Day 7 Rawtenstall-Bury-Manchester-Holmes a Chapel-Market Drayton-Broseley

Day 7 459 miles to go....

Stats: 103.3 miles, time in the saddle 9 hours 9 minutes, calories 5191, climbing 5416 feet, ave speed 11.29 mph.

Well day 7 done and the toughest so far despite, or maybe because we thought it would be the "easy" one of the days remaining. There were surprises from the off, the first was seeing both Dec's and Frankies bags packed and on the bike when I came down stairs at 7am! I believe the phrase was "put that in your blog" from Declan. As such I have an idea if either Nikki or Ali Frankie and Dec's other halves want to change other parts of their behaviours maybe let me know, I'll put it in the blog and hey presto!

Equally as amazing was the fact that Stu Grainger my guru on all things cycling for the past 5 years had come down dressed in cycling SHORTS! If I've heard him say, "if it's below 20 degrees you need to cover your knees up" once, I've heard it a 1000 times! To be fair he hasn't been on the bike for a while so it may have slipped his mind!

It was however me who was delaying things this morning as I was all over the place, couldn't find my phone, then packed away my lovely, lovely Sudacream and had to unpack again to find it, and so on and so on. Eventually feeling flustered and also not having enough to eat at breakfast as the fantastic B&B ( Chapel House in Cloghfold) didn't have any porridge it was out into the Lancashire drizzle.

First of all however it was time to say a very, very reluctant goodbye to Mark. Dec had one more go at persuading him to travel down and meet us in Bristol in Saturday for another day at the front but horse chiropractory waits for no man and having first hand experience as he diagnosed a problem with a horses shoulder over the phone while we were getting ready for diner last night, out loss was an equine gain! He is a top man and his day on the front on Day 5 might be the reason when and if we finally get over the line. Oh and he got some belting suntan as well!

Starting what we thought would be the easy roll down to Manchester at sometime after 8.30, the really built up urban areas around Bury and then Manchester where really busy and we were constantly in and out with the cleats for traffic queuing and red lights. Taking Marks place for the first 25 miles the steam ship that is Stu Grainger sat on the front and eventually when we kept telling him to slow down  as he disappeared over the horizon he got the measure of the rest of our (slow) pace. He then proceeded to give us a master class at how to "make progress" through a busy urban environment! I like to think that although not a fantastic cyclist in how fast I am, I can handle a bike pretty well having ridden bikes and motorbikes all my life. However Stu is a natural and soon he was showing of his plethora of skills, track stands so he didn't need to up clip, bunny hops on and off the bike paths around Bury reading the traffic and generally being in the right place at the right time. With us taking his lead as best we could Ramsbottom and Bury were soon done and it was on towards Manchester.

With Dec spotting a cyclist up ahead and being the competitive sort(!) he upped the pace to catch them up. Being a long straight downhill road I then sat and watched as Stu used the Fiat Panda in front of him as a massive wind break getting up really close and freewheeling up easy as you like!

Making decent progress now and hitting the outskirts of Manchester Team TOFS/Dreamflight suffered the second puncture as Frankie's rear went flat. Pulling up at the side of the road the Glencorse/Grainger repair team went into action with me dealing with the inner tube and Stu checking the tyre. Finding a piece of glass embedded in the tyre, Stu managed to get it out without to much bother and with a minimum of cocking about the rear wheel was in and we were back underway.

We were now in Frankie's "manor"and so with him leading the train for the next 10 miles through the less salubrious parts of Manchester (quote of the day " if you puncture here, you'll just have to leave the bike, it's not worth it...) "Big vern" as he was known in his Uni days led us through to the new Salford Quays media city and it was a photo of Pudsey bear before crossing the river at the Lowery and on to and past the football and cricket grounds.

As a staunch Leeds United fan I wanted a picture of Stu in front of the ground he loves so much! I even said I'd add another £10 to the pot if he'd give it a thumbs up on the picture. See below to see if he could bring himself to do it......

With Frankie still leading the way it was back to his house which was only 4 miles away, for yet more weight shedding to lighten his very heavy panniers, and also a chance to give the tyres some much needed air with his track pump and oil the chains on the bikes. It must have been incredibably tempting for Frankie to say, I tell you what chaps that's over 100 miles over the last 2 days, my hips killing good luck, I'm staying here! To his credit he didn't and instead led the way out to the next port of call Wilmslow were we would be picking up 2 of Frankies friends dad and son combo John and Chris Novak who wanted to join in at least sons of the route and show their support.

