Finished! 825km Cycling, 3 Peaks conquered, 4.5 days.

Spirits were high checking out of our lovely accommodation in Corwen, as we knew that our final day was to be the easiest of the whole challenge. We decided on cramming in the miles on the bike leading up today, so that we would have a short 34 mile stretch to the base of Mount Snowdon, before completing it and allowing around 4 hours to get back to London.

At 8.20am we were on our bikes and speeding towards Pen Y Pass, taking in some of the most impressive scenery of the whole route. Approaching Snowdon the terrain had the feel of the outer Pyrenees, the bright sunshine and blue sky adding to the feel of a South of France in summer.





We completed the 53km in just over 2 hours, aided by the cheering of Mark and Tom's parents who had driven to join us for the final few hours.

The last few hundred metres...



One final push boys!



A quick change at the tourist centre at the base of the Mountain and we were off on the Miner's path up to the summit. The fact that the Gibbs had joined us meant that Tom could indeed join us on the hike, something that we all knew meant a few hours of entertainment no doubt. Surely enough, after 12 minutes of hiking Tom questioned "We must be half way by now right lads?", soon followed by a comical sprint past all 4 of us (did I mention his chosen outfit for the hike was a flat cap and Barbour?) before subsequently sitting on a rock clutching his heart with flushed cheeks around 30 metres further.. On top of this, the sole of Tom's shoe disintegrated, and he got a bad blister on his little toe on the way up.. aside from this he was doing pretty well.



For the 4 of us, the ascent felt like a chore that we just needed to get out of the way to say the challenge was complete, so there were few rests on the 2.5 hour round trip due to our impatience at wanting to get off Snowdon.



The summit





The thought running through all our minds over the last 30 minutes of the descent was of a nice cold beer at the local pub to celebrate... After a few minutes of celebrations and photographs, we jumped in the cars and headed down to The Swallow Falls hotel for a great lunch and a few celebratory drinks. Fred got drunk on 3 pints of shandy, and quickly fell asleep in the Landrover as we headed back on the 4 hour drive to London. The comedy sight of the day was pulling out of the Pub carpark with 6 bikes attached to the LandRover, 3 bags on the roof, and 5 people all squashed in.. the tight journey didn't really help the stiffness in the legs, but Tom did brilliantly to get us back to London bang on 10pm. It will be a strange feeling waking up tomorrow not thinking about water bottles, chamoix cream or route maps... but we'll all be thankful for the rest!

Total Peaks conquered: 3
Total Cycling distance : 825km
Time taken : 4.5 days

The last big day, 206km of cycling!

We had always thought that Day 4 would be mentally the toughest day of the challenge, with it being the last big day before the relatively "easier" final day, and also the fact that the route forced us through several town centres which is always quite arduous.

We set off from Grange over Sands at 8.40am (after drumming up £20 of sponsorship over breakfast from 2 separate people) and headed onto Lancaster in glorious sunshine. Mark, who seems to have had eternal bike issues from Day 1, was adamant on stopping in this town to get both his wheels fixed, as the belief was that their buckling was the cause of his 5 punctures over the last 2 days, and not his self-sabotage tactics every time the going got tough. Fortunately we found a mechanic in the town centre that fixed the issue in 20 minutes, so on we pressed to Preston. The scenery was very uninteresting compared to some we have experienced over the last few days, the only advantage of the first half of the day was that the route was flat. Through Preston we headed to lunch in Wigan, finding a great lunch spot where we were able to continue the sponsorship raising with total strangers, ending lunch up £55 on the day. Having ordered my food I immediately fell asleep at the table, only waking up as the food arrived. I can recommend this tactic at any restaurant. As soon as lunch was over there were other sleeping casualties at the table, it seems the lack sleep over the last 4 nights and the intensity on the bike is finally catching up with us..

Beautiful weather at last!



It was after lunch that it became apparent that "lobster" Fred had forgotten to put on any suncream this morning.. ouch! The next 50km passed by pretty quickly on more flat terrain around Chester, and it wasn't long before we entered Wales and our third country in 3 days. A panic phone call from Tom on his seventh revolution of Chester's one way system was just about the highlight of this section of riding.

With 50km to go, we made our final stop at a BP station to stock up on energy drinks, sweets and yet more flapjacks. The friendly cashier informed us "You're going to Corwen?! Oh it is flat and straight the whole way, no hills!". We felt smug as we left the forecourt hearing this, but not so smug 10km later after having ascended up a 3km climb and up to an altitude of 1,000 feet.. I would love to hear that particular woman's definition of a mountain.

