Sorry for the delay on this one, it took all of Sunday and most of Monday to actually drive back from JOG (it IS a heck of a long way away, in case you still hadn't noticed) we got in around 5:30 pm last night, unpacked and watched some TV...
OK..
Day 8
It was always going to be a split day, with the first 58 miles to Helmsdale being "rolling" up and down and the second half from Helmsdale containing the two toughest climbs of the entire ride and the run to the finish line.
I had looked at the weather before and it looked as though the wind was going to turn to challenge us and get up to 12-15mph steady as a headwind (remember that we were riding at around 13 mph) .
The first half weant to plan, a steady roll out through Dornoch, spotting seals up on the rocks as we headed north of the Black Isle, and up the coast. Slowly it began to get a bit tougher, basically devolving into a perverse game of snakes and ladders whereby we dragged up a climb for a mile only to drop back down to the beach level at the next village/Town.... this was starting to get wearing when we stopped for lunch at Brora. (apologies to those following the live tracking, we seemed to lose signal around here... later, the location fixes up until 17:56 on the road to Wick did show up too..)
We knew that the next 20 miles (and 2 climbs) would be defining moments of the ride, the climb profiles are HARD...we arrived at Helmsdale village and hit the first 9-10% climb up through the village itself.. not too bad...knowing the real climb is about 2 miles long...the clouds were rolling in fast. As we reached the roundabout at the top to turn onto the new road out and onto the 8% drop to the bottom of the climb proper, the wind hit...hard... we were on a descent that, freewheeling, we should be capable of 25-30 mph easily, but we were pedalling hard just to move.. this killed any momentum onto the climb itself..
we hit the bottom, I slammed into my "mountain gear" (34 on the front - 30 rear) and could do nothing but plod.. every pedal turn moving me roughly one wheel circumference forward..it was slow... but it was steady...the rain and wind did not let up at all, we climbed on and on, knowing that Nellie was stationed at the summit, being blown all over the place, pedalling hard on up and the brief down slope. Knowing that I was still just about controlling my breathing kept me going..when I get to one breath per pedal stroke, I know I've "blown"... near the top, we turn into a little hairpin valley which was just funneling the wind and rain even harder, but up to our right, we could see Nellie...at the pinch of the turn, the wind was suddenly behind us for the last ramp to the car.. we pushed on and I pretty nearly fell off the bike at the top.
Shivering, cold and struggling for breath, I was wrapped in a big coat and bundled into the back of Nellie, P took shelter in the lea of the car and we tried to warm up... it took a while for me, P had climbed well and was nothing like the mess I was.
20 minutes or so of regrouping and we set off again, along the top of Navidale towards the harder climb of Berriedale Braes..
just getting to the bottom was scary, the road tilts down at 8% for a while then slams down at 13% into the base of the climb for quite a distance..escape roads on the descent (with tire tracks showing use) marked this out as treacherous...the sheer narrow nature of this valley actuall offered us some shelter and the weather had gone back to just "windy and rainy". We hit the bottom and the road flips straight back up at 13%... it then turns left to a hair pin around an old burial ground and then curves up past the church., the gradient never really lets off in the first part of the climb, again, we'd planned to have Nellie at the top of the steep part .. this was a vicious climb..harder than anything I'd ridden..but (and I'm still not sure of the actual mental process that got me up this) a combination of "It's the last MAJOR barrier","why we are doing this (for the Project, for people who lose the ability to even walk again) "just to this next corner, OK, just to the end of this wall" and "we are over 800 miles into this now, we CAN'T not finish" managed to get me up this horror of a climb.
A quick stop at Nellie and we pushed on , on the exposed moor towards Wick...and the promised headwind arrived...it was slightly downhill and could have been a joyous ride, but into the teeth of a wind that was gusting at us faster than we were riding into it, I could only put my head down and try to power through it. After the climbs, this should have been easier, it really, really wasn't... just counting down the miles to each Nellie stop..shovelling in food and pushing on got us to Wick, with 17 miles to go. the road turned a little , and the wind eased (a little) and P made the call to make the Nellie stops each 6 miles to break the last stints down..6 miles out of Wick, first stop...more food, and gels, another 6 miles, ending on a hill...more food..quick break, the light is going...we're on the last bit of road now... that was the last Nellie stop...the next time we met up with the support team would be the finish line.
We pressed on, knowing that the last 5 miles also contained the last climb of the ride (up to 400 ft, nothing compared to some of the climbs we'd faced, but at the end of 870 odd miles in 8 days, every ramp was draining me).. as we hit the hill, P shouted to me that this was "the last hill in Scotland" and we pushed...I really pushed, as I saw the gradient drop after the 6% section, I managed as close to a sprint as I could to crest this last darned hill... for a second your heart drops as you see hills further ahead...but on the crest proper, it becomes clear that these ARE hills, but that they are on the Orkney islands ahead of us.
Passing a sign for our hotel saying 2 miles to go, we rolled side by side in failing light down to the settlement at John O'Groats...downhill all the way... past the hotel.. down to the ferry quay...down to the finish line where Nellie and the Support crew of Dave and Andy were waiting... pointing at the line and with all of Nellie's strobes and flashing lights lit up..
DONE... I rolled over the line, plopped the bike down on the grass bank and hugged pretty much everything in sight.. we'd done it.. we'd done it in horrible conditions and we'd done it in the time we set , even though a lot of people were surprised we'd pushed for 8 days... we crossed the line at about 2051hrs, after approx 68.5 hours of actual riding (not counting stops) for about 870 miles.
The point here is simple, if we'd gone for more than 10 days, we'd clearly proven we could manage 80 (or fewer) miles a day relatively easily. by going for 110 miles a day, we had challenged ourselves, it made what we were doing harder, and hopefully more worthy of all of your support. Your support has helped so much, when we've had suffcient signal to get the texts, emails and comments on Twitter and facebook.
People talk of the finish being an anticlimax, I don't think so... JOG isn't an exciting place in and of itself, it is more about what this point on the map symbolises...
We rolled back up to the hotel, checked in, and went for dinner and a celebratory whisky (the Seaview hotel has a ridiculous selection of malts) and bed....
On Sunday we got up, packed, had breakfast and rolled back down to the finish line to get a cleaner, well lit photo against the sign wearing our sponsored ride kit.. then strapped the bikes to Nellie and set off on the near 600 mile drive home...
Today, the bikes go back to our LBS for another service (and the bent spoke in my front wheel we spotted just BEFORE the ride needs to be replaced) and that's it... done..
I think a review post in a couple of days will be called for. Including full thanks for everyone who supported us..
but for now...
We did it...
Caroline & Phil
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