On the run out to Wilmslow Stu knew I was struggling ( he'd seen it often when we had been out for a ride together!) and gave me the last of the Muesli bars he had and dropped beside me some words of wisdom and encouragement. They were what I needed at the time, and as Stu has previous with doing similar things (check out the Danny Porter Foundation if you really want to be impressed about fundraising on long distance bike rides) it was grounded in common sense and learned from experience!

Finally we were at Wilmslow (an hour late!) and only 32 miles into the day. John had provided however probably the best 2 bacon sandwiches I have ever eaten, as well as a couple of mugs of tea, a bakewell tart, and some haribos! Down it all went followed by the biscuits from the B&B last night. Finally feeling a bit better it was time to say goodbye to Stu who had work in Manchester in the afternoon but had more than done his bit not only on the front but by getting my head straighter on what lay ahead both today and for the rest of the trip.

Looking at John and Chris's bikes, then at the size of their calves it was clear that they would be in for a somewhat slower afternoon than they were used to! (I've attached a photo of Chris's bike for all you bike porn fans out there) taking there position on the front they dragged us out of Manchester into the Chesire countryside. Around Alderly Edge it was a nice change to be buzzed and abused by people in Aston Martins and Bentlys!

Making decent progress onto Holmes Chapel a second puncture befell Chris so the gentlemen we are me, Dec and Frankie rode on knowing they'd catch us pretty easily. Within 10 mins they had although not before someone not paying attention brushed Dec's panniers as he drove past.....

Enjoying 10 mins tucked behind Chris living out the fantasy that this is the closet I'd be to being a pro bike racer (Chris rides for the amateur Rafa Team, and is doing London to Edinburgh in 24 hours later this year...!) it was all to soon to say goodbye and thank you to John and Chris, knowing it would be the 3 off us for the rest of the day. Immediately we turned on to the A50 for an 8 mile stretch which was unavoidable. Never a brilliant road to cycle up, it was obvious something was wrong on the M6 running parallel to it. All the traffic North was gridlocked. As we were going South this presented big problems for us as the road is narrow anyway and now nothing could get past us as the traffic the other way was chocka. All we could do was ride a bit, pull in to let the HGV's that had been sat behind us for a mike at 10 mph past then try and get back in the road when there was a gap. It was a nightmare and only served to bring our average speed down even more.

After what seemed like 2 hours we finally were able to turn off onto cycle route 70 and crisscrossing over the M6 we could see people out if their cars and the air ambulance coming in to land in the distance. As bad a days as I was having it made me think that at least one person was having a much, much worse one. Following ccycle route 70 was very pretty and quiet but not very fast and the demons that had been with me most of the day were back. It was meant to be an easy day yet here we were only 60 miles down and it was already after 4 o'clock. With still Market Drayton to get to we stopped for a quick sandwich then onto TOFS Market Drayton.

Another slowish 12 miles and just after 5 pm we pulled into the shop having endured 30 mins of pretty persistent rain just to make our state of mind just a bit brighter. A quick cup of tea with Debs the store manager and a photo outside and it was in to the last 28 miles to Broseley.

I can't honestly remember anything much about this bit apart from Dec seeming very strong, Frankie pacing me up on of the steeper hills near the end, going through the middle of a town with the main road closed so a massive fun fair could take it over, seeing a kestrelsitting looking at us on a phone wire and Frankie dropping the bike at 1mph while we tried to find a suitable break for a toilet stop! You'll notice there was no messing about with KOM or silly sprints today. There would have been no point as I would have gotten trounced by Dec and the voices were making sure I knew it!

Finally with 2 miles to go the decent down to the bridge at the bottom of Broseley was here. We also knew however that between the bridge and the B&B stood a horrible 1/2 mile climb at 20%, the steepest we would face over the whole route! Just what you need after 101 miles......

But it was done, day 7 was done and Frankie had popped his 100 mike in a day cherry, a massive effort for a guy who should be getting surgery to replace both of his dodgy hips. Chapeau my son chapeau!

With the pubs not serving food after 9pm we had a walk around town and I phoned Andrea to ask how the day had gone at school as they were holding a dress differently day for the ride and Dreamflight. She told me they raised £900! Unbelievable! I must admit I had a bit of a moment in the high street, but it helped end the day on a really positive note. With the money fromScissett middle school and the money to come in from the shops, £10k is a real possibility.

I'll keep that in mind while I'm fighting the negative thoughts off in the 112 mile day just me and Dec have in store tomorrow. Bristol here we come!