After a nice hot shower in the campsite shower block and a breakfast of porridge and banana (much healthier that Pete banana, Red Bull and Haribo sours breakfast) we set off in the bus to Taunton where we would switch into the mini bus for the start of our leg in the village of Star south of Bristol.
Today's start point for us was in the Star Inn car park.
Soon we came upon a massive climb that meant bottom gear for a few miles - it was one of those climbs that you think is easing then you go round the corner and it continues to climb.
Of course the bonus of a climb is a sweeping descent down into Bristol.
Once in Bristol things started to go wrong for the first time. We were meant to cut up a steep hill from under the Clifton Suspension bridge but it was shut throwing out our route plan. Never mind if we follow the diversion signs we'll be fine won't we - erm not if there aren't any!!!
Before we started this leg Mike from team D killed the GPS unit so we couldn't see how far off the route we were going. We saw a sign that said A4(A38) and as we were going onto the A38 we followed that but after 5 miles and us getting very near Avonmouth docks we threw in the towel and asked Simon and Beccy in the support van to navigate us back on route. Simon came up with a route that took us through the hilliest council estates in Bristol complete with sofas and beer fridges in the front gardens. Eventually after a slight altercation with a bell end in a Toyota we were back on track and had great support from my bro in law Richard and his work mates from Orange and even managed to high 5 him on what was on his 40th birthday. On arriving at the bus for the change over with team B we'd covered and extra 7 miles.
Back on the bus we had a lunch fit for a king - cheese, onion and tomato batches before chilling out and resting for the final leg of the day which was the Wolverhampton to Stone leg and to our stop for the night the Stone House Hotel (again we were staying in the bus in the car park but had a room booked for us to shower in).
As the night leg was fairly flat we'd decided to go hell for leather so after a quick pee in Wickes car park in Wolverhampton we were ready for the off.
The previous night Team D had cycled to the hotel, 5 miles short of their allocated distance but team B had added that to their distance. It had been agreed with team C who first off from Stone that we would ride to the hotel and they would do the extra miles the next morning.
We set a hard pace and sat on the limit from the start and Beccy was offering us vocal encouragement from on the van and in what seemed no time at all we arrived at the hotel. At the hotel we rode round looking for the bus and then got a call from the bar saying the bus had gone for fuel and that we hadn't finished and had to ride the extra four miles to the end of the leg. A brief conversation on the phone was ended when we decided that it was too cold to argue and set off to finish the leg but missing my pedal resulted in an intimate moment with the nose of my saddle. We did the extra mileage at a slower rate but still averaged 18.9mph for the whole leg.
When we got to the hotel the bus was back parked behind the kitchens and plugged into the mains (it only has power when the engine is running) and we just chilled out over the disagreement. The leisure centre at the hotel was available so we used the facilities and had a shower before retiring to the TV lounge for burger and chips and bread and butter pudding and custard (pudding highlight of the week). A couple of bottles of lager and then time for bed as tomorrow is a big day with Rebecca Romero (Olympic silver rowing medalist and gold cycling medalist) riding with us, a ride into our head office in Warrington and the ride into Scotland.
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