Trans Pennine Challenge

I’ve (finally) posted the event diary; however due to being really busy preparing our house for the arrival of our first born I’ve not had the time to edit the photographs. Please feel free to have a read about our travels and check back soon for the photos. I’ll make another post to let folk know once they’re up.

We made it to Hornsea yesterday afternoon after nearly three days of solid (and rather painful) cycling!

We’re compiling the photos and information about the event and will put it up on the web site in the next few days.

You can still sponsor us if you haven’t already. We made the distance so the very least you can do is help us hit our target.

Massive thanks to Gina and my Dad for their support. They spent three days getting up well before sun rise and then out on the road for us until (sometimes) after the sun had gone down.

Things are coming together. The cycle trailer should be ready later today. The bikes are having their final checks and our food being prepared so we’ve stuff to snack on when we meet up with our support team.

We’re heading to Liverpool tonight so that we have less of a journey to make to Southport. It’ll still be a 5am get out of bed so it’s going to be a long day.

Our next update to the site should be once the challenge is over. We’re getting closer to our sponsorship target, so if you’ve not already sponsored us, please do so here.

Terry and I wanted to make sure we were fully aware of how difficult the most awkward part of the Trans Pennine Trail would be prior to the actual challenge, so we decided that we’d ride it the weekend before.

On Saturday morning Gina dropped us off at Reddich Visitor Centre in Stockport. We bought a map, got geared up and set on our way.

The trail quickly introduced us to two of it’s difficulties. The first being horse steps. These are large wooden blocks that you have to stop at, get off your bike, lift your bike over them before remounting. These make regular appearances along the trail and are a real time waster when you’re hoping to cover the distance we are within the time-scale we’ve set ourselves. I’ve mentioned in my personal training diary that momentum is key to riding distance, well these are great for breaking it! The second difficulty we’d anticipated - vary surfaces. Just outside of Reddich the trail is made up of cobble like bits of stone. This is both painful on the rump and wrists. This said, by the time we reach this point of the challenge, I dare say we’ll be able to feel neither!

Our first issue of the day came about a mile into the journey. We followed the signs as we’d expected to and found ourselves in the middle of a housing estate. The map indicated there should be a bridleway linking two sections of the trail; however no such bridleway existed. This first issue quickly led into our second and most problematic issue of the day - Terry had a puncture. We stripped his bike down and repaired the puncture. Whilst doing so we were able to find where we were and get back on track by asking a friendly local. We’d been warned by someone (by email) that many signs are missing or have been vandalised along the trail. We’d quickly learnt to keep our eyes firmly peeled. About ten minutes after we’d repaired Terry’s puncture we noticed his tyre was about flat again. We stopped, checked the repair and re did it.

Once we got back on the trail again Terry’s tyre stayed inflated for about 6 miles. This journey took us across a variety of difference terrains: shale, rocks, mud, gravel and even sand! Read more

Unfortunately, due to health reasons, Steve will not be able to ride with us.

We’ve know for a while that it was likely that this would be the case, but we’re still gutted that he won’t be able to join Terry and I.

This said, Terry and I will still be taking the challenge it’s course and are very much looking forward to it.