The so called "flatlands" leading to Corwen in Wales.



With 20km to go, the sun disappeared and out came a refreshing rain shower, and the bonus of having ascended to a decent altitude meant another lovely downhill run in to our final destination at Corwen. The fact that the accommodation that awaited us at the finish line was the best of the whole trip so far made the smiles on everyone's faces just that little bit bigger.

We ended the day having covered 206km in the saddle, taking the 4 day total to 770km. We all feel that the back of the challenge has now been broken, as tomorrow's half day includes a "mere" 55km to the base of Snowden, and then the ascent of the highest Mountain in Wales. There is a rumour that Tom (Support Crew Head Manager) will be putting on his Timberland shoes and joining us for the Hike up that Peak, let's see if he feels as confident in the morning as he was after 3 Pints of John Smith's at dinner...

Corwen



Total distance cycled in 4 days: 770km
Total calories burned cycling: 25,050

Day 3 - 176km, Scafell Pike, 4 punctures..

Day 3

Wow., another loooong day. We started cycling at 8.40am this morning, and arrived at our hotel at 9.45pm… We covered 176 km on the bike, either side of climbing up and down the 3,209 foot high Scafell Pike.

We left our Travelodge (thank you Mark, once again) at 8.20am, and headed into Carlisle, cutting across to Cockermouth and onto the minor roads leading up to Scafell Pike. We had a couple of hitches in the first 50km of riding, firstly Ben suffering with a sore back that was remedied with 4 Ibuprofen and half a tube of Deep Heat, secondly Mark with a puncture on his front tyre (his second in 2 days). More on Mark's punctures later..



Ben took the opportunity to have a 5 minute nap whilst Mark was changing his inner tube… has anyone ever seen somebody use a pedal as a pillow before??



Approaching Scafell the scenery really became dramatic, and a few km away from the base of the climb we were able to get our first group shot of us on our bikes next to the Loch at Wasdale:



Having had a few unplanned pit stops, and with the terrain harsher than previously believed, we got to the base of Scafell Pike around 1.5 hours behind schedule. A quick lunch (i.e stuff down as MUCH as you can in as short a space of time as possible) and we were off to tackle the highest peak in England. The early part of the climb was steep, but we pushed hard to get to the summit in exactly 1 hour 30 minutes. A quick descent and we have completed the whole climb in 2hrs 39 minutes. Tom had just about made it back from the local pub by the time we arrived in Wasdale car park.

The climb



At the summit



This meant we were back on our bikes and headed towards Grange-over-Sands, our destination for the evening, before 5.30pm. Some fantastic, but tough, terrain followed. Mark was having more problems with his second puncture of the day around 10km after Scafell, his 3rd 20km on, and his 4th 20.1km on… I’ve never witnessed 4 punctures in one day, and 2 within 100m (first the front, then the rear). Mark is clearly winning the “Most punctures of the Week" award 5-0-0-0.

The added delays meant we have to push ourselves hard on the steep 3km climb before Broughton, as well as the equally steep 2km climb outside Foxfield. This is where Mark's heavy breathing really became disturbing.

The climb before Broughton



The reward for the harsh ascents meant a lovely 15km run in to Grange over Sands, and some great 4-man teamwork meant that over the last hour we covered 31km. At our final pee/water stop 15km from the finish, Tom entertained us once again by leaving a 1 foot deep trench on the grass verge next to the hard shoulder of the B590 dual carriageway.. Added hilarity followed by Tom utterly convinced that there were 47 Miles to our Hotel (rather than the 6 miles it actually was). “It is a brand new Sat Nat, trust me fellas, it really is 47 miles"

We eventually arrived out our hotel just before dark, with bike lights fully on once again.

By the time we had showered and got changed to search for some much needed dinner, nearly every restaurant in the local area was closed once again, this meant take-away! Chinese this evening…. Many calories needed tonight, on the bike leg alone we each burned over 7,000...

Spot the guy that had 4 punctures today



Peaks conquered : 2
Total distance cycled in 3 days: 564km
Total calories burned on the bike : 20,200

Day 2 - All cycling, yes all 208km of it...

