I think the flight from San Francisco to Auckland the first and possibly the last time I actually enjoyed being on a airplane for 13hrs. The flight was only half full so I got a row of seats to myself and as we left at 11pm after eating some food I was ready to sleep and that's about all I did for 10hrs straight. Perfect! I only woke towards the end of the flight to eat some more food and watch a documentary about Mark Cavendish on the on-flight tv. If only all flight were that good.
I arrived at Auckland airport at 8am Tuesday morning. But having left the USA on Sunday at 11pm it was a bit confusing to have completely missed Monday because of crossing the international time line.
With my bike built I was ready to take on New Zealand again, having cycled here in 2010. Of course the sensible thing to do would be to go the direct main road route down to the south island, but that is not the way I was heading. There we're a few parts of the north island that I had not visited last time and was keen to see them. One of these places was the Coramandel peninsula. I was expecting it to be a slightly hillier detour but I was not expecting quite so much climbing! The constant climbing and descending mountains soon took its toll on my already diminishing energy levels. However I was glad that I took the detour as it was some truly amazing riding through the costal villages and up the mountains.
From the Coramandel I then began to head a direct route south through the geo-thermal lands around Rotoura and Taupo with the aim of doing approx 450 mile to a town where I would be able to go to Pure Sports bike shop where I would be able to give my rear hub gears a much overdue oil change. The service manual recommends changing it every 5000km, I had just done 10500km, but it Seemed to running fine though. When I phoned Chris from Pure Sports to arrange calling into his shop he was then driving a van full of his shops stock to a new location in Taupo, the town that I was only a couple of hours away from. So after having a search around in his van he found the oil change kit and arranged to meet me in McDonald's car park later that evening. This was a real bit of luck and very kind of him to go out of his way to help me.
After Taupo I continued on my way towards Wellington and from here I would catch the ferry across to the south island. The evening before i the day I hoped to get the ferry I had not got as close to Wellington as I had hoped. With only 3 ferries all day I was keen to catch the first one of the day so that I could get a decent way down the south island in the afternoon and not wast the day. To achieve this it meant getting up at 3:30am to do the remaining 60km to the port. It was a quick ride down the highway that soon turned into a motorway where cyclists are not normally allowed, but after trying to use the winding and bumpy bike paths in the dark I soon got lost and resorted back to the motorway and peddled faster.. What sign? I didn't see a sigh saying no cyclist!! With it being early morning I only saw a dozen cars, so it was a very pleasant and safe morning ride. I arrived in good time and was ready for breakfast and several cups of coffee. After a nice 3hr rest on the ferry I was ready to continue the day down the south island towards Dunedin where I was scheduled to fly from to Australia. I was also heading towards the race leader Mike Hall who had just landed in new Zealand and was steaming up the south island towards me. After checking the race website over the next couple of days I kept an eye on his trackers progress and we were soon very close to meeting. As I rode around the corner I saw him coming towards me and we both put our arms in the air in a to salute each others arrival. Mike had just passed a small town where he had eyed up a nice cafe. Despite his efforts of riding 400 miles in the last 30 hours he was happy to back track a couple of miles to the cafe where we enjoyed a extended lunch break, mixed in with a bit of bike maintenance and in a true sporting fashion I even changed his tyre for him! So when he smashes the world record it's not because of his great efforts to ride about 200 miles per day! Its the time I saved him that got the record! I think the Tour de France riders should take cafe break mid race. It's a very sociable thing to do. It's not every day you each ride in opposite directions around the world to meet for a cup of coffee! After parting ways with Mike I continued south as he continued north towards Auckland.
I had rode most of the route down the south island before so it was nice to be on some familiar roads and re-visiting some great places. One section of road that I remembered really enjoying last time and it didn't fail to impress again. As the road twisted and turned along the coast there was the pacific ocean to my left and in the distance to the the right were high snow capped mountain peaks. It was early evening and the sun was begin to set creating a amazing sunset and I was then riding past the vast seal colonies that were on the rocks to my left. There hundreds of them! So that was a great distraction watching them as I cycled although perhaps a bit smelly!!
Due to slightly poor planning when booking my flight from new Zealand I booked a much later date than was really needed and I was due to arrive in Dunedin 3 days early. Unfortunately changing the date of the flight was not an option. So I decided to ride past Dunedin and carry on down to Invercargill at the very southern tip of the south island. This gave me a extra 200 miles and this was a part of new Zealand I had not visited before. Once arriving in Invercargill I then had a day to do a quick service and box up my bike before catching a bus back to Dunedin to catch original flight.
