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
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