Despite having a very late meal the night before we were all down at breakfast at 7am getting the other side of a good cooked breakfast. The chef had come in early just for us. We were all pleased that the stag and hen parties that we had met in the bar the night before did not disturb our nights sleep.
We had been joined on this leg by Mark Donoghue, Ali Minhas, Nick and Tanja Cooper and Ainis Vincevicius but Ayyappa was not continuing further. Yvonne's day started at 7am too, not with breakfast, but by making more sandwiches for us!
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| Ready for the off |
We had taken local advice and adjusted our route to head to Weatherby rather than Harrogate as this was a slightly less hillier route. It was a beautiful sunny morning as we set off, guided by local boy Mark D, through the deserted streets of Leeds. Soon we were climbing out of the city and followed a lovely wide and rolling road to Weatherby. The squeaking noise on Ainis's bike was rather annoying and when we stopped he realised that his chain was not threaded through his deralleur properly!
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| Coffee and cake by the old A1 |
We regrouped and rode in group through Weatherby high street and out onto the old A1 that had been converted to a minor road and adjacent cycleway. After a few miles heading north with a gentle southerly breeze pushing us along, the support crew caught us up and we stopped for coffee and cake.
It was then a matter of following the A168 north past Boroughbridge and on to Dishforth. This was a lovely quiet road and we all got in a big long line and regularly hit 22mph towing eachother along. Nick Cooper led this stretch for a long way. The boys on the mountain bikes did get a bit left behind but they soon caught up. We did get some strange looks from the time trial cyclists with their tight lycra suits and aero helmets as we sped past in the opposite direction.
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| A quick refuelling stop on the A168 |
At Dishforth we left our quiet main road and cut through the picturesque village of Topcliffe and joined the A167. Next stop and lunch was Northallerton and a welcome from Jamie Ellis' parents and Paul Hart's wife and young children. We lunched by the vans in Tesco's car park! We did not notice until the way out of town the rather nice park we could have stopped in!
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| Lunch at Northallerton |
With the skys noticeably darkening, but the southerly wind still blowing we set off again toward Darlington. It seemed like we were nearly home but we still had nearly 50 miles to go.
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| Next stop Darlington |
Matt Smith began to have problems with his chain jumping so stopped to try to fix it. Meanwhile the rest of us headed north. Matt Greaves was suffering from back pain so had decided to take a spell in the minibus. This meant that Mark Donoghue could ditch his heavy mountain bike and try out one of the "loan" road bikes that had been kindly given to us for the trip by M Steels Cycles of Gosforth. This was good for him apart he really felt his lack of padded cycling shorts on the hard minimalist race saddle. There was some confusion at Darlington when Ali Minhas and Richard Potter took a short cut through the main pedestrian precinct (as shown on the route map) and missed Dave Watson and the minibus who had pulled over on the ring road. We finaly got together as a group and as the rain began to fall we set off toward Durham. This was a rolling section of road and the faster boys pulled out quite a lead on the hills but we regrouped by the side of a rather wet and busy road for our last refuelling stop before Newcastle. From there we stayed as a group and climbed up from Chester-le-Street to Birtley and the Angel of the North.
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| A very wet but happy crew at the Angel |
From the Angel the end was in sight and it was pretty much down hill through Gateshead. We had to stay as a group here to avoid being split up by traffic lights. It was then a final downhill swoop to the Tyne bridge. We bunched up and took over the inside lane ready for the photo opportunity but this was spoilt by a ambulance screaming past forcing us back into single file.
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| Home! |
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| Made it! |
All the lights seemed to be against us as we wound our way past Central Station and on to the office. Of the 12 cyclists who had set off from Leeds that morning 11 made the full 100 miles.
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| A bunch of happy cyclists outside the office |
A huge thanks must go to the support crew; Jane, Yvonne and Dave I know that we could not have carried the amount of food we consumed over the two days and your constant support kept us all going. As the organiser of the ride I am really proud of what we have achieved, especially some of the non cyclists amongst you. To cycle 100 miles in one day is a real achievement and to do it raising money for Stuart makes it even better.
What shall we do next year?!
Richard Potter
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