It was great to be back in New Zealand as it is such an amazing country and one that I would love to return to again in the future. Also due to the popularity of backpacking there, it was possible to stay in a hostel most evenings so this was a nice break from the tent and also I met allot of great people and spent many evenings chatting with great company. However for some reason i struggled with the cycling here. I'm not to sure why but I think it was because mentally I thought it would be a easy ride, as it was last time I was here. But then I was doing half the distance each day and stopping to take in all the sights and sample all of the beers. So passing these sights and drinking holes was often a bit demoralising. Also I think that because of my late booked flight I knew I had allot of time to get down to Dunedin so never really needed to pushed myself and therefore went allot slower than needed. But hey ho! I suppose the easier pace may have been a good thing to let my body slightly recover.
Sunday, 20 May 2012
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Better late than never...
Well as the title says better late than never, sorry for the lack of blog updates. I have very limited Internet time. I have been trying to keep regular updates through my twitter and Facebook pages. I hope everyone has enjoyed following these? I hope to keep more updates and photos coming from now on.
So anyway. What have I been up to?
With it now being 7 weeks since departing from Greenwich park, the time has really flown by!
The start was a great mix of emotions I was very keen to finally start turning the peddles after nearly one year of planning this trip. However at the same time I was very anxious as to what lay ahead of me over the next few months and also I never enjoy saying goodbye to my family and friends. The guys at Quick Energy did a great job of organising the start and getting a good deal of press interest so this distracted my mind from the reality.
5,4,3,2,1 GO! And we were off! Well for about 500 yards as I had to stop just out of the park as I had not had time to check my route out of London. What a good start! A few of the other riders did the same so it was a good chance to exchange our well wishes before parting ways. The first day down to Portsmouth was a good test for what lay ahead. Rain all day and a strong headwind! But for once this didn't worry me as my mind was going at a million miles per hour thinking of what lay ahead and everyone I had just left behind. So I was down in Portsmouth before I realised it.
I was always expecting the first 2-3 weeks to be very tough as it is going to be a shock to the system. However I was quite surprised at how good I felt going down through France, Spain and Portugal. Although on the morning of the second day I awoke from my frost covered tent with my legs feeling incredibly sore. This was not good, two days in and I'm ruined I thought! But after the first few hours of peddling they eased up and have not felt anything like that since. I guess they have just got used to the daily miles and given up complaining..
The ride down to Portugal was fairly uneventful, which was just what I needed to get into the swing of things. I didn't push myself to hard and just stuck my daily target of averaging 125 miles per day as even if I got to the airport early my flight was booked and couldn't be changed.
With my bike boxed up I was ready to fly to America. It was just a shame that the check in staff weren't ready for me! For some reason there were problems getting their computer to register my ticket and passport. So I had to wait until the very last person and with all of the check in staff on hand they eventually corrected the problem. But this only left me 5 mins to get to drop of my bike at oversized luggage and get on the flight. I got on the flight with seconds to spare but could not see how my bike would have got there in time. So I had a long 18hrs of connections, and flight times to worry about where my bike may be...
After a night dusseldorf airport waiting for my connecting flight I eventually arrived in Miami and to my relief my bike was there waiting for me and ready to be rebuilt out the front of the airport.
I was great to be in America and start riding up through Florida. It soon became apparent just how big everything is here! The vehicles, roads, food, people and of course the actual country is massif! I soon settled into the American way and had a good start. With my daily average milage creeping up each day, the first week went very quickly and I was up to Alabama in good time. On arriving in Alabama i lost a bit of time because i began to have knee problems and was riding in pain for a few days and had to have a early finish one day to try and give it time to recover. By doing this and taking it easy it slowly began to feel better. From Alabama I then began to head west through Mississippi, Louisiana and into Texas. I was surprised at how different each state was. Both in terms of terrain and the people. They each have their own individual charms. I also was surprised to discover that sitting on your rocking chair in the porch of your house is not just a stereotype of Alabama but they actually do! I have never seen so many rocking chairs! One thing that each state did have in common was that they don't keep their dogs on leads or fenced in so I was constantly chased by them! In one day I got chased 10 times! It is never nice when a dog charges out of its garden at you barking and biting onto my panniers! It's hard enough cycling with all my luggage let alone with a dog hanging on for the ride! One one occasion I saw two dogs coming at me so put in a big effort to out run them but at the same time my chain slipped and i ended up laying over my handle bars and wobbling down the road! I'm not sure how I didn't crash. More luck than skill I think! After that I no longer tried to out run them. Instead I have taken to kindly asking them to f-off in my best doggy language!
