Valerie

Before we get into anything, many thanks to East Sussex Dance for being the sponsor of the day today and also for the continuing support in retweeting, sharing and liking. We also must sort some lessons out for our return, if I can still move. Now, the support team is pushing me out of the way.

Day 5 report coming from your support team today (written by the favourite child of the family- Ruth). Early start today, with breakfast for Mike at half seven while I still snoozed in bed for another hour- typical teenager right? Ross and Mike were off by 8:40 with Glenn manning the support car. Weather seemed reasonably pleasant by the time I had emerged and had my breakfast with Jenni, some coco pops for me to keep my energy up with all that driving.

Support car 2 (me and Jenni) set off and headed towards Telford, but ended up in Wellington, oops. Even though we weren’t where we thought we were, provisions were bought, magic stars for me and a sandwich for dad. Jenni bought herself a swimming costume for tonight, the hotel has a pool! Unfortunately for me, the only shop in Wellington was aimed at people at least 30 years older than myself- so I passed on the swimming costume front.

Must say Jenni and I are rather surprised with the likes and views we got from our rendition of Valerie. I think it's more from humour of our bad singer than our talent.

Next stop was cousin Johns (not my cousin, I’m guessing my second cousin), for tea and scones. Only problem was, Jenni and I arrived an hour before the cyclists. Next to arrive was Ross who had now swapped with Glenn. The we waited, and waited… and waited.

In the end, Ross was sent off on his bike to see if he could see the wayward cyclists who we assumed were M.I.A. But then, they appeared. John’s house is tucked away, not the easiest of houses to find, must boast though that Jenni and I found it very easily. Glenn and Mike were both pretty knackered after climbing a Grade 1 hill that was in the Tour of Britain, not sure what that means but I gather it’s pretty f-ing steep.

Top notch scones at Johns; as well as a whole bowl of strawberries that I well and truly demolished. Thanks Stephen for those. Coffee, tea and apple juice was drank; hot cross buns, bananas and raspberries were eaten. Huge thank you to John and Stephen for serving us a brilliant lunch and a big thanks to John’s neighbour Dave, who gave Mike’s bike a good wash down and service.

With lunch over it was time to bid farewell to Ross and Glenn who I assume now are back in Lewes and votes placed. So it is the time of Ruth and Jenni. The pressure is well and truly on to fill the shoes of Helen and Steve as well as Glenn and Ross. Now we didn’t really succeed in this on the first stop (Mike’s third, our first), as Mike actually got there before us after we took a wrong turn and he took a more direct route. Probably not the best start to our support car duties.

Second stop wasn’t that much better; no getting lost this time and got to the meeting place- a layby at a junction- in good time. However, Jenni demanded that we had to turn round and go back to the pub a few miles back to she could relieve her bladder. We sat down at the pub with a drink, assuming we had a good 20 minutes to spare before going back, just so we could be early. But when looking at the tracker we realised he only had three miles left until he got to the meeting point. Alarmed, we ran to the car, just as Mike cycled past us. Some rude words were uttered by Jenni and I as we raced to the car, determined to get there at least five minutes before him.

Car beats bike to the last stop of the day- by about five minutes. The car is now a bag of magic stars, a sandwich and a banana lighter. Now onwards to the hotel, where it’s time for a swim and some good food at the bar.

Huge thanks to Ross and Glenn for all their amazing help these last days; you’ve been truly incredible and I hope you know how much Jenni, Mike and I appreciate you coming along and riding some of the route. Other thanks go out to John, Stephen and neighbour Dave for dealing with the changeover at lunch today and feeding the beasts.

Keep up the support back home, every message, like, retweet and comment means something and spurs Mike on. Thank you all so much.

The Rider’s bit

Well, I think the support team have said a lot today, is there anything left for me?

I think for me today, it was roadworks day as I managed to talk my way through three lots of them. To be fair, the first lot when Ross and I had just come up a fair sized hill did warn us seven times that the road would be closed, but as the detour would mean going back down the hill and then coming back up the hill, we thought we would chance it.

Didn’t look promising when the young lad at first refused to let us pass as ‘the gaffers’ were all up at the works. We managed to persuade him to let us pass if we walked through when needed. So we got through there and rode up to where there were lots of lorries and men working. We were greeted by a man, a very big man sticking his hand out and saying we couldn’t come through. We greeted him in very friendly fashion saying that we didn’t want to cause any problems but really didn’t want to divert and could we walk through. Thankfully he relented and we did walk through.

Then, rider swap and first thing Glenn and I found was more roadworks. Talked our way through very easily now but also had a route malfunction, but not too bad.

We will come back to roadworks…

I do have to take issue with National Cycle Route 45 (I think) that runs alongside the Severn after Bridgenorth as it is shocking. It may have been flat, but it was like corrugated iron. 4 miles of that was more than enough. Then through the birth of the industrial revolution, Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale before the climb mentioned above.

After the magnificent service from Dave, the food from John and Stephen then I was on my own for the last bit. I had been worried about how long this would take as there were still 40 miles to go, but thankfully it was much flatter and the bike certainly was smoother.

So, all good, when the support team turned up that is, until 1.4 miles from base and I found the 3rd lot of roadworks that would send me miles out of the way. By now I was ready just to hurdle the barriers, but there was a nice man who moved them for me. All roadworks men received a smile, a thank you and a handshake. Civility costs nothing but detours are horrible.

Must also mention Ben from Clee Cycles who did very quick charity work for me to give me some brakes before Dave finished the job. Also, Halfords get a thumbs up for doing a charity deal on the other brake pads thanks to Ross for his negotiation skills.

Just had a very pleasant even at The Manor House in Alsager, good place to rest up and very helpful staff and also getting many tips from Richard and Becky. Social media and self promotion is becoming less of a mystery, I may be insufferable in the future…..