The lap of honour?

Alasdair had described our last day of 55 miles as the lap of honour ..... it looked as though it was going to be a bit harder than that but we were all running on adrenalin so it seemed not too bad at all! The cycling gods had taken offence and the weather was wet, cold and of course the NE head wind was still with us. LEJoggers heading south on their first day with fresh legs and a tail wind looked as though they were having great fun (just wait!).

We had heard tell of a couple of big climbs just outside Helmsdale and set off with great trepidation. We sailed up the first hill stopping up the top patting ourselves on the back saying how fit we were and how the hill was disapointing! Debbie knew better and kept saying 'you wait ... just around the next corner'. We had a couple of big downhills then hit the Berrydale (?) Braes, didn't get the benefit of the downhill because of a sneaky hairpin but all managed to grind up the hill on the other side ..... nothing compared to yesterdays hill!

Viv was concerned that a fellow LeJogger would make it to the end before us (the axe murderer that spent the previous night with Stuart - but that is another story!) and managed to push him off the road on the steepest part of the hill, panniers and all he had to do a hill start. She didn't even stop to give him a push!

Our support crew were very visible today all trying to out do each other in the stakes for top support crew award. Although we only had 55 miles today we had a coffee stop (and were allowed to sit down for more than 10 mins) and a lunch stop at the throbbing metropolis of Wick. We cruised to JOG as a six and even picked up a couple of other LeJoggers en route. The finale was the champagne shower courtesy of John Lunn and the photo shoot courtesy of Prentice productions.

We are now ready for a well earned rest and party!

A BIG thank you to all the support crew especially John S who was with us the whole way, John L, Bob and the other guy in the middle - oh yes Stuart!

Thanks also for all the visitors we had en route and the rapid coffee stops we made at peoples houses - we arrived drank coffee, ate biscuits, used the facilities and left all within 15 mins.

More posts later from the rest of the team ..... sleep now!