After louisiana I went into Texas and into a strong headwind! For most of Texas I was crossing the plains. Out on these plains there is not allot of anything! Just pan flat open fields with oil pumping rigs dotted about for miles and miles. There was certainly not any shelter from the wind! On on day it was do bad that on arriving at a small town I stopped as usual at a fuel station to fill up with food and drink. I soon realised that the fuel station was full of lorry drivers who had been stranded because the wind was threatening to blow them over. They also warned me that it will be allot worse the further west I get. But as I was only on 70 miles that day I had no intention of stopping to though how bad can it be and pushed on. After getting just 1 mile out of town I realised that perhaps it was a bit bad. I was putting in full effort to go 5mph and stay up right. Even this wasn't enough and one guest blew me straight off the road and into fortunately only a shallow ditch. With this I decided it was pointless to fight it and turned back to town where I was greeted by a very friendly couple who owned a small motel and they let me stay for a very discounted rate and helped my find some food for the evening. This early finish and time spent with the owners was what I needed to let my body and mind have a break. Because the past few day of fighting the wind had started to get to me and for the first time I began to get a bit fed up with it all!
Unfortunately after leaving Texas the weather didn't improve, in fact it just got worse. After the Texas plains i went up into mountains of New Mexico and with this the temperature dropped dramatically. So I was now riding into the same wind but now with some snow just to make it all the more fun. The first 2 weeks in America the average temp was around 25 deg c. And now it was around -1. With a wind chill of -11 one morning! This did not help me at all. And again I was starting to be tested. The combined hills, cold wind and a bad spell of punctures made it very hard to get any good miles done for almost a week. One day I did 95 miles in 14hrs! On a normal day that should be over 150 miles in that time. Despite this I was still enjoying the challenge and the scenery and small mountain villages were truly amazing. I have always enjoyed being up in the mountains so this kept me going despite being beaten by the weather. One section that I will always remember was as I began to head down from the mountains I went through a huge canyon. The road dropped for ten miles around lots of switchback turns all the way to the bottom. This was great fun, but the reality that I now had 10 miles of steep uphill to get back out the other side was not so good. But I really enjoyed the climb. When I was near the top It began to get dark so I started to look for a camp spot. I eventually found a small ledge off the road and on the side of the canyon. It was one of the best views I have ever had from my tent! I just had to make sure I didn't roll off the side!
The next morning I headed down from the mountains into Arizona and through Phoenix. It was approx 45 miles across Phoenix and with there being countless traffic lights this took a very long time! If I added up all the time I have waited at traffic lights in America it would be days! They have them everywhere it seems! If there was a chance a fly wanted to cross the road in the future they will put a light there just incase!! With my arrival in Arizona came a rise in temperature and also a long awaited tailwind! This was a real treat and made the ride up to Nevada and las Vegas very enjoyable. After a couple of days in the desert I reached Vegas at midday and decided to have a slightly early stop to get some rest and do some quick sight seeing.
After vegas I pushed on up through the desert and into Oregon. Once into Oregon the scenery really changed. From being in the open desert I was now into forested mountains. And again the weather turned against me. It was all over the local news how much rain they were having and about to receive allot more. This didn't do allot to help my motivation for the final few days in America.
Once in Oregon I decided upon a change of route. My original plan was to ride up to Seattle and fly from there but I decided to head across to the coast and and then down the coast to San Francisco. I decided this because it was a route that I have heard allot about as being one of the great roads to cycle in the world and also I could get a cheaper flight to NZ from San francisco. So this suited both my search for adventure and budget.
