We’ve had the last lot of sponsorship through and it’s taken us over the £2,500 target.

Many thanks to so, so many of you for making this possible. We’re delighted with the results.

You can still sponsor us, even now, if you’ve not done so already. Just head over to the sponsorship pages.

Cheers!

You need to click once on any thumbnail image to see a larger version. If you then click the larger image you’ll be returned to the text.

We’ve almost hit our target of £2,500. There are a few people to collect monies off so we’re extremely hopeful of meeting, if not exceeding, our target!

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.

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.

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! Due to the puncture delays lunchtime was almost upon us. We kept our energy up by munching on Jelly Babies and suckling on our Camelpaks. We could see the Pennines getting closer as we passed Hyde. The view only served to remind us of what was to come. The guide we’d briefly flicked through said we’d climb over 4,000ft during this 32 mile bike ride.

Unfortunately, at the bottom of a rather large hill Terry’s tyre went flat once more. We tried again to repair the puncture but then realised that the hole was right next to the inner tubes seam. Each time we fixed it the air would force it’s way out using the seam as a weakness. We’d no spare inner tubes so we reluctantly called the cavalry. Gina was in Sheffield shopping. She changed her plans, got us some tubes and headed back over the Pennines toward us. Whilst she did this we broke for a bite to eat and then I rode, whilst Terry pushed, the next couple of miles.

We met Gina at Broadbottom Visitors Centre and got on our way as quickly as we could. Once Gina left the hill climbing pretty much began to get harder. We knew it was to come so we got on with it. Our route took us along more road than we’d thought it would do and through quite a few residential areas. At one point we were brought to a roundabout where no TPT signs were provided. To our left was an industrial estate. Again, a useful tip from a visitor to this site who’d email us came into play. We headed straight on past the industrial estate which turned out to be the right way.

Once we reached Longdendale we began to ride alongside the reservoir. You can see below how it’s pretty flat and quite scenic. There were plenty of ramblers and folk just out for a walk around this area. A short distance along the trail saw cyclists and pedestrians being sent in different directions. The cycle route took us down a very rough section. Once we reached the bottom and saw what we’d be about to climb we initially thought we’d been sent the wrong way. We persevered and eventually saw that we were on the right path.

Once you get toward the Dark Peak the more forgiving parts pass away further behind you. At Woodhead tunnel you can no longer ride along the old railway line. You’re forced to ride up a steep hill to the main road. Once there, for safety reasons, you cross the road and then ride over the moor. This part of the trail was murder. There were points we’d have struggled to walk up normally, let alone ride up. We had no choice but to get off and push. You can see from the pictures below how high we were, how steep the incline is and how much we’d had to ascend. We were by the reservoir at one point and then right up there.

Reaching the summit took a lot out of us. We ran out of water and our bodies started to let us know that they weren’t happy with what we were doing to them. When we do the challenge we’ll be better equipped since our support team (Gina and my Dad) will be leap frogging our route (by car) and carrying fluids, food and spares. Once we’d reached the top we were delighted to see that the descent would not be on a track or trail but on a tarmac surface. We free wheeled all the way down the other side to Dunford Bridge reaching a top speed of 38 mph!

Once on the trail again we knew were nearing the end of our days travels. Sure, there were 7 more miles to cover; however these were on a slight down hill and on familiar territory. We finally arrived back at my house just after 6:30pm. The reality is we wasted a lot of time due to Terry’s puncture. Our intentions when riding the challenge are to have a spare bike with Gina and my Dad and for us to carry spare inner tubes ourselves. If we get a puncture we’ll change the tube and carry on. When we then meet Gina and my Dad we’ll hand over the punctured tube for repair. If we damage a bike, then we’ll swap it for the spare. We managed to cover the last 20 miles in just over three hours. This might not seem that quick; however that was over the hardest part of the entire trail so we’re optimistic about how far we’ll get on Day One. The weather and trail conditions will play a major part in the speed we go. At the moment the forecast is cool and mostly dry. Time will tell.

We’ll be putting up details of how the challenge panned out as soon as we can after it’s completed. We’re still a little way off our sponsorship target of £2,500 so please, if you’ve not already sponsored us, do so today. Thanks!

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.

This time next week we’ll be out on the trail slogging our guts out heading towards Penistone.

The long range weather forecast is “unsettled” so we’ll have to wait and see what it brings. We’d prefer cool, cloudy and still.

This weekend we’re out riding from Manchester to Penistone so we’ve first hand experience of what the path across the Pennines is going to offer us. If we remember to take a camera with us then we’ll get some snaps up at the start of next week.

Our sponsorship is still doing well. There are several people who’ve very kindly promised us sponsorship that’s not yet on the tracker - fingers crossed we’ll see it there soon. If you’ve not sponsored us yet then we’d love your support.

Unfortunately they cannot insure the bike for us and we’ve no spare monies to obtain insurance for the bike. Secondly, the only demonstrator / loan bike they’ve available for the challenge dates was a 17″ frame. Both Terry and I are too big to make use of the bike so we’ve had to respectfully decline their offer of a free loan bike.

Two weeks today we’ll be out on the trail and well into the challenge. Next weekend Terry and I will be out together getting some last minute training - more than anything to make sure we can ride at a comfortable pace together.

We’ll soon be able to see what the weather predictions will be for the challenge. Fingers crossed for calm and dry weather.