Water Hazard...

It's the US Masters this weekend, and for some reason my postings have strange titles.

Today I wake nervous! I am planning to cycle from Saffron Walden to Rotherham, about 150 miles. Something most people would think twice about doing in a car, but I'm doing it on a bike!

Why Rotherham? Well, its about 150 miles away for a start, and Tim's brother lives in Rotherham. Tim's been looking for an excuse to go and seen his brother for a while, and when we originally picked this weekend it seemed like a long way off!

Mid April was well into the training plan! Time is now ticking by very fast and the weeks are going by very quickly!

As mentioned yesterday I've got some new kit, a hydration back-pack , and I'm carrying more food than usual as I'm planning on riding for the three days. I get up about 5:10am and I get to Tim's just after 6am. By 6:30am I am laden down with stuff and we are off on our adventure!

We head off north, on mostly local roads towards Papworth before heading up to Huntingdon. The roads are far from busy and there are a few hills on first 20 miles or so.

After about 10 miles, I grab my drinks tube, pull with my teeth as per instructions and GUSH! WATER+ZYM everywhere! I grab the tube and stop the bike, gloves and tights are now soaked and it isn't warm yet! I stuff the end back on the tube to stop the flow and after wringing out my gloves we carry on. I manage to resist tugging on my tube for a good number of miles before giving it another go. GUSH! More WATER+ZYM all over me, just as my gloves had dried out! I give up and decide this requires more practice and revert to bottles!

Past Huntingdon we follow the old A1, parallel to the noisy new A1 - Tim didn't tell me to bring ear defenders! We practise chaining with just the two of us and the miles fly by! By 9:00am we are resting just south of Peterborough and have done 43 miles, a good start.


I check my phone and realise that some organisation of football tickets is required! After a few calls to John Helm, my Dad and Clare, John has agreed to get me and my Dad tickets for Sheffield Wednesday against Plymouth on Monday night. I'm hoping to have something in the programme about our event, and am planning to cycle up on Monday from Lichfield.

Back to the road after about 25 mins rest, the roads start to get busier as we head north of Peterborough, busy, noisy dual carriageways, but flat and very fast! The next 15 miles fly by!

The A15 dual carriageway eventually peters out into a single carriageway road heading towards Sleaford. Though there are big red DANGER signs! Obviously a popular biker route as were are informed of the number of road deaths in the last two years. Another short rest after 75 miles and we agree to get past 100 miles before stopping for lunch.

Past Sleaford and now heading west towards Newark, I realise I'm feeling a bit light headed and running out of water. We've done 92 miles and we stop for a few minutes, eat an energy bar and back to it. Into the wind and up a long slow climb that feels like it is going on for ever! The sun has gone - replaced by thick black clouds in the distance. The rain is coming...

We cycle past an RAF base with warning signs to keep well away, its exposed now and as we near the top the hail pelts us! There appears to be nowhere around to shelter or stop for lunch, so we plough on, down the hill, pedalling hard to get any speed up! Stinging eyes, barely open as the hail tears into my face.

A pub sign- next right, 102 miles done, that spells lunch! We park the bikes and venture into the quiet local pub, order orange juice with water for me, with Lemonade for Tim. The Yorkshire Puddings with Sausage and Onions gravy jump out at us and after a short while we are tucking into a hearty lunch! After our food and a second pint of juice we were ready to get back on the bikes for the remaining 50 miles.

The landlord was very helpful, re-filled our bottles with water for us and wished us luck!

There was a guy outside who asked us where we were going, when we said Rotherham, he initially looked at us like we were barmy and then muttered something about Rotherham being a dump and his sister living there!

As I've only ever been to Rotherham a couple of times I'll defer a verdict on the state of the town until we cycle through it later!

We leave the pub to find that Tim has a flat tyre. In a way this is fortunate as it starts to hail again - we shelter undercover, outside the pub to replace the tube.

Tim's tyres are incredibly hard to get off - a very tight fit! Tube is eventually replaced and tyre leved back into place before I think to ask if Tim checked the tyre. A few expletives followed and we struggled to get the tyre off again, found a piece of glass in the tyre, pulled it out and again struggled to put the tyre back on.

Of we set after about an hour and a half rest (maybe more?). Feeling fresh, the sun is back out and we are heading towards Newark.

Heading out of Newark the roads are a lot quieter and hillier! The knees start to take a pounding and the avereage speed has really taken a tumble. We knock of another 25 miles and stop at Sherwood Forest. 25 miles to go and it's looking like it'll be around 7pm before we get to Tim's brother's house.

More hills as we get closer and closer to Rotherham, the knees are really starting to feel sore. Speed is certainly not a factor anymore - the only thing that now matters is getting there! With 12 miles to go we stop again, exhaused! Call Tim's brother, more energy bars, and off again. We take a bit of a detour through Rotherham, because we needed the extra 2 miles! Up the hill out of Rotherham Tim leaves me behind, I just about keep him in sight and follow him through the streets to our destination!

152 miles is a long way! After a shower and change he have a fantastic meal and an enjoyable evening before ritiring to bed!