The weather man was not wrong unfortunately and it really did rain! I also now had to cross the mountains to get to the coast and the rain was snow up there. So I knew I was in for a hard couple of days. On one day when i set of there was quite allot of snow already on the floor and I was not even up the mountain yet. As I started to climb it began to snow harder and harder. As I got half way up it began to get really quite bad and I had several people stop and ask if I needed a lift over the mountain. But each time I refused as this was not a option, or so I thought. Eventually I reached the summit where the snow was very deep at the sides but not to bad on the road. As I began the decent it got allot worse because the storm was coming in from the west this side of the mountain was taking the worst of the weather. After just 1 mile of descending with both feet sliding on the floor to stop myself slipping over, because I am using slick road tyres I was not at all prepared for snow riding. Around the next corner I could see the traffic had stopped. As I got closer and walked passed the queuing traffic i got to a police car and went to have a chat and see what was going on. He was not amused by my greeting of "hello mate! Lovely day for a bike ride hey". And in return i received a lecture about how stupid I was and how he was not going to be responsible when I get hurt and he insisted I get a lift of the mountain from one of the queuing motorists. So of course I refused and said I will get to the front and then get a lift and left him. After another mile of walking I reached the front and found they had just got a jackknifed lorry back on the road. So I carried on, but it continued to get worse. My bike wheels were now blocked solid with snow. I kept sliding down for a little wile longer but it just got stupid. The traffic had started moving again and with the snow pulled on the road side I was forced to be in the road. With the traffic and very poor visibility I felt very vulnerable and had a few very close brushes with passing trucks. With this I decided the next offer of a lift I will take as perhaps the policeman was right, I would be stupid to carry on. I soon got a lift with a very kind local couple and we chucked my bike on the back of his pick up. We drove for about 15 miles down the mountain and were soon out of the worse of the snow and I decide I should be ok to carry on. It really annoyed me to have to get a lift as I wanted to ride the whole way. But I reasoned it better to miss 15 miles of down hill than to be involved in a accident and miss the remaining 13000 miles! I think it was the right decision as on the way down the visibility was down to no more than 25 feet so was no way a truck would stop in time when they see a English boy sliding down the middle of the road. As I am not so worried about the Guinness world record I don't need to worry about proving to them why I got a lift and I just Havant included those 15 miles in my total. As it happened in those miles we passed my turn off and I was now down in the wrong valley so had to ride further to get to my destination that day. After this I was in a bit if a bad mood for the next few days. This was not helped by the constant rain and wind. But the coast road was great... When I could see it. The rain continued until the last day into San Francisco. I was very glad to reach the hotel and get properly dry for the first time in nearly a week!
A summary so far:
I am now on 5950 miles. I have been away for 51 days giving me a average mpd of 116.6 including 4 days of non riding because of flights. And a average mpd of 126.6 for riding days. So basically I am just ahead of my original planned schedule.
I am pleased with this, but due to the pace of the race leader Mike Hall. (average mpd around 180) I would like to up the pace a bit and feel I should be able to over the next few weeks. Probably not to that pace but just a bit. I am trying to find a good level between remaining competitive in the world cycle race and also enjoying the adventure and not just riding passed everything and choosing a route just to go fast. I'm probably not going to be cycling around the world again so best to choose a route and go to places I want to explore and enjoy the adventure. My main ambition now is to still get round in160 days. Including flight days. So that will be a riding time of around 150 days. I'm pretty sure that alone will be enough of an achievement to keep me happy and also to encourage people to help me support Make-A-Wish by donating. Along with with doing more blog updates and uploading more picture I am going to start asking for donations, every little will help to maintain that Make-A-Wish can continue their great work granting magical magical wishes to children and young people fighting life threatening illnesses.
"This is the last call for all passengers on the NZ71007 flight to Auckland"
I'd best dash before I miss my flight. Lets see what adventures lay ahead! After just two days off i am very keen to get cycling again! So my mojo is very much alive!
So anyway. What have I been up to?
With it now being 7 weeks since departing from Greenwich park, the time has really flown by!
The start was a great mix of emotions I was very keen to finally start turning the peddles after nearly one year of planning this trip. However at the same time I was very anxious as to what lay ahead of me over the next few months and also I never enjoy saying goodbye to my family and friends. The guys at Quick Energy did a great job of organising the start and getting a good deal of press interest so this distracted my mind from the reality.
5,4,3,2,1 GO! And we were off! Well for about 500 yards as I had to stop just out of the park as I had not had time to check my route out of London. What a good start! A few of the other riders did the same so it was a good chance to exchange our well wishes before parting ways. The first day down to Portsmouth was a good test for what lay ahead. Rain all day and a strong headwind! But for once this didn't worry me as my mind was going at a million miles per hour thinking of what lay ahead and everyone I had just left behind. So I was down in Portsmouth before I realised it.
