Day 5 - Cheers for popping in Guv

Another long stage today, 114 miles from Carlise to Haydock Park, nr Manchester but at least we stuck to the route and only did the regulation distance.

We were in one of the first groups to go and as it included a few semi pros, we made the first pit stop in the leading group. However, as the second leg included the infamous Shap Hill, Claire and I decided to leave them to it and take it as easy as you can going up a mountain.

To make the decent more interesting, it was raining and visibility was about 20 metres but once we had finished it and got into the rolling dales, the sun came out and it was glorious cycling.

Sunshine before the rain

Next up was trying to arrange a meeting point so the Guv could join us. This proved more difficult than first though as I didn't have a clue were I was and suprisingly Simon wasn't helped by me saying things like 'we are going past a pub called The Plough'.

Yet another uphill close up

We finally met up with the Guv at the last pit stop with an, in theory, straightforward 30 miles to the bar at Haydock Park. However, after a couple of miles of Simon setting a pretty good pace, there was a huge downpour with hailstones and everything. With flooded roads, a serious soaking and no change of clothes, Simon bailed out at Wigan station to get the train back home which is fair enough as he's just got back from cycling across America.

Anyway, the rain stopped about a mile from the end so we sprinted the last climb to finish the 114 miles and 2,000 metres of climbing at another very acceptable average speed of 15 mph.

Finally, star and inspiration of the day is Alan, the hand cyclist who is an absolutely legend.

Tomorrow we set off for Ludlow which whilst not South, sounds a lot less Northern than every other place we've been.