Day 14 – Home & thoughts

When the idea of riding around the country first came about we let our imaginations run away with ourselves and came up with a ‘Top Gear’ esque race between cyclists and motorsport drivers which would involve riding between different race circuits and then doing timed laps. The overall winner being the athlete who was quickest to each circuit and combined with a timed lap in a standard car would gain a cumulative time. If this were to be done in teams and opened to internet betting to raise money for the charity with forfeits being paid for by donations and so on we very quickly got to the film death race 2000. Back to reality and the biggest problem was going to be finding enough time in the busy diaries to fit it in. We calculated that we could ride 80 to 100 miles per day at a steady pace and given the correct training we would suffer but be ok at the end. Now having found a window of two weeks at the end of July and beginning of august we began to plot a route. London to Cardiff to Glasgow to Edinburgh to London – simple. All in about 1000 miles, Job done. Not Quite. Let’s take out any motorways and major trunk roads and whilst we are at it any really steep hills. Now factor in the sleeping arrangements which requires up to 35 rooms per night at our sponsor Premier Inn, and all the pre-arranged functions we are to attend and we have a route of 1246 miles. Now add a 10% getting lost factor and you are close to the 1374 miles that we actually covered.
The launch to UK Youth in February at St James Palace was the confirmation that this was actually going happen & by June on the first day of the Le Mans week we had our first car with the roof rack all stickered up and ready to go and in prime position at the Motor-expo in Canary Wharf. Training to this point had been going well with Nigel up to about 50 miles per day and Leo & Greg pushing each other to breaking point. Unfortunately, six days after Canary Wharf Nigel had been involved in a 200mph car crash and was recovering in a darkened room. Luckily nothing broken but an entry to the London to Paris (L2P) race/sportive was only three weeks away. The doubters had already said that the L2P would kill us all and that if we survived that then the UK ride certainly would. This little setback caused a few concerns for a few days but we stuck to the plan, and worked out a contingency. Luckily we didn’t need to use it too much and as the blogs from the last 13 days have proved we are all still alive. It was tough and yes I would do something like it again but all of us agreed last night that we could not do the same thing again as it would de-value what we have achieved.
Have you ever tried not listening to the news or a radio or watching TV for nearly two weeks. It is amazing how out of touch with the world you can feel and not worry about it.
Reliability was very good for both bikes & riders. Only one major incident with a rider who crashed into one of the outriders. Greg’s legs & knees needed a fair bit of attention and Nigel’s cramp on day one ripped some muscle (shown on the scanner in Worcester on day three) which needed daily attendance. My back was sorted on a couple of occasions by Caitlin and Nick left bruises when he stripped the muscles in my legs in Glasgow. The rest of us were ok with occasional massage. Oh and let’s not forget Clyde….. Punctures, we had a few but were never likely to run out of spares, and apart from two flat batteries on the DI2 at just before 1000 miles the Wilier Cento Uno Bikes were faultless. The Easton wheels with ceramic bearings in the hubs helped us glide down the hills and roll as far as we could up the other side. The Sport Nutrition from SIS did exactly what it was supposed to do especially on the six gel day towards Glasgow . Thanks to Peter & Tim and the guys at SIS for your support.
Thanks must go to;
Dave, Roger & Ian the outriders who kept us safe and managed to keep some heavy motorbikes upright at some pretty slow speeds.
Becky, Charlotte & Noush who cooked, washed and chased about the countryside from Hotel to Hotel with bags of dirty kit, clean kit, luggage, spares, water, food and a whole load of stuff we didn’t even know about.
Nick & Caitlin for massaging and back cracking and finding those sore bits so that all our bodies worked properly in the morning.
Tony for keeping all the bikes in tip top condition and cleaning all of them every night, even when he had ridden too.
Rosanne for cooking organising and keeping everyone calm just by being there.
Steve & Sean for all the photographs, some of which will appear here in the next few weeks
John & James for organising the events.
Jez for driving the motorhome into and out of some pretty tight spaces and managing to get it to just the right place for a coffee stop.
All our sponsors who unfortunately are too many to list but if you look at http://nigelmansellcyclechallenge.co.uk/default.aspx I am sure you will see who I am talking about.
All the riders who joined us for various parts of this journey, including Susan, Meg, Clyde & Eric.

Finally, a massive thanks to my four compatriots, Maggy, Leo, Greg & Nigel for such a great adventure.

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• October 17, 2011
• BY Ian Williams
• IN Easton, SIS, UK Youth, Wilier