I was always expecting the first 2-3 weeks to be very tough as it is going to be a shock to the system. However I was quite surprised at how good I felt going down through France, Spain and Portugal. Although on the morning of the second day I awoke from my frost covered tent with my legs feeling incredibly sore. This was not good, two days in and I'm ruined I thought! But after the first few hours of peddling they eased up and have not felt anything like that since. I guess they have just got used to the daily miles and given up complaining..
The ride down to Portugal was fairly uneventful, which was just what I needed to get into the swing of things. I didn't push myself to hard and just stuck my daily target of averaging 125 miles per day as even if I got to the airport early my flight was booked and couldn't be changed.
With my bike boxed up I was ready to fly to America. It was just a shame that the check in staff weren't ready for me! For some reason there were problems getting their computer to register my ticket and passport. So I had to wait until the very last person and with all of the check in staff on hand they eventually corrected the problem. But this only left me 5 mins to get to drop of my bike at oversized luggage and get on the flight. I got on the flight with seconds to spare but could not see how my bike would have got there in time. So I had a long 18hrs of connections, and flight times to worry about where my bike may be...
After a night dusseldorf airport waiting for my connecting flight I eventually arrived in Miami and to my relief my bike was there waiting for me and ready to be rebuilt out the front of the airport.
I was great to be in America and start riding up through Florida. It soon became apparent just how big everything is here! The vehicles, roads, food, people and of course the actual country is massif! I soon settled into the American way and had a good start. With my daily average milage creeping up each day, the first week went very quickly and I was up to Alabama in good time. On arriving in Alabama i lost a bit of time because i began to have knee problems and was riding in pain for a few days and had to have a early finish one day to try and give it time to recover. By doing this and taking it easy it slowly began to feel better. From Alabama I then began to head west through Mississippi, Louisiana and into Texas. I was surprised at how different each state was. Both in terms of terrain and the people. They each have their own individual charms. I also was surprised to discover that sitting on your rocking chair in the porch of your house is not just a stereotype of Alabama but they actually do! I have never seen so many rocking chairs! One thing that each state did have in common was that they don't keep their dogs on leads or fenced in so I was constantly chased by them! In one day I got chased 10 times! It is never nice when a dog charges out of its garden at you barking and biting onto my panniers! It's hard enough cycling with all my luggage let alone with a dog hanging on for the ride! One one occasion I saw two dogs coming at me so put in a big effort to out run them but at the same time my chain slipped and i ended up laying over my handle bars and wobbling down the road! I'm not sure how I didn't crash. More luck than skill I think! After that I no longer tried to out run them. Instead I have taken to kindly asking them to f-off in my best doggy language!
After louisiana I went into Texas and into a strong headwind! For most of Texas I was crossing the plains. Out on these plains there is not allot of anything! Just pan flat open fields with oil pumping rigs dotted about for miles and miles. There was certainly not any shelter from the wind! On on day it was do bad that on arriving at a small town I stopped as usual at a fuel station to fill up with food and drink. I soon realised that the fuel station was full of lorry drivers who had been stranded because the wind was threatening to blow them over. They also warned me that it will be allot worse the further west I get. But as I was only on 70 miles that day I had no intention of stopping to though how bad can it be and pushed on. After getting just 1 mile out of town I realised that perhaps it was a bit bad. I was putting in full effort to go 5mph and stay up right. Even this wasn't enough and one guest blew me straight off the road and into fortunately only a shallow ditch. With this I decided it was pointless to fight it and turned back to town where I was greeted by a very friendly couple who owned a small motel and they let me stay for a very discounted rate and helped my find some food for the evening. This early finish and time spent with the owners was what I needed to let my body and mind have a break. Because the past few day of fighting the wind had started to get to me and for the first time I began to get a bit fed up with it all!