We were up at 7am for breakfast, and set-off for the Ferry to Gourock at 8.45am (the Ferry port being only 1.5km from our Hotel). The weather was awful, which meant we all had to get into our winter jackets, gloves, tights and thermals for the first 2 hours of the day. The rain continued throughout the entire 208km ride, but fortunately remained a light rain without any serious downpours, and the fact that it stayed warm throughout the day made it bearable and not too dangerous.

Ferry crossing from Hunters Quay to Gourock.



There was no Peak to ascend today (Scafell Pike comes tomorrow) so it was a case of churning out the kilometres in the saddle from start to finish, all 208 of them. From Gourock we cycled down to Kilmarnock, to Irvine, across to Dumfries before the final leg down the A76 and A75 into Carlisle. Due to the rain today there aren’t a huge amount of action shots whilst on the bike i'm afraid, however we’ll make up for that tomorrow… One comical shot of the day involved Mark and Fred trying to change Mark’s inner tube after a puncture (after Mark warned us that it "Only took 2.5 hours to change a flat last time")

“Have you ever seen an inner tube before Fred?”.



After his big shock with the 2 bicycles yesterday morning, it was great to see Tom really getting into his role as the “Support Crew Manager". He only got lost twice today (twice in 7 minutes yesterday..), but having him here to look after food, bikes, bags, packing etc etc is a tremendous help. His love of the wild animals in this part of the world knows no ends. The look on his face having seen a dead otter on the road was priceless.

With his older brother Mark, “AKA Mr Organised and Reliable” in charge of tonight’s accommodation, we were all expecting great things. “We're staying in the Travelodge next to Junction 44 of the M6 (Southbound)” Things weren't looking up.. On arrival at Junction 44 of the M6 they became even worse.. We couldn't see a Travelodge, and after about 10 minutes it became apparent that our ‘hotel’ was on the OTHERSIDE of the M6. Then someone suggested “Can’t we just quickly run across the Motorway?”, and as three of us turned to Tom to start hurling abuse, it became apparent that it was in fact Mark who had put forward the clever suggestion, clearly out of embarrassed desperation at the whole situation. After around 30 minutes of failed plans, false underground tunnel entrances, and not-so-clever ideas on a par with running across 8 lanes of traffic, we decided to pack all of us, 6 bikes, all our bags and cycling gear into the landrover to drive up and down the M6 to get to our home for the night.. Mark is definitely losing the “Best Accommodation Booking” award of the week award so far.. This shenanigans taking over an hour..

"If we climb over this fence and into the field, i think i can get to the Travelodge"




Tomorrow we cycle around 55 Miles to the base of Scafell Pike, ascend and descend England’s highest peak, before continuing around 45 more miles to our place of rest at the end of Day 3, Grange over Sands.

Total distance cycled in 2 days : 388km
Total calories burned cycling in 2 days : 13,385

DAY 1 - Ben Nevis, 2 trashed bicycles, 180km cycling.

It was alarm clocks at 5.10am in our 1 star “Backpackers” (courtesy of Fred..) for the start of our first day of 'The Challenge'. Sleep had been sparing due to the fact that all 5 of us were in a 6 man dorm (bunk beds and all), as well as the fact that half a dozen piss heads decided to talk rubbish outside our window at 1.30am. Despite this, team moral was high, and we were dressed and ready to tackle Ben Nevis by 6am sharp. It was a 10 minute drive to the base of the Mountain, and after stuffing in the 14th banana of the morning we were on our way up to the highest point in the British Isles at 6.20am.

The climb bends its way up the Mountain for the first hour or so, before having a 1km flatter section ahead of the final 30 minute push to the summit.



As we approached the top the clouds moved in, and very quickly the temperature dropped to freezing. In the last few hundred metres of the summit, large areas of snow were common.



The pace that we had ascended the Mountain meant that we were kept warm, however it was at this point that Mark received a revealing text message from Tom (his 21yr old brother, our 'Support Crew Manager' for the next 5 days) which read: “Please call urgently, we have a serious problem”… On the hastily returned call it became apparent that the problem was indeed pretty serious, in that 2 of the bikes had been damaged after coming off the roof rack on top of the Land Rover. A lorry carrying a skip had hit one of the bars on the roof rack, causing both Quentin’s and Fred’s bikes to come off and sustain damage to the frames. With Tom under instructions to find a bike shop and get an experienced opinion on the damage, the rest of the climb was completed in a sombre mood. On reaching the summit we only stayed for around 2 minutes to take a few photographs before eagerly heading down to see the damage to the 2 bikes ourselves.



