster for the nights accommodation.