Mile by Mile Blog: Day 1 - Its Wet Up North

An interesting start to our grand escapade. The guys at Accrington made us very welcome and gave us bacon butties for breakfast. We were also able to see the TV clip from yesterday by using the club wifi. After a photo shot we set off for the local ASDA. The weather was atrocious and by the time we reached the store, a distance of less that 2 miles, we were already soaked. We left our support team collecting and made off for Stockport at around midday.

Mike fell failed to unclip and fell over almost immediately. I (Duncan) was navigating with my Garmin, but I simply couldn’t see it as both the unit and my specs were completely waterlogged. Consequently we had to keep stopping to wipe of the water and read the screen.

The hills of Accrington didn’t phase us and we made good progress (considering) to Bury and then on to Manchester. In the centre of Manchester Mike decided to pick up a puncture, quite a spectacular one actually, we all heard it pop. Fixing it was a bit of a game and both Mike and I finished up filthy, having to wash our hand in a puddle.

We pressed on to Stockport where we met up with some of my relatives and had a spot of lunch, then set off for Congleton. I hit an big pothole in the road and lost control, and although I managed to unclip and get off the bike without falling (just), Mike was not so lucky. My sudden halt caught him unawares and he didn’t have any time to unclip, so over he went again. The rain had eased off by this stage and there was an occasional glimpse of sun, so that was some compensation I suppose.

It proved to be a bit of a slog to get to Congleton and we were somewhat behind schedule, but we got there eventually, then after a brief stop we set off on the last leg, to Stoke-on-Trent. Understandably we were starting to tire a bit, I was particularly struggling at one point, but after a few wine gums from MIke and some stretching I was back on track. All went well until we were getting close to Stoke when it stated to rain again and Andy’s chain came off and jammed. The consequence of this was that the chain began to rub and the bike was stuck in one gear. we struggled on until with just about 3 miles to go Andy had a puncture. By this time it was properly raining, so we nipped into a bus shelter to mend it. We finally arrived at our overnight accommodation at 8pm, filthy, wet through, very tired and rather pleased with ourselves.

So in summary it has been a good day. We made some friends in Accrington, collected a load more cash and we have completed 61 miles of our marathon bike ride. Tomorrow we head for Burton Albion in the morning, then over to Wolverhampton in time for tea.