Day 6: Manchester to Ludlow

So, it is with great pride that we announce Day 6 to spectacularly be Adam's day! As you can see from the profile most of the day was pretty flat. However, a very famous climb was in store - its the almost vertical bit near the end on the profile.

The climb is called the Long Mynd. I think it is about 33% gradient and incredibly narrow. Legend had it that only 11 people made it up without walking and Adam was one of them. James Cracknell didn't manage. Justin fell off pretty near the beginning after worrying a lot about his knees and could only watch in astonishment as Adam's lycra clad behind slalommed his way up the slope.

Adam was able to glow a little bit inside for the rest of the day (in fact the rest of the trip, in fact he still is) every time anyone mentioned the climb and spoke in reverant terms about the gods of cycling that had managed it.

After a truly difficult climb up, Justin was met with his nemesis - a steep narrow descent down the Long Mynd. After nearly crying again, Justin decided he would rather walk down rather than hurtle down to his death. However, despite putting maximum pressure on the breaks as he plummeted towards a cattle grid and his almost certain demise, he wasn't able to stop.He had to have a little breather at the bottom to stop his palpitations and to check his brakes a number of times as he was convinced they were no longer working. He remained concerned for the rest of the day how the two guys on a tandem made it down that slope.

We arrived, rather hot and bothered and Ludlow race course. Justin had managed to get a nasty case of sun stroke and was a little tired, emotional and confused and managed to lose his sunglasses which delayed bed time by about an hour.

In addition, paranoia regarding 'The Bug' had well and truly set in. The seclusion area - tents full of the sick -was getting bigger and bigger, special designated toilets were set up and both of us became very aware of any feelings of sickness or the slightest twinge in our stomachs. People were literally dropping to their knees and throwing up amongst all the tents. Nice! Various tents would disappear as more people were moved into the seclusion zone. As we were trudging around the campsite, we heard the classic sentence over the radio "Can you please get another 3 clean tents - we've had three more throw up inside theirs in the last 10 minutes". It was all made a bit more complicated by the fact that the energy drinks and food we were consuming doesn't sit very well on the tummy. Justin's mum was on hand with emergency extra supplies of alcohol gel that we both starting applying liberally and very frequently to our hands after touching anything!

It became quite an interesting psychological study of 'in' and 'out' groups. People were encouraged to self disclose sickness and visit the medics, but nobody wanted to for fear of being branded one of the sick and being forced to sleep in the 'leper colony' as it became known. Justin shook hands with a man who he later found out was one of the 'sick' and couldn't wash his hands soon enough. Paranoid about bugs hanging around on his fabric gloves, he changed those aswell!.

Anyway, I do believe there were three more days of cycling to get on with.