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
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