Day 3
Start: Warrington End: Selkirk Start Time: 7:15 End Time: 19:40 Distance: Average Speed: Weather: No Wind, Sunny and Very Warm
7:15am, Ashdon, Warrington. Fairly warm already. Everyone is a little tired from yesterday and the MacDonalds probably didnt help! Bikes were given a quick clean down and Harrys phone is taken off him!
Breakfast stop, 9:55am on the A6 to Lancaster just past Preston. Very hot again at 25c. Everyone is tired and hungry but still in good humour. The normal breakfast routine, bacon and sausages. My knee was twinging a bit but an ice pack soon helped.
Unscheduled stop! Someone has broken their bike! That would be me then. My rear mech hanger just snapped in two. The girls were sent off to find a replacement whilst Rob rigged it up so that I could still ride but I had no gears! And what is coming up? Shap, the climb we have been talking about since we agreed to do the ride. Oh well on we go. Managed to find a spare rear hanger at a shop in Kendal, better call the girls back! Oh and while Im at the bike shop Ill put some electrical tape around my knee seeing as it now seems to be swelling up!
15:00pm, lunch at Shap. All the way up the hill Harrys been going on about milkshakes at Shap. Oh whats that no ice cream no milkshake ok, not for Harry, he wants a milkshake so he buys some ice cream so the café can make some! Well if you dont ask you dont get and it was nice milkshake! We all had sandwiches and fruit juice in Shap which was a nice change. After lunch Rob put the new hanger back on my bike to find my rear mech is bent! But I still carried on with it. Harry left before us which gave him about a 20 minute lead. The girls left us in search of a bike shop in Carlisle and we soon caught up with Harry.
Our forth stop for the day was on the Scottish boarder at 18:20pm which for the time of day was still quite warm. Everyone was joking about and having fun, slightly at my expense I felt, probably due to the fact that Id put on Daves knee strap on upside down but then neither could Dave or Serena! Lots of photos was taken by the sign and we got stocked up on snacks as we knew dinner was going to be another late one. By this time everyones bum hurts quite a bit so lots of bum cream was applied to see us through the day.
20:05pm finally dinner but still not finished for the day yet. The girls had set up in a lay by near Hawick where they cooked us sausages and pasta. They got a few looks from passing lorries, 2 women in a van cooking with 6 chairs laid out! Just 22 miles left till our last stop in Selkirk where our hotel is. We rode all the way into the hotels car park at about 9:30pm. Luckily Alan had found me a new rear mech and a chain in Carlisle so Rob fixed my bike.