Day 8: Chepstow - Tiverton

Start Time 08:30

Finish Time 19:00

Actual Mileage 89.6 miles

Average Speed (15.5 mph)

 

To begin… We hopped past Chepstow missing out on a visit to the castle and the opportunity to dress up in armour but giving us plenty of time to cross over the River Severn in strong headwinds. We skipped past Bristol (although got delayed going round the one way system) – Joe was admiring the Clifton Suspension Bridge when he ran over a dead pigeon. Then we jumped through the West Country, each of us breaking our top speeds (Rob took the gold reaching 42.8 mph) and each of us having incidents…

Joe’s pannier bag fell off while going downhill and made a clunking sound, Rhys’s impenetrable Mongoose bike valued at 39 pence suffered its first ever puncture, Robert took some stimulants and could not seem to stop cycling, Steve was screaming every few minutes enjoying the ecstasy of his Achilles tendon and Ollie found out he is identical twins to the Ferengi from Star Trek.

What else have we learnt on our journey today?

1. Don’t trust Rhys to book up accommodation unless you want a farm in the middle of nowhere only accessible by a country road about the width of a sheep.
2. Morrisons have 8 different types of trollies including your standard ‘daily shopper’, your ‘disabled trolley’ and your majestic ‘twin seater’.
3. Rob found out that cars do not slip on banana skins
4. Other pro cyclists are not very sociable if you beat them on an up hill stretch

When we arrived at the B&B for the night there was a lot of bemusement over the questionable ‘luxury accommodation’ and Rhys managed to have a late night spat with a group of imaginary ducks which apparently kept him awake most of the night quacking.

Moment of the day (sponsored by American Beauty: being dazzled by a whirlwind of leaves while begging outside of Morrisons.