TO HULL & BACK 300 Mile in 24hr bike ride...Attempt! Most of you will know I have now done a few of these & despite breaking 300 mile on my last one I still didn’t make that in 24hr & there is an itch still to scratch. So A plan & someone mad enough (Steve didn’t seem keen on doing another after last time) was needed. Step up John Smith with the comment “I have never been to the humber bridge” and enough fitness for the both of us then the plan was hatched. On paper it was simple. Leave Kettering at midnight Fri, back roads to Melton Mowbray, skim Newark (which John later informed me has an interesting anagram) through to Lincoln taking in steep hill, Goole for breakfast, then north of the estuary over the bridge & a quick swing to Mablethorpe on the way back to make the miles up. This looked flatter & therefore easier than my last ride which in all honesty it was... or at least should of been. THE BEGINING So we met up at midnight & were off with good spirits & a lot of excitement. Riding into the welland valley I was surprised by the hills despite having meticulously planned the route. We made it to Melton & from here it really felt like we were into pastures new. The rest of the night went quickly as we seemed to find a lot to talk about. There was only one near miss when I was up on the bars & didn’t realise we were approaching a junction, I only managed to get one hand to the brakes which was the front & put myself into a front wheel slide. Fortunately I held this & despite some pant soiling everything was good! We had short regular stops for refuling spreading of lube & what became our staple diet.. asprin! Before long we saw the crack of dawn (insert own jokes here) & were within spitting distance of Lincoln... not bad before 5 am! This gave us our first opportunity for a proper refuel & were quite amused by the middle aged lady at the garage saying “oooh thats just what I like, to see some men in lycra at this time in the morning! A few junkies later & we were in Lincoln Town centre! STEEP HILL LINCOLN Yes it is! THE BORING *& TOUGH BIT Out the other side of Lincoln led to continuous painfully straight roads, we were both aware that we needed to do 100m in every 8hrs including stops to achieve our goal so we started working hard with John taking 75% of the lead, but me doing my fair share when I could. 100m passed & we were still heading for breakfast in Goole which kept us motivated. With my usual lack of riding the pace was high for my liking at times, but I felt ok so kept pushing hard. We found some interesting industrial stuff & crossed steel bridges in the run into goole which gave us something to look at. We arrived in Goole at 9ish with 130m done so were ahead of schedule. John mentioned to some Yorkshire friends a few weeks ago that we were stopping here for breakfast & they replied “I wouldn’t bloody bother if I were you” & they were right its not the most thrilling place, but the breakfast was ace! Having said that pig swill with olives in would of tasted nice in my present state of starvation. TO THE BRIDGE It was about 25m to the Humber which was a bit of a drag & we had now turned into a head wind. We had feared a headwind all the way back but to be honest this wasn’t too bad & the first sight of the bridge sent chills through us. The other good thing about Smiffy joining me is that I learnt all sorts of interesting facts, like the bridge pillars are 30 something millimetres further apart at the top because of the curvature of the earth (or perhaps they just built it squint) & it was the longest in Europe at the time of building. Not to mention that we crossed the longest piece of “straight” railway track on this ride too. But one undeniable thing is it was quite spectacular and a great way to see it was on bike. This must of been true because all of a sudden there were dozens of cyclists & we had hardly seen any till this point. This gave us a great sense of “we have rode further than you” & the reality of the fact we had just rode there really sunk in. We spent a fair amount of time with the camera before heading off taking in the humber oil refinery / power station which again was thrown into the route just to make things a bit more interesting. This would of been good, but we encountered our first rain, we had been lucky but now it chucked it down & saw us sprinting to Immingham to find a garage to shelter in. This passed as quick as it started & led way to brilliant sunshine so we headed off to Mablethorpe. NEVER RAINS BUT IT POURS We watched the miles tick away & passed 200 just after 3pm which again put us right on target, but then things started going Pete Tong A series of punctures & inner tube problems & John stated we were “Donald ducked”, However I had a rear tyre which was holding half pressure & we were only 2 miles from Mablethorpe so I was convinced we could get sorted there & headed off. John went in one way while I went in the other to look for a bike shop & as soon as we split the lightening started... then the stair rods. Soaked to the skin we met up in the centre to discover Mablethorpe is probably the worst equipped town to be on a bike in in the world! Where could we get a tube? Bike shop? Shut at 4, Wilco’s- none, Halfords – none Tescos superstore – just being built so I suppose thats getting closer! We really felt we were now donald ducked, but did manage to get a repair kit at one of the gift shops which was as much use as a handbrake on a canoe! Several phonecalls back home & we did have the offer of a collection, but with a “weve got ourselves into this” attitude we felt this was simply unfair.. So what to do... have fish & chips obviously & with some internet surfing back home we discovered there was a Tesco in Ingolmels. Its ONLY 11m so a rubbish patch & load of insulation tape & we were off! This of course didn’t even last out of town so I decided to just keep going and ride it flat. Its fair to say with 210 miles in your legs this is hard work & the main issue I had was control, it was like skating on ice. I was quite prepared to hijack any roadie we saw, but of course we saw none! Eventually we made it only to find this was little more than a Tesco express & had no chance of having bike spares. I made a decision to get to Skegness train station where I could give Smiffy the tube out my front as a spare so as he could complete the ride & I would make my own way home. This again was agonising, but we made it & there was still trains running... to Grantham with no connection. Bad To Worse Things were desperate now, B & B? No chance in school holiday, then John noticed a 24hr Tesco right behind us... we were saved! So we got in & found the last 2 road bike tubes, which when I got out turned out to be only 1 tube & an empty box?!?! Anyway one will do, until I noticed the state 16m on a flat had left my tyre in. Ok we used the old tube & half a roll of insulation tape to do the best repair possible & set off... the wrong way! Actually this was the right way to Boston according to the signs, which since I have last been there now send you along the A158 then down the A16 which is only about 10m longer than the old route, but with the lack of maps for Skeggy we persisted & the tube lasted at least a mile. No choice now we rode into the night with a flat & the only good thing was that all the “extra stuff” in my rear tyre meant it handled better but was destroying my knees when sat & the wrists were getting battered while standing so stops were frequent. Johns Garmin then packed up (probably through water ingress) & the ratchet fell off my shoe buckle, but by now I really didn’t care. We rode into the night & I had finally had enough at about half 9. As I realised I was not going to make it home & even if we made Boston was going to have sleep rough to have any chance of a fix in the morning. I tried a few friends & in the end rang my parents. They are a bit closer being in Gretton & have enough room to put us up for the night. My Dad was obliging but I still felt bad so we carried onto the A16 as he headed for Boston. We made it within 5 mile of Boston when the cavalry arrived. Epic Fail ?? Will let you decide on that one! We did about 260m well within the 24hr & I did over 40 on a flat! So not a bad days work. I felt strong as an ox at times (& probably smelt like one too) but suffered like hell at others. I knew John is far stronger rider, but think we worked well together. He refused to leave me when I had trouble even though I am sure he could of finished the ride. We got back to Gretton & hats off to John as he opted to ride home in the early hours. I filed the mangled rim in the morning, got dropped at Halfords Corby & rode home & have to hand it to my bike I am staggered the rim is still true & it rode this morning like a dream. I cant begin to explain my frustration as I am sure we would of achieved our goal this time, but we still had an epic adventure. Unlike the insanity of the one I did with Steve a few years ago I am already thinking how I can tweak this route to have another go!
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 19:20:29 +0000
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