Unfortunately after leaving Texas the weather didn't improve, in fact it just got worse. After the Texas plains i went up into mountains of New Mexico and with this the temperature dropped dramatically. So I was now riding into the same wind but now with some snow just to make it all the more fun. The first 2 weeks in America the average temp was around 25 deg c. And now it was around -1. With a wind chill of -11 one morning! This did not help me at all. And again I was starting to be tested. The combined hills, cold wind and a bad spell of punctures made it very hard to get any good miles done for almost a week. One day I did 95 miles in 14hrs! On a normal day that should be over 150 miles in that time. Despite this I was still enjoying the challenge and the scenery and small mountain villages were truly amazing. I have always enjoyed being up in the mountains so this kept me going despite being beaten by the weather. One section that I will always remember was as I began to head down from the mountains I went through a huge canyon. The road dropped for ten miles around lots of switchback turns all the way to the bottom. This was great fun, but the reality that I now had 10 miles of steep uphill to get back out the other side was not so good. But I really enjoyed the climb. When I was near the top It began to get dark so I started to look for a camp spot. I eventually found a small ledge off the road and on the side of the canyon. It was one of the best views I have ever had from my tent! I just had to make sure I didn't roll off the side!
The next morning I headed down from the mountains into Arizona and through Phoenix. It was approx 45 miles across Phoenix and with there being countless traffic lights this took a very long time! If I added up all the time I have waited at traffic lights in America it would be days! They have them everywhere it seems! If there was a chance a fly wanted to cross the road in the future they will put a light there just incase!! With my arrival in Arizona came a rise in temperature and also a long awaited tailwind! This was a real treat and made the ride up to Nevada and las Vegas very enjoyable. After a couple of days in the desert I reached Vegas at midday and decided to have a slightly early stop to get some rest and do some quick sight seeing.
After vegas I pushed on up through the desert and into Oregon. Once into Oregon the scenery really changed. From being in the open desert I was now into forested mountains. And again the weather turned against me. It was all over the local news how much rain they were having and about to receive allot more. This didn't do allot to help my motivation for the final few days in America.
Once in Oregon I decided upon a change of route. My original plan was to ride up to Seattle and fly from there but I decided to head across to the coast and and then down the coast to San Francisco. I decided this because it was a route that I have heard allot about as being one of the great roads to cycle in the world and also I could get a cheaper flight to NZ from San francisco. So this suited both my search for adventure and budget.
The weather man was not wrong unfortunately and it really did rain! I also now had to cross the mountains to get to the coast and the rain was snow up there. So I knew I was in for a hard couple of days. On one day when i set of there was quite allot of snow already on the floor and I was not even up the mountain yet. As I started to climb it began to snow harder and harder. As I got half way up it began to get really quite bad and I had several people stop and ask if I needed a lift over the mountain. But each time I refused as this was not a option, or so I thought. Eventually I reached the summit where the snow was very deep at the sides but not to bad on the road. As I began the decent it got allot worse because the storm was coming in from the west this side of the mountain was taking the worst of the weather. After just 1 mile of descending with both feet sliding on the floor to stop myself slipping over, because I am using slick road tyres I was not at all prepared for snow riding. Around the next corner I could see the traffic had stopped. As I got closer and walked passed the queuing traffic i got to a police car and went to have a chat and see what was going on. He was not amused by my greeting of "hello mate! Lovely day for a bike ride hey". And in return i received a lecture about how stupid I was and how he was not going to be responsible when I get hurt and he insisted I get a lift of the mountain from one of the queuing motorists. So of course I refused and said I will get to the front and then get a lift and left him. After another mile of walking I reached the front and found they had just got a jackknifed lorry back on the road. So I carried on, but it continued to get worse. My bike wheels were now blocked solid with snow. I kept sliding down for a little wile longer but it just got stupid. The traffic had started moving again and with the snow pulled on the road side I was forced to be in the road. With the traffic and very poor visibility I felt very vulnerable and had a few very close brushes with passing trucks. With this I decided the next offer of a lift I will take as perhaps the policeman was right, I would be stupid to carry on. I soon got a lift with a very kind local couple and we chucked my bike on the back of his pick up. We drove for about 15 miles down the mountain and were soon out of the worse of the snow and I decide I should be ok to carry on. It really annoyed me to have to get a lift as I wanted to ride the whole way. But I reasoned it better to miss 15 miles of down hill than to be involved in a accident and miss the remaining 13000 miles! I think it was the right decision as on the way down the visibility was down to no more than 25 feet so was no way a truck would stop in time when they see a English boy sliding down the middle of the road. As I am not so worried about the Guinness world record I don't need to worry about proving to them why I got a lift and I just Havant included those 15 miles in my total. As it happened in those miles we passed my turn off and I was now down in the wrong valley so had to ride further to get to my destination that day. After this I was in a bit if a bad mood for the next few days. This was not helped by the constant rain and wind. But the coast road was great... When I could see it. The rain continued until the last day into San Francisco. I was very glad to reach the hotel and get properly dry for the first time in nearly a week!
