Today we managed around 70 miles in what was probably the most challenging day so far. We started with a quick trip to Watford Football Club’s training ground at London Colney where we met the two team members from Nottingham – Will Hoskins and Scott Loach. Their support for our Challenge was appreciated as you can seem from my earlier post.
From London Colney we travelled north to St Albans and then Harpenden where we met up with the support team. At least it wasn’t raining but it was cold and I quickly put on more clothes, warmer gloves and overshoes. After the break I jumped on the bike only to discover I had got the first puncture of the tour. Support team swung into action, tyre off, inner tube changed and the bike back in working order while I visited the loo to warm up! Only trouble was that the rest of the team had carried on so I had a bit of a gap to make up.
Cycled through Luton, got lost in the town centre (difficult to belive in Luton but true), found the A6 eventually and charged up it thinking that I must have taken a wrong turn having not managed to catch the rest of the team. Only to meet them just outside Bedford! Impressive progress in a short period of time, particularly when I heard that Alison had fallen off during this leg of the challenge too.
Lunch in Bedford before heading for our final destination, the Travel Lodge at Kettering. But it was a slow-go on major A roads with the wind against us. We finally made it after a “death defying” two mile cycle along the hard shoulder of the A14. Full marks to the HGV drivers that gave us plenty of space. No points to the drivers that throught cutting accross inches ahead of us at the exit ramp was a reasonable way to control a car!
Evening out for dinner followed by an early night and updating the blog. But got to go now because Alice is desperate to get back onto MSN while our latest video is uploaded.
