Up at 5:30 having not slept a wink because of our nerves and the live band downstairs at the Seaview hotel. At least the weather was good...
After a brief photoshoot we were off!!!!! Matt at the helm and all going swimmingly, the first 20 miles were swiftly dealt with. Tim, our support driver, doing a great job of holding up the traffic behind us. Nice to have some encouragement along our route from the 'Spoon' JOGLE riders who we met last night.
Time for a rider change. Mike at the front this time...... 6 wibbly-wobbly miles...... time for another change.
Making good progress with Mark at the front and then BANG - Our first blowout, thankfully on the flat and only going at 13 mph. No falling off. Quick tire change from our chief mechanic and we're off again........... BANG - 800 metres later. Second blowout - this time at 25 mph on a downhill. Held it all together but a call to Peter Bird at the tandem shop who thought that we might have a bad batch of inner tubes. So off to Wick in the van to buy some new ones leaving 3 of the ugly ducklings asleep in the layby.
On return with a new of inners we found that Matt had been stung on the lip by a bee. No whinging quick tire change and off again........
SNAP.... our chain is broken on the Berriedale braes (big steep hill). Some despondency set in amongst the riders. More work for Tim but we were soon off again. We were now pretty late - 3:30 in the afternoon and still over 50 miles to go!!! Fortunately our new dependable German inner tubes held strong and we smashed the last fifty miles arriving in Tain at 7:00 to the lovely Carrington Guest house.
Knackered and sore. Bedtime with Matt and Tim being watched over by a massive painting of Elvis. The King isn't dead....
No comments:
Post a Comment