Day 3

Wednesday 6th August 2008

After day 2 which had been a monster all of us, including the support team, were tired and battle worn. We had breakfast and in the mist of indifferent catering were found a real gem, the poached eggs were suburb.

As we were not allowed to reclaim our bikes before 8am, for fear of inconveniencing anybody, we did not start until about 9 o’clock.

The first 8 miles on country roads up hill and down dale were hard on our tiered legs but once we hit the A38 at Cullumpton things started to look up. We were now entering Somerset and the weather improved and the wind was at our back. We were going along at about 20mph. We were also in the county of friends and relations and were not too embarrassed to use them. First victim was Hugh who is Phil’s bother in law who kindly provided tea and chocolate biscuits. Further up the road at Brent Knoll we met David Hall who for a picture was willing to buy us a pint of black training fluid as Mike and Ian called it. Then onto Cheddar where we made further stops at Lanes, Westwood and we took the bikes to Cheddar Cycle Store for running repairs. We then unloaded our stuff at Gordons where we were staying that night. Operation reload was a village wide effort we had the Bike shop sorting the steeds, we had Helen washing 3 days of dirty cycling gear, we also had Sue at Gordons where we were staying providing Moet Champagne and canapés.

Since 5 of the team came or originated from cheddar it was great to be joined by 38 supporters for our evening meal at the Riverside Inn. Leaving the supporters to carry on with the celebrations we all retired to Gordons and were tucked up by 10pm.

Beer of the day; Gorge Best (Cheddar Ale)

Mileage - 55 miles

Riding time - 3 hours 57 mins

Cumulative Miles - 190 Miles

Weather - Dry, Wind behind.

Overnight at -Gordons, Cheddar