The descent



We were able to get up and down the mountain in under 3.5 hours, which would have put us bang on schedule if we had been able to jump straight onto our functioning bikes. In reality we spent the next 3 hours driving between 2 different bike shops in Fort William in search of replacement bikes, as it immediately became apparent the both bikes were not going to be able to be ridden over the coming days…. The bicycles had made it the full 600 mile journey up from London on top of the car, but couldn’t survive the 1.5 mile journey from the Backpackers to the base of the Mountain and back…

At 12.30pm, we left Fort William on 2 spanking new bicycles (having negotiated a charitable discount of 10%...) with the realisation that were going to be pushed to finish the 180km ride before dark. Fortunately the terrain was very favourable, and we were able to average over 28.5kmph for the first 2 hours. After a rushed lunch stop, we pressed on, getting to the 100km mark in 3hrs 38 minutes – not bad at all. It was around then that we heard that Tom had been pulled over by the Police and accused of drink driving around Fort William the night before… did he really sneak out of the dormitory after we’d all gone to sleep?

The 4 of us took 5km turns at the front to pace the other 3 riders, a system that worked very well all day. At this point the only concern any of us had was riding behind Fred whilst he was wearing his bright green 'day-glow' crop top...



Meanwhile, Ben began to suffer with a large blister he had picked up on Ben Nevis, however of a greater concern to the rest of us were the extraordinary sounds that were being produced out of his cycling shorts (“Was that a duck quacking?”). Meanwhile, Mark was stunned to realise (after several months of training with them) that with clip on pedals you can pull up with your legs on each revolution to help you go faster.. Soon after, Fred took a stationary tumble whilst forgetting that he was clipped into his pedals, as schoolboy error that temporarily rendered both brakes and his bike computer useless... A twenty minute repair job followed.

The cycling around the Lochs from Fort William down to Hunters Quay was spectacular. With so much scenery to look at the kilometres were passing by pretty quickly, and we realised we were indeed going to make it to our first night's stop before dark.





We rolled into Hunters Quay at 9.20pm (in front of Tom shining the roof top headlamps of the Land Rover to make it extra special) which meant we were not all showered and ready for food until 10.30pm. With “The Golden Sea“ Chinese restaurant the only place still open at that time, we had little alternative but to stuff our faces full of duck pancakes, shredded chicken and prawn toast...Bedtime wasn’t until 11.45pm, a loooooong day!

Highest Peaks in the British Isles conquered: 1
Total distance cycled in 1 day : 178km
Calories burned on the bike : 6,686

The Challenge

The challenge involves climbing (in order) Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon, as well as cycling in between all 3 mountains. The challenge undertakes some 42 kilometres (26 miles) of ascent and descent on those mountains, and the self designed cycling route covers 501 miles. We begin in the early hours of Friday 24th June, completing the challenge 4.5 days later at lunchtime on Tuesday 28th June.

The Challenge will raise Funds for two charities, 'Headway' and 'The Alex Richardson Award' at the University of St Andrews. Each charity will receive a 50% split of donations. (Just to reiterate, none of our expenses will be paid from any funds donated.)

The Cause

Alex Richardson was Fred's cousin. He died on March 26th 2009 at the very young age of 21 after falling through a roof whilst at St Andrews University. The fall resulted in him sustaining fatal head injuries. This deeply tragic day changed the lives of his family and friends forever and he will never be forgotten.

The Charities

Headway is the UK's leading voluntary organisation dedicated to promote all aspects of brain injury and to provide support, information and to improve all aspects of life after brain injury.

The Alex Richardson award was set up in memory of Alex whose interest in Spanish speaking cultures was prominent. This award will help a student at St Andrews to continue his or her Spanish and undertake an imaginative project in a Spanish Speaking country, which will broaden their understaning of the culture.

Details


Starting at the base of Ben Nevis on Friday 24th June, the 4 of us will ascend the highest mountain in the British Isles (at 4,409 feet) before cycling 117 miles to our first night's base in Hunters Quay.
Day 2 sees a full day on the bike, with a distance of 130 Miles being covered down to Carlisle.
Day 3 starts with a 55 miles cycle to Scafell Pike, and having completed the 3,209 feet mountain we get back on our bikes for a further 40 miles to Grange-over-Sands.
Day 4 is likely to be mentally (and physically..) the hardest, with a 127 mile cycle all the way down to Corwen in Wales.
Day 5 will be (relatively) the easiest, with a 34 mile cycle before tackling the 3,560 foot mountain