Day 4 Bath - Oxford
So here we are 19.15 hrs on Tuesday 6th, sitting in The Red Lion in Waddesdon perusing the menu, food again eh..., boy do we need it.
Another 80 miles under our belts, cycling from Tracey and Als lovely flat in Bath to our overnight stay here some 15 miles north of Oxford. Despite the horrendous forecast we had expected,not a drop of rain came today, clearly because we were now ready for it of course, but the wind, and I don't mean Chris's, was truly something to behold, for once though we were thankful as it was either on our side or behind us, happy days.
Cycling out of Bath started with a great laugh...., a lot of cycling creates memorable laughter. It appeared as we set off that for some reason, Chris's saddle bag had jammed in the open position, and try as we might we could not get it to close , the zip firmly refusing to budge despite our best efforts....Now I am not sure if you know that cyclists wear padded shorts and to stop chaffing one can also have the added advantage of cyclists cream in certain areas, an oil based product...., the only thing is you don't carry it you wear it...., I will leave you to the conclusion but suffice to say a few seconds later Chris's bag was working and he now refuses to open it without gloved hands as the cream was donated by Gary
Anyway now back to the story of today's ride, after the tremendous efforts we had put into the last 3 days we made the decision to reroute round some of larger hills to save some of the energy left in our legs, this proved to be a great success especially as the route was, whilst longer than we have done to date, it was not as demanding and took us through some truly wonderful villages. It is true to say that a big benefit of cycling is you see much more than you could ever generally plan to see if driving.The support team, found a great little cafe in Wooten Bassett for morning coffee and big chunks of chocolate cake, and again in finding a great pub in another lovely village for lunch.
Chris and I are getting a little concerned however, it appears that there is a potential that the support crew are slacking as we have knowledge and images of them feet on the dash and laying back for a sleep on the pretence of waiting for us.... hmmm, maybe we should suggest that they should valet the bikes whilst we rest over lunch......, Nope not that brave or stupid....would you be,? however the pictures don't lie, you tell us.
We also attach a couple of pictures from the last couple of days depicting some of the decisions we were faced with based on hills, wind, rain.... things like how to read bus time tables, how do SOS telephones work....
Chris and I took a culture detour and enjoyed some ice cream and views i
Oxford, our gleaming steeds tethered to the pavement.
We still have not walked a step, starting from the point we finished and we're collected and delivered to, a fact we are very proud of, can't walk when we finiseach day though, as legs feel like they have been set in concrete.
Tomorrow we are meeting with Roger, Chris's brother who is going to join us for the last couple of days from here in Oxfordshire to our final destination in Lowestoft, actually we enjoyed his company when we did Le-jog in 2011, I wonder if we will have to tell him to slow down again!!
To be continued
Another 80 miles under our belts, cycling from Tracey and Als lovely flat in Bath to our overnight stay here some 15 miles north of Oxford. Despite the horrendous forecast we had expected,not a drop of rain came today, clearly because we were now ready for it of course, but the wind, and I don't mean Chris's, was truly something to behold, for once though we were thankful as it was either on our side or behind us, happy days.
Cycling out of Bath started with a great laugh...., a lot of cycling creates memorable laughter. It appeared as we set off that for some reason, Chris's saddle bag had jammed in the open position, and try as we might we could not get it to close , the zip firmly refusing to budge despite our best efforts....Now I am not sure if you know that cyclists wear padded shorts and to stop chaffing one can also have the added advantage of cyclists cream in certain areas, an oil based product...., the only thing is you don't carry it you wear it...., I will leave you to the conclusion but suffice to say a few seconds later Chris's bag was working and he now refuses to open it without gloved hands as the cream was donated by Gary
Anyway now back to the story of today's ride, after the tremendous efforts we had put into the last 3 days we made the decision to reroute round some of larger hills to save some of the energy left in our legs, this proved to be a great success especially as the route was, whilst longer than we have done to date, it was not as demanding and took us through some truly wonderful villages. It is true to say that a big benefit of cycling is you see much more than you could ever generally plan to see if driving.The support team, found a great little cafe in Wooten Bassett for morning coffee and big chunks of chocolate cake, and again in finding a great pub in another lovely village for lunch.
Chris and I are getting a little concerned however, it appears that there is a potential that the support crew are slacking as we have knowledge and images of them feet on the dash and laying back for a sleep on the pretence of waiting for us.... hmmm, maybe we should suggest that they should valet the bikes whilst we rest over lunch......, Nope not that brave or stupid....would you be,? however the pictures don't lie, you tell us.
We also attach a couple of pictures from the last couple of days depicting some of the decisions we were faced with based on hills, wind, rain.... things like how to read bus time tables, how do SOS telephones work....
Chris and I took a culture detour and enjoyed some ice cream and views i
Oxford, our gleaming steeds tethered to the pavement.
We still have not walked a step, starting from the point we finished and we're collected and delivered to, a fact we are very proud of, can't walk when we finiseach day though, as legs feel like they have been set in concrete.
Tomorrow we are meeting with Roger, Chris's brother who is going to join us for the last couple of days from here in Oxfordshire to our final destination in Lowestoft, actually we enjoyed his company when we did Le-jog in 2011, I wonder if we will have to tell him to slow down again!!
To be continued
Does SOS mean save our saddles!!
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