What a load of Quantocks

Only 61 miles today, but when we had the briefing in the morning, Kevin the trip leader told us that the climb over the Quantocks was one of the hardest on the whole trip and we had all day to look forward to this as it was within the last 1o miles of day's ride.


The day started cloudy and cold and the clouds looked stormy.

Richie descending
This is Richie who works as a graphics designer in Barcelona descending down a typical lane. The scenery in Devon is sublime, with rolling hills and a great new view around every corner.

However, these steep descents can be dangerous and hard work. One of the riders, Mike from the Wirral, swerved to avoid a pothole and then slid in some gravel and crashed his bike. Unfortunately he ended up writing off his bike, although he was relatively unscaved. The support van took him to the nearest town and he had to buy another bike.

As the ride went on the sun came out for the last 3o miles. Unfortunately because we are headed in one direction it is easy to get tanned unevenly. Currently one of my legs is tanned, but the other is still as pale as a sheet.

A typical Somerset View.

Finally the dreaded Quantocks were ahead. This was a very long slow climb and very hard work. But the ride down the other side was brilliant, quiet wide roads and down hill all the way to Bridgwater.

I am now 3 days into the ride and although it is hard I am really enjoying it. It is incredible how much the landscape changes as you go from one area to another.