T+30: Ashbourne to Manchester

Well there you go. We only went and bloody did it.

The back tyre was flat again in the morning: new inner tube, new puncture, no idea how. So I put the old one back on. No tyre trouble for 900 miles then something new every day and three wheel changes (and not the "easy" front wheel, oh no).

After the maintenance at the campsite, the rest of the morning/early afternoon was spent climbing into the clouds of the Peak District. This was tiring and unnecessarily hard work. However, once we'd got past Leek it all got a bit easier. We had some lunch at a Tesco in Macclesfield and simply rode back through Stockport to Manchester. There we stopped at The Didsbury pub for a celebratory pint of cider and tried to make some sense of the epic journey we'd just completed. To be honest, it's a bit difficult to understand or quantify. You spend each day just trying to deal with the distance, navigational issues, bike maintenance, prevailing (shit) weather and complete absence of campsites that you fail to comprehend exactly how far you've gone. Sitting outside the pub was all a bit strange, as is the thought that we don't have to cycle any more. It will probably take a while to sink in.

I think it's quite impossible to explain exactly how difficult, stressful, dirty, annoying, uncomfortable and, obversely, wonderful the ride was overall. So here are some things I am able to quantify at this stage:

1110 miles travelled overall - this was by no means the most direct route from Plan Peisey to Manchester, and included any number of intentional and accidental detours (like shopping, getting lost, following errant cycle paths, and Belgium). It's quite a long way.

31 days total travel time - including three rest days (at Troyes, Dijon and Gent) and one we-can't-go-anywhere-'cause-it's-pissing-it-down-again day at Bar-Le-Duc.

35.8 miles average daily total (41.1 miles excluding rest days).

77.18 miles longest day - from Canterbury to Bishop's Stortford, a day which included a ride on a ferry and plenty of long (but admittedly rarely very steep) climbs.

57.52 miles average for complete days in England (from Canterbury onwards).

10.5-11 stone - apparently what I weigh now after 5 months of work and one month of pretty intense cycling. I've not weighed that little since I was about 13. That's the same as a bag of sugar, or a leprechaun.

£1,444 - the total raised on the charity website when we arrived back in Manchester. It is not too late to sponsor us and support Oxfam, Wateraid, Cancer Research UK, Disability Snowsport UK, and Honour Village Cambodia. We'd really like to smash the £1,500 mark and make the whole experience even more worthwhile. Please please please go straight to  

www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/snow

and donate a couple of pounds. It would be hugely appreciated and all goes to excellent organisations.

I don't really know what else to add. Again, there are so many unquantifiable things that have made the trip more, or less, difficult than it probably should have been in some respects. We were really quite unprepared (especially in terms of the gear we took with us) but somehow managed to complete the journey anyway (with any further outlay of capital on vital items). If anyone ever has the urge to do long-distance cycling, on a tandem perhaps, or simply on the continent, there're probably a number of things we could help you with. Just ask, we've got loads of added/pointless knowledge now. It's strange, but you see "normal" cyclists and just feel a bit sorry for them 'cause they might never know the combined joy and pain of real adventure touring. But that's what it was, an adventure. We gave ourselves a fighting chance of completing the trip, despite our lack of preparation, and managed it. Go Team Snow!

I hope you've enjoyed the blog, I've spent almost as many hours writing it as actually cycling. I'm sure we'll be doing more adventuring soon, as soon as we've figured out what to do next, and we'll keep you informed via this medium. Feel free to donate to the Team Snow charity website at any time; it is a very easy and effective way of giving to the five charities outlined so we plan to keep it running indefinitely.

T+30 - Ashbourne to Manchester - 50.08 miles

Plan Peisey (French Alps) to Manchester (UK) - 1110 miles / 31 days