11th July 2010 - The Big Off : Land's End to Otterham

A bit of a stormy night last night, pretty windy and raining, lots of broken sleep.  It was quite cloudy, so I decide that today is a good day for cycling and I will rest tomorrow.  We had promised the girls they could go to the swimming pool today so they weren't happy, anyhow, we set off for Land's End, they can go swimming tomorrow. 

It took about an hour and a half to reach Sennen, right next to Land's End, where we stopped off for a quick bite to eat, superb Cornish pasty at the local shop.

We arrive at Land's End and I get the bike off the roof of the car, eager to get on my way.  We head for the sign and find out you need to pay a tenner to get your photo taken. Sod that! We wait for an opportunity when nobody else is there to get our photo taken, we are, after all, Scottish and as tight as a sharks a£$e at fifty fathoms, when it comes to that kind of thing.

OK, now I am ready to get on my way, 85 miles of hilly terrain in front of me and it is 1:30pm.  I say goodbye to Carol, Poppy, Rosie and Katy and head off, feeling all excited. I was following the CTC Bed and Breakfast route, largely due to my lack of preparation.  This first part in Cornwall looked like it need a lot of navigation and I found that out the hard way after three miles.  I was looking for a right turn and turned off too early and away down a steep hill before I noticed my mistake.  Sugar! Back up the hill and back on the right road.  My first town to navigate through was Penzance and today it was super busy.  Pretty scary half mile along a dual carriageway and around a busy roundabout.  I remember thinking that I hope I don't have too much of this as a boy racer whizzed past me.

A couple of hours later, I was right.  It was a navigational nightmare.  I had arrived at Truro, forty miles up the road and it had taken me three and a half hours.  This is no good I thought to myself as I was getting lost in Truro.  I needed to find a quicker way.  I decided to head towards St Austell along the A390 to pick up the B3275.  Wise move, the B3275 was quiet and had a good surface and I was moving along at a steady rate.  I was starting to feel tired and decided that I would try the A39, even though I had been advised it wasn't great for cycling along, narrow and busy.  I figured that it was the night of the World Cup final, so the road would be quiet. 

Thankfully, the A39 was indeed quiet.  This was good as there was no-one around to witness my suffering as I endured a rather long ride up the A39 through Wadebridge and Camelford.  At Camelford, I hit rock bottom, over 6,000 feet climbed, and my Cornish pasty had reached it's limit.  I called Carol and asked her to come and pick me up. She gave me a little pep talk and I carried on, calling her a few choice names under my breath as I proceed up yet another hill. I was now down to about 8mph and feeling very sorry for myself and it was getting dark and I was missing the World Cup final. Luckily, there was a garage in Camelford and I went in an bought some Lucozade Sport and a Mars bar. I think I just swallowed the Mars bar whole.  The Lucozade did the trick.  Here started my journey long affiliation with the Lucozade brand as it would save me again, quite a few times infact.  

After another hour or so, I reached the campsite, saying "that is the hardest day (on paper) over and done with".  Looking back, how I laugh, what a fool, it turned out to be probably the easiest days cycling in England.

Song for Today (before I started cycling): Queen - Bicycle Race