First 100 miles

We were both progressing really well by now and were both getting up to an 80 mile ride, so a few weeks before the Cornwall Tor we decided to meet up and try to do a 100 miler(I am in Cornwall, George is in Wilts). It was a glorious day and the route was pretty tough(they all are in Cornwall). It was a great ride. If it had finished at 85 miles I would have been absolutely fine, but I did hit a bit of a wall at 90 miles and the last 10 I really had to dig deep. But we had done it, our first 100!

First 100 mile ride

I was working in Cornwall a few weeks ago and I met up with Adie for a short training ride. I had taken my Scott Sporster down, as this was the bike I was going to use on the End to End. Well that needed to change, I needed to get myself a bike that will keep up with Adie. I knew I was poor on hills, despite training regularly. However Adie had been following a strict training program which includes hill repeats and he was leaving me standing. So its time to visit my local bike shop and spend some money. We arranged to meet for a longer ride this weekend, my new bike is ordered, but it doesn't look like it will arrive until after the Cornwall Tor Ride. First of all we were planning to do 80 miles, but by the time it got to Saturday this had increased to the first 100 miler. Anyone who has ridden in Cornwall will appreciate that there is nowhere to hide from the hills. We left Looe early and headed out towards Bodmin, there were a few hills on the way, but nothing too treacherous. We climbed out of Bodmin towards Camelford and onto the Atlantic Highway. Wow what a road! We were flying and heading towards Bude where we found a nice little cafe about a mile from Bude. What a welcome stop, at exactly 50 miles. Leaving the cafe we headed towards Launceston and this is where the ride really started to get hard. After a great downhill into Launceston, there was a huge climb out, up to about 900ft and then back down again... and up again... and down again.... 5 times this happened and my rubbish hill climbing was really starting to show. Adie was kind enough to wait at the top for me, but by the end of the 5th climb I was virtually done in. We had to stop for a drink and something to eat. But by the time we hit Liskeard I was feeling much better (many thanks to Soreen). We headed back to Looe using the back road that runs alongside the railway line. By the time we got there I was feeling great and my legs were full of energy once again, we had already done 97 miles but we weren't stopping there, we had a target. So after a few trips up and down Sandplace and up to the Barbican we had done it .... 100 MILES!!!