15. The Road To PBP

… a finish in time was currently out of the question, PBP was gone and this route had beaten me again…

13. One Thousand Lessons

I was now 560 km in and without sleep for 37 hours. It there and then dawned on me: perhaps I was finally becoming the animal I’d for so long dreamt of being.

12. Four Hundred And Forty Six Point Eight

“How are you”, asked Tom. “I feel like I’m going to throw up”, I said, which was true.

11. Phoenix Rising

Things were coming undone for me in lots of different ways at once and I had trouble dealing with all of it at the same time. I went to see the GP and it was all I could do not to break down in front of her. She only looked about 17.

10. Tears for Wojtek

I was on my bike, in the sunshine, in the fens, where I had promised us both we would one day ride together. There is a moral to that story for all of you; make sure you water the plant while its alive.

9. London-Wales-London

Nearly meeting inspirational people, idiocy, crushed technology, fabulous volunteers, a most helpful Oxford bike shop man called Joshua. Fields, exhaustion and a distressed teenager.

8. The Road to Hull

The wind howled angrily and with purpose into my left side as the aerobars whistled their ghostly tune.

7. Beyond 200

With 70km to go, the only good points on offer from the rain were a) it was good training for foul weather in the TCR, and, b) I got to try out that hideously expensive waterproof jacket I bought recently.

6. In the beginning, there was Audax

My packing strategy wasn’t looking good for my plans to do the Transcontinental Race, where people hack their toothbrushes in half, just to save a bit of weight and room.

5. Elevation

There was much faffing to be done with the Garmin, since I hadn’t put the maps on it before leaving. Who knows why; I mean, why didn’t I do it? The cottage had no WiFi, and only a tiny bit of 3G if you stood in the right spot, with the moon in the right place, etc.