Day 5

8th August 2008

Bromyard to Wrexham.

The day started with a long climb out from ‘The Old Cowshed’ to the main road to Shrewsbury. The first hour and a half had seen us complete just 10 miles. This was partly the amount of pit stops, or as they became known lulu stops.

Once on the A49 we started to pick up our pace, although today was the first day that the wind was no with us so our progress was harder work than we would have liked. Our faithful support team had gone to the butcher capital of the UK ‘Ludlow’ to buy us some pies, and we were blowing along quite well when this sharp little hill split the pack and Mike and Rob were free wheeling down the other side when a passing car shouted ‘your friends have fallen off!’ Mike and Rob stopped in the next lay-by and both immediately had a pee, followed by an anxious look back down the road they started to call Phil and Gill, but with perfect timing they appeared to say Ness and Ian were fine and on their way.

Ian who is quickly becoming an expert on falling off bikes assured us this was a minor slip rather than a full fall. Anyway once regrouped we decided it was time to try the pies and judging by the speed that they were eating and the mummmmms of approval it would be safe to say Ludlow deserves its reputation. After our break it was onto Shrewsbury. The plan was it go to the city centre and find the road to Wrexham, some of the party thought that Rob may not have done this the most efficient way, this could have been the hills we climbed in town or the fact that we stopped and asked the way, but were all were mightily impressed when we stopped at the bike shop for Ness to buy some new shoes. The straps were hanging on by a thread, and Ness in a throwback to her ballet dancing days got the brightest, whitest shoes that she could find.

The last 15 miles into Wrexham was a good blast and only a few hill to notes.

Distance: 80.62miles

Riding Time: 5 hours 57 mins

Weather Good – dry and cloudy

Beer of the day - Cains Bitter

Total Mileage - 362 miles

Overnight - Grove Guest House, Wrexham.