Mile by Mile Blog: Day 3 - Feel the Burn!

What a great time we had at Wolverhampton Wanderers. After an escorted ride to Molineux we were met by the Vice Chairman Richard Skirrow and Manager Mick McCarthy who made us very welcome. We spent some time chatting and taking photos in the stadium. Mike was pretty chuffed that Mick had a ride of his bike, but nobody was more excited that Phil, our minibus driver and dyed-in-the wool wolves fan who persuaded Mick to sign his T-shirt and have a picture taken, then proceeded to video every inch of the ground with his phone. One happy bunny.

After tea in the ref’s room, we moved on to the local ASDA and set up for collecting, before eventually setting off for Hereford around 12.30. That’s where the fun really started.

The first issue was the Garmin. It refused to load the map in the area of Wolverhampton that we were in and then after a few minutes of blind navigation I realised that it wasn’t tracking us either. A reboot cured this, but by then we had strayed somewhat from the path. We managed to get back to our route riding across a housing estate, but we were already behind schedule.

We pressed on to Kidderminster which necessitated some difficult riding on fast roads which was not at all comfortable. Just outside Kidderminster we met up with the bus and had a spot of lunch. We had made good time and were confident of a reasonable eta in Hereford. The bets laid plans... Riding through the town Mike buster a spoke on his back wheel. We stopped in a park and removed it to prevent a puncture then set off again. A couple of miles on we found a cycle shop ‘Smiths Cycles’ who very kindly fixed the wheel and trued it up. What’s more, when the owner realised what we were up to with our ride, he didn’t charge as a penny. What a great guy.

Time was really pressing by then and we really needed to make tracks. Which reached Stourport quickly enough, but then the hills started. If anyone tells you that Worcester and Herefordshire are flat, then they are telling porkies! This stage of the ride was hard and we struggled periodically. However, on the way down, it was fantastic, one of us hitting 40 mph at one point.

We met up with the van again for a quick cuppa and some stretches, then onward to Hereford. A few more climbs then we really picked up the pace and finally reached our destination at 8:50pm. We were completely exhausted but Phil made a fantastic Thai green curry and we finished it off with jam rolly-polly and custard.

Tomorrow we go to Hereford United, then we have to tackle Birdlip, the biggest hill of the whole event. My quads are definitely not going to like that!