A summary so far:
I am now on 5950 miles. I have been away for 51 days giving me a average mpd of 116.6 including 4 days of non riding because of flights. And a average mpd of 126.6 for riding days. So basically I am just ahead of my original planned schedule.
I am pleased with this, but due to the pace of the race leader Mike Hall. (average mpd around 180) I would like to up the pace a bit and feel I should be able to over the next few weeks. Probably not to that pace but just a bit. I am trying to find a good level between remaining competitive in the world cycle race and also enjoying the adventure and not just riding passed everything and choosing a route just to go fast. I'm probably not going to be cycling around the world again so best to choose a route and go to places I want to explore and enjoy the adventure. My main ambition now is to still get round in160 days. Including flight days. So that will be a riding time of around 150 days. I'm pretty sure that alone will be enough of an achievement to keep me happy and also to encourage people to help me support Make-A-Wish by donating. Along with with doing more blog updates and uploading more picture I am going to start asking for donations, every little will help to maintain that Make-A-Wish can continue their great work granting magical magical wishes to children and young people fighting life threatening illnesses.
"This is the last call for all passengers on the NZ71007 flight to Auckland"
I'd best dash before I miss my flight. Lets see what adventures lay ahead! After just two days off i am very keen to get cycling again! So my mojo is very much alive!
Friday, 30 December 2011
Here we go!
So! With just 51 days until I set off to cycle 18,000 miles around the world at record pace, I think it about time I start getting the hang of using this Blog to keep everyone up to date over the next few weeks and during my challenge.
Everything is beginning to fall into place..... slowly. I have still not had any luck with corporate sponsorship to help me fund my trip, So I will have to rely on my savings being stretched and allot of very kind friends, family and sponsors of equipment, e.g Bike, tyres etc.
Angus Taylor of http://www.taylormadebikes.co.uk/ has been very busy building my bike frame. It nearing completion. We are just waiting on the paint shop to work there magic. After visiting Angus on several occasions during the building process I am very confident that the frame is going to exactly what is required for my ride, I am so keen to get out and do some testing on it now before I set off. I have got most of the components waiting and ready to build the bike up as soon as I arrives. Thanks to the kind support from:
Madgetts cycles; http://www.madgettscycles.co.uk/
Schwalbe tyres: http://www.schwalbe.co.uk/
Brooks: http://www.brooksengland.com/
Ison-Distribution: http://www.ison-distribution.com/all/default.php
I have been attempting to raise awareness of my challenge to as many people as possible recently, I have had several photo shoots and interviews with local news papers and they are starting to share my story, Like this one for the East Anglian Daily Times http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/suffolk_cyclist_bids_to_ride_18_000_miles_in_160_days_1_1163669
Keep your eyes open for much more info coming this way very soon,
Thank you for your support.
Everything is beginning to fall into place..... slowly. I have still not had any luck with corporate sponsorship to help me fund my trip, So I will have to rely on my savings being stretched and allot of very kind friends, family and sponsors of equipment, e.g Bike, tyres etc.
Angus Taylor of http://www.taylormadebikes.co.uk/ has been very busy building my bike frame. It nearing completion. We are just waiting on the paint shop to work there magic. After visiting Angus on several occasions during the building process I am very confident that the frame is going to exactly what is required for my ride, I am so keen to get out and do some testing on it now before I set off. I have got most of the components waiting and ready to build the bike up as soon as I arrives. Thanks to the kind support from:
Madgetts cycles; http://www.madgettscycles.co.uk/
Schwalbe tyres: http://www.schwalbe.co.uk/
Brooks: http://www.brooksengland.com/
Ison-Distribution: http://www.ison-distribution.com/all/default.php
I have been attempting to raise awareness of my challenge to as many people as possible recently, I have had several photo shoots and interviews with local news papers and they are starting to share my story, Like this one for the East Anglian Daily Times http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/suffolk_cyclist_bids_to_ride_18_000_miles_in_160_days_1_1163669
Keep your eyes open for much more info coming this way very soon,
Thank you for your support.
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