Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Day 2 - Niggley Knees, A Strong Breeze and No Camping Fees

What an extremely difficult day.

It started off with Phil managing to fall of his bike 1 min 25 seconds into the day. Luckily he was ok. Just a gentle taste of gravel.

Tom, Bustard and George headed to Nuneaton in order to pick up Tom's brand new spanker from Halfords. Luckily the Halfords team had managed to construct Tom's bike in record time. Maybe this hindered the bikes performance as Tom found changing gears rather difficult.

The other group headed down Fosse way with good speed and the guys thought it would be a great day but that wasn't the case.
After stopping at Glebe farm cafe we had a banging all day breakfast and after some deliberation about waiting for the other three, James and Simon decided to wait for them whilst the others headed out.

But only a mile and half down the road from Glebe farm disaster struck! Tom Hext had a complication changing gear and his knee popped out causing him sheer agony. We phoned an ambulance and the hospital confirmed his fate and he is out of the bike ride.

Were all gutted for him and hope for him to have a good recovery.

After the ambulance left because of the amount of time lost we waited for James, Simon and Bustard. With Tom and George trailing due to poor navigation.

With time handy, Myself, Ed, Alex, Louis and Phil devised a fun rock game to kill time. Very entertaining. This was not before I was at one with nature and left my mark in a Warwickshire field.

After setting out. The main group made some good speed but I kept falling behind due to the constant hills and the bulkiness of my bike. Eventually, in the approach to Stow, which is one hell of a hill, the foursome of Alex, Bustard, Simon and Phil powered through. Leaving Myself, Ed, Louis and Rudi in Stow pondering which step to take next.

After resting for a while, George appeared out of the mist. Doing his best Lance Armstrong impression. Happy to see us. Soon after Tom appeared and we were reunited at last. After hearing the other four were making good progress we decided to go to Folly Farm campsite, 6 miles away as we all felt it was too far to Cirencester. We set off and after a winding hill we made it to the campsite.

The owner was kind enough not to charge us and even gave us a lift to a store for supplies.

The other four made is to Cirencester and managed to talk their way into free pizza.

Hopefully there are not too many days that are eventful as that.

The morale in the camp is ok, let's hope today is an improvement.

Day 2 Stats:

50 miles/68 miles (For Tom, George and Bustard)
Saddle Time - 4 hours 25 mins
Campsite - Folly Farm Campsite
Saddle Soreness - 4 out of 10

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