Day 3 - Exeter to Bath

Fast Facts:

Distance: 88.2 miles
Miles to Go: 713
Average Speed: 14.0
Time in Saddle: 6 hours 16 mins
Lunch: The George & Pilgrim, Glastonbury

Route Profile:

Report:

After a fantastic breakfast at the Exeter YHA (where we said goodbye to Kerrie Dorman who popped in the night before to give Karim a bit of TLC!), we saddled up for an 8:30am departure, and despite Mark leaving his water bottles at the YHA, and Chris having to switch to the spare bike after his gears failed (it didn't effect the speed at which he rides...if anything he was even fastger!!), we all managed to successfully negotiate the Exeter morning rush hour! The weather was again blustery and overcast with a little rain in the air.

For about 30 miles, we enjoyed relatively flat terrain, following the M5 towards Taunton. In comparison to the first 2 days, this section was a complete joy, and we were able to put get a good rhythm going.



After Taunton, we entered our third county - Somerset - and made our way across the Somerset Levels towards Glastonbury! Needless to say this was even better....despite that, we suffered a couple of other technical issues with the bikes, not least Karim and James' rear derailleurs which failed completely. James fought on valiantly on one gear, whilst Karim switched to the other spare! Thank god for our support crew, who did an incredible job in picking up the pieces and contacting a variety of local bike shops! A big thank you also to the two bikes shops in Taunton, Bristol and Bath who were all extremely supportive in getting our bikes back on the road....also thank you to Ben's brother Guy, who kindly delivered a spare part from the Bristol bike shop to us.






On arrival in Glastonbury, we stopped for our lunch at the George & Pilgrim pub on the high street. A fabulous little olde worldy pub/hotel that was able to deliver a lot of food very quickly! At the pub, we were glad to see a friendly face in Rachel Mostyn and her two daughters (Millie & Layla)...even though Feisal almost ran over both of them in a rather spectacular entrance to the pub on his bike!

After lunch, we set off towards Bath.....unfortunately because our incredible support crew had been fighting fires and trying to fix all the various bike problems we had encoutered in the morning, we were left to fend for ourselves on the navigation front. This quickly resulted in two of the groups getting horribly lost somewhere outside of Wells, and which ended with us having to tackle the most horrific climb up the south face of the Eiger!



Once we rejoined the route, we made steady progress passed Midsommer Norton and on to Radstock....following which we had a relentless, steep climb out of the valley and over the Mendips. Having thought we were through the worst of it, Bath came into view, and we struggled our way up an even longer, and possibly even steeper climb into Bath and in to our YHA...and what a surprise to be welcomed in by Chloe (Jo and Matt's sister) and Giles, and little baby Freddie!!

Once again, a few of the riders were able to benefit from a physio session from Cecilia, who has successfully helped Jo recover from her two back operations.

Despite the hard afternoon's ride, everyone remains in good spirits, and are looking forward to a (what we hope is going to be) relatively easy ride up to Leominster tomorrow.