Day 7 Lancaster to Carlisle

The all important stats for the last full day in England are:

Miles: 70.1
Climbing: 3569 ft
Average Speed: 12.8 mph
Max Speed: 34.3 mph
Time Riding: 5 hr 29 mins
Total Duration: 7 hr 44 mins
Steepest Gradient: 10.1%




Day 7 (Thursday) is the day that many dread or at least look forward to the least, the climb up and over Shap. But before I attempted Shap I had to get there. All I can say is that the ride up from Lancaster was a delight. Taking the Lancaster canal north to Carnforth was much slower than using the A6 but the views were worth it. Such a wonderful pace to life on the canals.






After leaving the canal I meandered along country lanes, avoiding the A6, making my way slowly to Kendal. Arriving there just before lunch I stocked up on provisions before the assault on Shap.  The climb up to the summit of Shap from Kendal is 1200 feet. None of it is exceptionally steep , max grade 10%, but it is a long continuous climb. But the views on the way up, at the top and back down are worth it.


Kendal

Part way up I was joined by another LEJOGer, Mark  Booth from Lincolnshire, having someone to talk to on the climb psychologically made it easier. I ended up ride with Mark for a good portion of the remaining ride, only going our separate ways once we reached Carlisle my overnight stop.

This was by far my most satisfying day on the journey so far. The scenery was awesome, having a ride companion for a few hours was great as we discussed why we were both crazy enough to be doing this adventure and conquering Shape.


A Grand Day indeed.




At Shap Summit



Day 2 Trevallett (Cornwall) - Wellington (Somerset)

Day 2 is now complete, the important daily statistics are:

Miles: 76.2
Climbing: 4581ft
Average Speed: 13.1 mph
Max Speed: 40.3 mph
Time Riding: 5 hr 48 mins
Total Duration: 8 hr 18 mins
Steepest Gradient:

River Tamar

Started out much later than yesterday, rolling out of the Three Quoins B&B after a very relaxing and pleasant nights stay, at 09:15. Fuelled by a Full English breakfast the ride started out at a fairly decent pace, passing through Launceston before quickly arriving at the Devon border. This was the start of close to 4500 ft of climbing. The Devon hills certainly match their Cornwall neighbors for intensity but I found that they differed on how they inflicted pain. Where I found the Cornwall hills to be steep but short the Devon ones are less steep but are much longer. Really draining!!
I'm sure this was also made worse by the 91 miles put in yesterday making for some slow going. Now enough of the hills, the Devon countryside is awesome, really accentuated by the glorious sunshine.

Lunch was a welcome break, a hearty ham ploughman's washed down with a glass of St. George's ale, at the White Hart in Bow.

The ride for the early part of the afternoon continued to be a hard fought effort,  requiring a 4 mile detour to Tiverton to rehydrate. After replenishing the H2O stores the riding eased as I got to enjoy the Grand Western Canal for 5 or 6 miles. After the canal I had only 10 miles to complete, with the Devon / Somerset border crossed I entered Wellington and made it to the overnight stop by 17:30.

The second day now crossed off and on to day 3, planned to be far easier when it comes to climbing with only 1900ft, as I work my way up the coast towards Weston Super Mare and then onto Thornbury.

Tiverton

Grand Western Canal

The Adventure Begins

Well after months of planning the adventure, known as LEJOG, is underway. Well not the cycling part, that starts tomorrow, but the journey to Land's End from the suburbs of Washington DC. I am currently penning this blog entry from the Starbucks in terminal B at Dulles Airport.  Not sure drinking a coffee based drink before boarding the RedEye flight to Heathrow is the best thing to be doing, but hey I am off on an adventure. Who needs sleep? And on the redeye I doubt I'll get any anyway.

So without further ado I must announce that my bike "Blue" has a new name. After weighing the numerous suggestions sent to me, thanks to those that submitted names, choosing from the top three, in fact there was only three, was a hard choice. So in fine fashion I have chosen to ignore all of them and the name I have settled on is.........


Drum Roll Please......



Norman











To give Blue it's full name "Norman Norcross".

So Norman and I are off on this LEJOG adventure. The next blog entry should be tomorrow with the 20 miles under our belts.

3 Days to the Start

Well with just 3 days left to the start of my adventure I have to admit to being a little nervous. Not with the ride itself but with the logistics of getting man and more importantly the machine to the UK.

This into.....

This evening I closed up the box containing my bike and sealed it tight, with enough shipping tape and bubble wrap being used to keep Staples profits up. Now I just have to concentrate on the clothes packing.



this.

When asked about taking my own bike for this adventure many people have been surprised that I am not shipping it as freight but rather taking it as part of my luggage allowance. All I can say is that British Airways cater to the cyclist and allow bikes to be taken as part of the regular luggage allowance. This is a huge saving over some other airlines fees for bikes and a saving of almost $600 roundtrip of the freight charges. So thank you BA.

I'll blog later on how the bike shipping goes, keeping fingers crossed here.

On another note, yesterday I rode in the Air Force Classic Challenge Ride. It was a great ride on a closed road 9.5 mile loop from Crystal City, to Rosslyn and back going via the Air Force Memorial and the Pentagon. Weather conditions were perfect for the approx. 2000 riders. I managed 6 laps of the much improved circuit in just user 3 hours with an average speed of 19.5 mph covering a total of 56 miles.


View back from start back along Crystal Drive

Countdown T - 7 Days

Yesterday evening I took Blue out for a shake down ride, to make sure the new brakes pads, tires, chain etc. were all working well. Which there were, in fact, this was one of the smoothest, quietest rides since I first assembled Blue. Bet I won't be saying that in 3 weeks time, I'm sure that after 1000 miles and all the wet weather the UK has to offer, the bike will be groaning and complaining, though probably not as much as the rider.

Now I really must come up with a better name for the bike,  "Blue" is just so boring, not the color but the name. I need a cool name for my bike. A favorite bike name of mine is Reggie, this is name that author Andrew Sykes gave to his bike that he rode on his adventures across Europe chronicled in, funnily enough, "Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie". It is a great read about how the author sets out and rides from England to southern Italy, and was in part the final nudge for me to get on with attempting LEJOG.

Andrew's website can be found at cyclingeurope.org

So with less than a week until the off and likely only 2 days until "Blue" is boxed ready to be shipped I need to come up with a "COOL" name for my trusty steed. So if you have any suggestion please drop a note in the comments sections. Thanks.

On another note just a quick shout out to Geoff and David Williams who completed their LEJOG today. Well done and congratulations.  Their LEJOG experience can be found  on the blog roll to the right "Father and Son take on LEJOG"