We sorted the date of November 19th and that was that. Paul (my older brother) heard what we planned and said he'd like to come along, which was great.
It's a pretty rubbish photo but this was the scene after I'd got out of bed at 5.40 a.m. and got the car packed. I had 3 bikes as Ian is planning to sell one for me and take one off my hands.
I arrived at Ian's place in Gloucester just before 8 and Paul was just behind me. I was amazed that we managed to set off by 8.30 as planned - I thought we'd be faffing for ages.
Here are the brothers Grimm, outside Ian's house ready to go. We set off south down the A38. Ian and I had the route on our Garmin 705s but unfortunately, neither would pick it up properly, so we lost details for the first 10 miles until we gave up. Luckily, it was a fairly straightforward route otherwise we'd have been stuffed.
We were making good progress and turned off the A38 at Rudgeway on the outskirts of Bristol.
We were very lucky with the weather - it was about 12 degrees, sunny spells and dry which considering it is nearly December is good going.
After about 45 miles we reached Malmesbury and stopped for brunch in the inappropriately named Summer Cafe. My tea and sandwiches went down really well.
After a decent break, we set off again for Cirencester along the Fosseway. Most of our roads were fairly "main" which helped in terms of getting the miles munched and they weren't too bad scenery wise.
By about halfway, Ian was beginning to tire a bit and was getting cramp spasms. Whilst he's done a lot of hill work, he hasn't had the time to get longer distances in.
He dug in though and cracked on with it.
We passed through Cirencester, and after asking a French lady on her bike the way, we set off on the road to Burford. There is a lovely looking pub, The Swan on a 90 degree bend at Bibury where we stopped for 5 minutes - see the pics opposite. I've never been in there but have liked the look of it on the few times I've passed it.
We reached Burford and stopped for a fluid refill. I bought a 5 litre of water which we shared and off we go again.
It got a bit lumpy between Burford and Stow and the climb into Stow made us blow a bit. There then followed some great downhills where you really had to concentrate due to the sharp bends and the muck on the road. Ian lead the way, always been a quick descender.
Ian's cramps had been getting worse, and the quad cramps didn't look much fun, but after a bit of downhill recover, he seemed to get a second wind.
Our final stop was at the BP garage by the M5 just before Tewkesbury. Ian and I had soup which was absolutely disgusting and kept re-emerging for the rest of the day.
The darkness had arrived quickly and the last 20 miles were in the dark. We stayed on the A38 and then had great fun riding through the centre of Gloucester. We passed the rugby ground and thousands of people were leaving. We had a few dickheads in cars but rode through unscathed.
After 10+ hours we arrived back at Ian's house having achieved our aim. Our average moving speed was just under 15mph which I was pleased with. It is another milestone knocked over and it was great to do it with my two bruvvers.
300k next??!! :)