Hi guys….well as per tradition here we go!
We were hosted last night Chez Alan & Deb, who looked after us fantastically with salads, pasta and fresh fruit as dessert. You can tell that wasn’t the usual ‘healthy’ food that we have been eating on the road.
No more photos other than what we posted yesterday as a lovely evening was spent with family and watching footy. We had a great time.
We were up and about this morning at 6:00am and busy making our prep with a drive to get to the start with our new driver.
Alan and Thomas would like to thank Billy for giving up his time to look after us over these last days. Thanks Billy!
As we arrived at Avonmouth to begin the ride, we once again had a fantastic surprise. Team members from Alan’s club, VC Newport, had driven out to join us at the start.
Thanks guys! It was a great start to our 70-miler to see you there! 👍
And so we set off on our 72 mile day and our first checkpoint at 24 miles in Cheddar. The weather was miserable. Wet and cold and we took some cycle paths after the AvonmouthBridge that just threw up the muck. We did have ‘Alan’s livener’, which was a long climb uphill out of Thornbury. Nice! Still we were able to record some key events, starting with the ‘bridge selfie’ 😉
Then we recorded Mark passing his first checkpoint test. He has been with us a few days but this was his first test as our driver. He didn’t screw up 👍
And then it was the ‘dirty pose’ from Thomas, showing what happens when you start the ride and forget to take your waterproof jacket. 😢😁
We set off to meet Mark in Bridgewater at 42 miles, and we never expected such a tough climbing day. The rain held off for only a short while but still we got wet again and reached Bridgewater with a Strava failure. Luckily a guy came along on a bike and asked the obvious question…’Are you guys lost?’
10 minutes later, we had found Mark and all was good again.
Thanks Lyall….much appreciated mate! 👍
Well it might have been reasonable for us to feel that we already seen the difficult stuff. Not at all. The next stage to Norton Fitzwarren was horrible. The rains came down, and one climb in particular was awful. It must have been at least a mile with all sorts of increases in gradient all the way along it. And when we were looking forward to getting our reward on the downhill, we couldn’t! The rain was so heavy that the downhill slopes were flooded with torrents of water and mud. So we were firmly on the brakes for the whole descent.
The last section was just a time to crack on and get it done. As Alan says…’Just dogging it out.’
In the end we got there, a distance of 72 miles, at 6:00pm this evening. Pretty tired, but feeling great! A cold one was soon enjoyed. 😊
People continue to see the pow21 and the OYF message.
This morning, at the first checkpoint we met Harvey from Cheddar RFC who was conducting training with a group of youngsters. He was interested in our story and accordingly made a donation to the magic bucket. Thanks Harvey!
When we arrived at the camp this evening, a lovely couple named John and Lyn, on seeing us arrive on the bikes, also made a donation to the magic bucket. Thanks John and Lyn….much appreciated!
And last night we received a cash donation from Mitzi and Billy Walker. Thanks so much guys for adding to the magic bucket. 😊
But please continue to spread the word. As at a few moments ago, pow21 had raised £6,691without Gift Aid! And we have another £371.99in the bucket. This means without the Gift Aid, we have smashed the £7k mark standing at £7,062! 👍😁
Please consider donating via Justgiving here
We couldn’t do this without you all.
Once again thanks for all your support and donations.
Tomorrow’s journey is from Sampford Peverell to Bude, expected to be another 68 miles. And we expect a lot of climbing too!! 😢 😊
We are all set to head off to eat now.
Signing off….more news tomorrow…