End 2 End Day 1
All the guys lined up at the start line
Striker getting the spare bike
The Cannock Three
Lunch in Grampound. The waitress did almost as much mileage as we did.
Neatly avoiding any negotiations about the entry fee to The Land's End Theme Park by dint of simply driving through the entrance without stopping, we quickly found ourselves in the car-park assembling our rides. It was 9:30, the sun was already high and shower clouds were brewing. Fortunately brewing was all they did.
Delaying only to collect our officially stamped End to End forms, and pose in front of the iconic sign (once the guy had arrived and put it together. People will nick anything these days) we were off, or were we? News quickly began to spread about Striker's bottom bracket, which was already dysfunctional only 0 miles into the trip. Is this a record?
The BB was patched up, but only as far as Cyclelogic in Helston where Striker had to change bike completely. Don't panic - he didn't have buy a new one - Dave had brought a spare for the group just in case, which was very foresighted. By now Striker was facing penalties galore, but at least he was moving again.
Lunch was in Grampound, as was the longest climb of the day, a real grind. Terrain was either steeply up or steeply down all the way from Helston to Liskeard, but we had been warned Cornwall was lumpy. These lumps splintered the peleton as rider after rider was spat out the back.
Ultimately only two remained - Chris Braiden and Dai Smith, chased hard by Bill Gannon and Andy Lewis. Speeds touched 52mph on the wide dual-carriageway descent (so I'm told) which is obviously why we didn't catch them, since I could only manage 46! Chris got the honours, and his 3rd win of the day. We'll have to knit him a green jersey.
Primes: Helston - Andy Lewis. Lostwithiel - Dai Smith. Truro, St Austell, Liskeard - Chris Braiden.
Mileage - 77 miles. Time in Saddle - 4:43. Av speed - 16.3mph.