Blogs

Unsurprisingly, after yesterday’s epic day, I slept in – PANIC!  Apparently the Proclaimers had been playing but I hadn’t heard a thing and I now know I wasn’t the only one.  I awoke to find it light and knew immediately that something wasn’t right.  At 530 it is definitely dark and it is not until you are emerging from breakfast or cleaning your teeth that the sun is rising and you can switch your headtorch off.  It was 640 and we were due to leave at 715.  No time for breakfast and in a complete panic, I ran around collecting my laund

Breakfast at just after 5am and I was lucky enough to sit with brilliant but slightly bleary eyed Scottish skier Alain Baxter for breakfast who had taken a train at around 4 this morning to ride with us today, hmm not the best choice of day, hope that was worth it.  I was grateful for the distraction from the terror that lay ahead.  He confided that he was used to the type of riding that takes place round a track for about 20 seconds so he was also, I think, feeling a little nervous.  It was a quick breakfast though as I had to get to the start line very early being

Richard Mitchelson is a keen cyclo-cross racer and will be charting the ups and downs of the season in his new diary. You can read about his first race at Hog Hill here, his second race in Brighton. Here's the story of race number three which headed to the historic Herne Hill last weekend.

After yesterday’s battle, ‘Don’t stop believing’ rang out this morning!  The day dawned a little damp but it soon dried up.  The roads were flat and wide and today we made good time throughout, which was lucky as today was the day my mother was waiting at the other end to see and hear what on earth I had been up to.  I grew up in Scotland and have only been South for 10 or so years but I had forgotten the lay of the dramatic landscape and there is no better way to view it than on a bicycle.  Having passed Carlisle we were soon in Gretna Green and

Hill climbing, I'm getting used to this...

No I'm not, that's a lie.  Putting myself in a place where my arms lose all feeling and my vision reduces to a single spot 2 metres in front of my front wheel is going to take a bit more getting used to than a couple of hill climbs.

Day 5 Haydock to Penrith