Another Video :)

Christian who rode with us has also put together a short film of our trip.   You can see it by following this link.  It's really good to see other bits of our trip and from a different view point.

Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/69999931

Our complete trip in a quick video!

I'm so glad i recorded bits of the ride, playing it back you remember so much more, you don't need to see the whole day but just little prompts so memories come back, its easy on a multi-day trip to merge one day to the next so see the video again is great.

This was our trip through my eye's.

Best viewed in HD so you get to see some of the beautiful scenery.  

Enjoy. 

Roll on the next one!   

Day 1 Video

Round up

What a great trip we had...  weather wasn't great but did it matter, no not really, would i do something like this again?  hell yes,  yes i had my down moments (we all did) but isn't that what makes going away special, makes you see things around you at home differently.

I meet some really great people and changed my opinion of a country so all in all it can't be bad.


A couple of nurd facts for you!

• 1,027 miles ... 
• 222,580 pedal strokes (no i wasn't counting! but the garmin does) 
• 32,014 calories burnt, 
• 60,302 ft of climbing
• 111 Hrs in the saddle 
• 2 punchers 1 front + 1 rear
• 1 set of cleats wore out
• 1 set of pads were new but now nearly shot
• 1 broken spoke
• 0.6 Kg lighter than when i started! 
• 75 GB of video!  its going to be a while to put something together

The group as a whole had 

• 4 more punchers, 
• a few sets of blocks 
• and a broken rear wheel rim. 
• 1 broken gear cable
• 1 cut lock (keys help! ha ha) ... is this your bike no! 
• a couple of off's (prating around)

Not bad for 11 cyclists riding around 11,000 miles. 

Reckon I've lost the weight from my face... all that grinning on the decent's!

As you can probably tell I had an absolutely fantastic time.

Many thanks to Craig and Emma for organizing it, and Sean, Louise, Colin, Barry, Al, Duffers, Martin, Christian and Chuggy for making it so memorable and to top it all off we've raised over 2 grand for the Cornwall air ambulance.

Can't be bad.

The final day - Now thats PAN FLAT!

The ferry back was about as smooth a run as you can get...  I slept sound all night and after a big breakfast went back to sleep again!  waking up with about an hour and half to go,  ideal.  

Riding back to Liskeard was interesting... being cut-up countless times, nearly being flattened by a tractor... yeah we're back in England alright!

It was a strange ride back for me... happy to be home but sad the adventure had ended,  I guess that's the sign of really enjoying something.

Day 12 - Flat run in my a#se!!!!

Riding away from Bilbao and towards to coast, Spain became a nicer place... less cars, more considerate drivers and nicer countryside. The first sight of the coast was a welcome sight.

Time for a quick picture before heading to our first and only stop of the day...

Stopping in Laredo we all got a bite to eat in one of the local cafes on the beach.  The ride to there had been anything but the "Pan Flat Ride" that Craig had talked about the night before!

The sun shone for us and the final days riding was superb, my miles clicked over the 1000 not long before we caught the ferry across the bay to the main port.

A few beers to celebrate before catching the ferry were well deserved. 

Day 11 - We're not in Kansas anymore!!!!

Day 11 was away's going to be the hardest day of all... almost 100 miles of hilly terrain to cover!
It lived up to it!  just take a look at the profile!

Long gone were the long smooth rolling roads to France these were very long steady climbs the first of which was a 13 mile steady assent, quite a low gradient but never ending!   the second a shorter stage climb with the first part 2.5 miles long at 8.3%! and the next part 1.6 miles at 6.7%.   More stunning scenery but very different to France.  The first impressions of Spain wasn't the best... worst roads... worse driving... more litter...

The worst was yet to come!  the final climb of the day was on a cut through which Craig had found to keep us off the really busy nitemare roads!!!  It was the only part of the route which when i'd put the little google man down to have a look it wouldn't work!  we found out why! 70 miles in we faced a concrete road which had obviously been laid just before they local farmer had ran his cows on it!!  rough as rats and peaked at almost 18%....  18% in 80°+ heat after 70 miles is not a good mix.

With over 7000 ft of climbing we were all very tired and the run into Bilbao couldn't come soon enough.  Flowers and little tributes by the road said it all, this wasn't a nice place to be at rush hour on a push bike! the rough road cut through had kept of off that road as long as we could. 

  

We arrived at the massive hostel, eat and went out for a well deserved beer!  

Beer in Spain is dirt cheap compared to France so it not all bad!

Flat run into Santander so the beer kept flowing!