Arrived at Lands End

(On the train through Somerset) Modern man cannot switch off straight away.
Yesterday - intended as a quiet day at home, gardening and packing panniers
- turned into a minor media circus. A TV crew even filmed me packing my
panniers. Today I was making last-minute appointments to pop in at a
research lab (Portsmouth) and a hospital (Edinburgh). The ride from Kings
Cross to Paddington was, unsurprisingly, horrible. And when I should have
relaxed on the train I started doing a Sudoku instead. Aagh. (Dawlish,
South Devon) Palm trees in the town square, strangely eroded red sandstone
cliffs. I'm far from Cambridge. Have I changed time-zone? (Land's End) low
cloudn but mercifully neither wind nor rain, yet.

Different folks

I hope you all had as lovely a weekend as I did. Three visitors descended on Horningsea for a national cycling conference that was held in Cambridge. I think they were a bit worried to begin with, 'cos we're not that close to the middle of the city. But when they found they were eating eggs from our very own hens and drinking water from our very own well, they soon got reconciled to the slightly longer than expected ride into town.

What different folks they are. A cycle politician, one of the geniuses behind the magnificent Facility of the Month website http://www.warringtoncyclecampaign.co.uk/ and a fundamentalist: don't give us crap cycle lanes, just enforce road rules, apply sensible road design and cyclists, drivers and pedestrians will rub along just fine. A man who has devoted a significant proportion of his life to training youngsters to cycle safely. And one whose idea of a good time is to cycle 1200 km in 90 hours (including sleeping time). They were all very supportive of my LE->JOG ambitions.

On Sunday we went for a long and slow ride. 50 miles including a cafe and two pubs, in glorious sunshine, chatting our way through the countryside. Just what I needed to reinforce my growing confidence that the physical strain of my forthcoming ride will not be the hard bit (except maybe that daily confrontation with my hard new saddle).

First Transport-Policy rant

I wondered, when Bob set up this blog for me, what sort of things I would write about on it. Cycling, obviously. The wonders of the English and Scottish countryside. Getting lost. The weather. Regional cuisine. Brain tumours and healthcare funding policy. Charming folk encountered en route...

But I admit from the beginning I knew the day would come when I wanted to let off steam about transport policy in Britain. Riding a bike can turn one into a bit of an eco-warrior. Disputes over road space with 4x4s, breathing in diesel fumes shortly after breakfast on the way to work, they chip away at one's natural tolerance for other people's transport choices, and occasionally lead one to think it's all the Government's fault. How about this one?

My brother Drew is bravely accompanying me by bike most of the way from Petersfield to Warrington, perhaps 220 miles over three days. I asked him last night whether he had had any luck in identifying a fast, economical and comfortable train journey back to Brighton, where he lives, from Warrington. No, he said. The journey would have to be made on a Sunday. It would have taken nine hours and cost £90 by train. His cheaper, faster and more comfortable option? Taxi from Warrington to Manchester, British Airways flight to Gatwick, pickup in van and drive back to Brighton. Three hours and £88. All that including the bike. I applaud British Airways, especially for taking the bike. But how, in all honesty, can a rational person keep their greenhouse-gas emissions low when those are the options? Answers please on a recycled postcard to Sir Nicholas Stern, HM Treasury (ex).

The half-way mark

You have all been receiving my standard thank-you note from Justgiving. But THANK YOU! from me directly, too. Each time someone makes a donation, I get an email, and each time I look to see your comments and they make me smile, as does your generosity. So while I have not yet reached even the starting line of the bike ride, let alone the half-way mark (which I think comes somewhere around Warrington), YOU have reached the half-way mark. Thank you again. Keith and Jackie Price were the ones who pushed me past the £5,000 barrier.

I'm acting as though the ride itself will be the easy bit. Perhaps it will be: we'll see. As Tamsin said, the distance will make Singapore to KL look like a walk in the park. My confidence is high at the moment, though: the new Super Galaxy (bike, for the uninitiated) is such a delight to ride! I got rid of my old racing bike nearly three years ago, and I had forgotten how responsive, light and fast a bike can be, until this last week.

It's not about the bike!

Oh yes it is! Or at least it is today. Last night I returned home to find a large but suspiciously slim box with DAWES written along it in big letters. I sawed my way into it using the carving knife (sorry Sabina) and found a lovely gleaming bike IN BITS. That's how they despatch them. The next three hours were spent in baffled industry trying to put the bits together, in the conservatory (sorry again Sabina). Today I gave up and brought the nearly-assembled bike to my favourite bike shop, Blazing Saddles, for final assembly. Now I know what bicycle dealers do. The bike is bronze-coloured. Sabina calls it brown. Why is it that women and men never agree on the name of a colour? Is it bronze or is it brown? See for yourself. http://www.dawescycles.com/dawes/super-galaxy-1.htm

Giant leaps forward

Well, this has been a great week. I finally plucked up courage to mail a load of friends and family, and boy did they (you) respond! Sponsorship on the Justgiving site and promised now amounts to over £4 per mile. At 13 mph, which is my expected average speed, I'll be earning a good deal more by cycling than I do in the office. Sabina told me I could give up work and become a professional cyclist. As if...

Promise of the week is from the Rotary Club of Cambridge Rutherford who responded to my heartfelt lament about long rides in middle age by offering a four-figure sum in exchange for getting their logo on the back of my jacket. Only my chest to go now, and all my bodily real estate will be sold.

Where have you been?

Well, of course, I've been on my hols. Indonesia, staying on a deserted beach and snorkelling with the reef sharks, and Singapore, running and swimming with my friends. Back for a month, now, though, and I admit I've been a bit slack on the training and blogging.
The Point Of No Return comes,  of course, when I set off from the B&B in St Just on the morning of 17 May. But there are a number of intermediate steps that feel each almost as momentous. Buying the one-way train ticket to Penzance was one. And last night Sabina and I cut up a road atlas so I have a light and economical paper route map.
Still looking forward to the arrival of my 2008 model Dawes Galaxy, which I've been promised for 'early April' by the nice people at Dawes Cycles. Expect a euphoric blog when that arrives. I'll have a meagre five weeks to get it set up nicely, and the saddle and my bottom adjusted to each other. Just in case, the Koga - my daily commuting bike - got a new chain, middle chain ring and gear cassette last week.