The final day! Fittingly it started with some heavy rain, but that soon dried up and we actually had lots of sun later in the afternoon. As we headed further north the scenery got more wild and sparse. I think on the first 50 miles we passed about 10 cars and half of those were vehicles involved in the event. I pity the poor tourists who thought they’d make a quick visit to John O’Groats only to find 500 cyclists strung out along tiny country roads!!
There was a really nice atmosphere out on the road and at all the stops. Some of the slower riders had been worried about finishing in time to catch their transport so the organisers had let people set off from 5.30am. We started at our usual time of 7 but that meant that we saw lots of different people on the road. Both pitstops were at pubs where we stopped for longer than usual to sit inside and have hot drinks, which lots of other people were doing. In a strange way it reminded me a little bit of the atmosphere you get around Christmas (not that it was quite that cold up there, but in the crispy morning sunshine it did feel more like a sunny November morning than early autumn!).
Looking at the route map the night before, the last 50 miles looked quite challenging, as there were lots of ups and downs along the coast but in the end it just flew by. I think it might have just been the excitement of being near the end because it was one of our fastest rides of the whole trip (even if our overall time was slower because of all the stopping in pubs for coffee and hot chocolate).
And then...the end! We crossed the line at about 2.15 on Sunday and from then it was a bit of a rush to get our photos taken by the John O’Groats sign, then have a shower, have something to eat, find our bags, pack our bikes up and get on the bus! In some ways it was a bit of a strange finish because we weren’t staying there so everyone was sorting their stuff out to leave and I didn’t even see a lot of people that I’d seen or spoken to during the 9 days. But at least there was a big group of us on the bus to Inverness where we went for a big pub dinner and then finally to bed (in a real bed!!!)
Looking at the route map the night before, the last 50 miles looked quite challenging, as there were lots of ups and downs along the coast but in the end it just flew by. I think it might have just been the excitement of being near the end because it was one of our fastest rides of the whole trip (even if our overall time was slower because of all the stopping in pubs for coffee and hot chocolate).
And then...the end! We crossed the line at about 2.15 on Sunday and from then it was a bit of a rush to get our photos taken by the John O’Groats sign, then have a shower, have something to eat, find our bags, pack our bikes up and get on the bus! In some ways it was a bit of a strange finish because we weren’t staying there so everyone was sorting their stuff out to leave and I didn’t even see a lot of people that I’d seen or spoken to during the 9 days. But at least there was a big group of us on the bus to Inverness where we went for a big pub dinner and then finally to bed (in a real bed!!!)
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