LEJOG – Day 5 (St Briavels > All Stretton)
// September 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // Events, Fitness
- Original Route Mapping
- Route Stats on Garmin Connect (incomplete)
After the late finish the day before we had a lie-in at St Briavels and left at around 10am. Another sunny day with passing cloud cover so we had to put loads of sun block on. By this point the bum cream was still working, but we’d begun to start conditioning to saddle rub. It would still take another few days though until it wasn’t so much of an issue. It’s not something you can totally get rid of, but you get to a point where it’s not much of an issue.
The ride was quite pleasant up through Gloucestershire and into Shropshire, although not as interesting or enjoyable as Cornwall and Devon. We passed through fewer villages, most of the route being roads with farms either side. There were some excellent roads at the beginning of the trip, very fast and plenty of bends so quite exciting. We just had to be careful with oncoming cars which nearly caught me out at one point. The day was one of our shorter ones in the UK, so passed by quite quickly.
One of the hardest days of the whole trip. Mainly because it was our first full day, but also the amount of ascent, and also the steepness of some of the climbs. It was one of the most enjoyable routes though. We set off from Penzance YHA hostel after breakfast at around 9am and were quickly on our way. It was a cloudy start but turned very sunny (high of around 25C). We didn’t put on any sun block so got caught out and quite badly burnt which was a problem for a few days. The roads were generally very good, even the country lanes. It wasn’t until around 70km that we started hitting really step hills. We even found a 33% hill, the steepest of the whole trip. Prior to it there were hills, but not the unbearably steep ones.
Our first day. We got up at 7am to catch the train from Paddington at 10am, first class, which was really nice. It cost around £32 as we booked a couple of months in advance. It was well worth it though, standard class was only £4 cheaper, and we got a lot more space. It was generally a really nice train journey. Having never been beyond Exeter on the train, when it went along the coast line it was great to be so close to the see on a train.
