Day 7 - Holmfirth to Tutbury - 70 miles

Today was a day of two halves, fortunately! If this morning's weather had continued all day, I'm not sure how we'd have fared.

We had a very good breakfast in the White Horse to kick proceedings off. Lee allowed himself a full English this morning too, as he was second in the saddle. Breakfast was not quite up to Balloch or Threshfield's standards, but a came close second - interestingly, this was the first place so far on our trip to include fried bread with the full English (suppose it's a little old fashioned), but thankfully we've not had to suffer potato hash browns anywhere in its place!

After loading the car and with an unclear head, I almost rode off in my sandals, without helmet, gloves, glasses or drink! Once I had sorted myself and my things out I headed off straight into a hill. My legs were feeling the effects of yesterday - something I hadn't considered - as was my bottom, and right from the off it was hard work. As I didn't have time to get the blood pumping before I reached the hill, the first 2-3 mile climb was gruelling. In fact, it wasn't until I was coming to the last climb, at 18 miles, that I felt like I was performing to usual standards. But I'm getting carried away, first I must tell you about the glorious weather.

The Met Office had forecast heavy showers for today, and we weren't disappointed. No sooner had I finished the first climb than the strong headwinds started, the temperature dropped and the cold rain hammered down. I say 'down', but it was more like sideways. It felt like hail on the face and as I had to remove my protective glasses (because I couldn't see), I was now struggling to see because of the pain from the rain hitting my eyes. My fingers and toes were numb, and it was the worst bit of cycling I've endured so far - I think it was the tiredness from yesterday's efforts combined with the cold temperature that won this morning's cycling that particular accolade.

Nevertheless, I pushed on and the rain stopped for a while - it was still cold, but I was happy with that. I crossed into Barnsley and the Peak District. I considered taking a picture of the sign, but I was so cold, and so keen to get this stretch finished that I cycled straight on by. In fact, that's pretty much how my morning went - so apologies for the lack of pretty pictures in this post. I will try harder tomorrow, but in place of a picture from the morning, here's one I took from this afternoon - absolutely no relevance to our cycling, but I couldn't help myself.

I finally caught up with Lee after 20 miles and a climb out of Glossop. We swapped over and off he went heading for Chapel en le Frith, as did I, but in search of sandwiches for our lunch as we'd decided not to stop anywhere to eat and instead push on again.

With sandwiches 'in the bag' I headed south for Buxton and then towards Ashbourne on the A515. However, I lost the A515 and followed the A6 for a while before I could re-join the A515. At this point I wasn't sure if Lee had got ahead, so I decided that the only sensible course of action was to get far enough along the A515 to ensure I was in front and to wait for him to pass by. So I parked up in a layby about 17 miles from where we had swapped and was able to get yesterday's belated blog finished and uploaded using Lee's '3 dongle' for internet access.

While waiting the heavy rain started again and I was glad I was in the car.












Not long afterwards Lee rolled up, looking somewhat damp. He'd managed to get lost at the same point as I did - which meant extra hills for him to climb so a slightly longer than planned 'leg' to kick us off but we were sure we'd catch up as the peaks flattened out.

We pushed on for another 3 miles so that Lee could finish his leg and swap over, leaving us 14 miles each to finish the day.

Fortunately for me, this is where the second half of the day started: the sun started to break through the clouds and the temperature rose to make for a pleasant hour's cycling, and as we slowly descended out of the Peak District the hills got shorter and shallower, giving me the opportunity to get out of my saddle and allow my bottom a break - thus making the cycling more enjoyable. After a very pleasant hour's cycling and averaging 14mph (despite getting a little lost in Ashbourne's one-way system), it was time to swap for the final time. I sat in the car in a layby making a start on the blog while Lee headed off in the direction of Lichfield, still on the A515. Another hour later Lee rolled into the car park of the Dog & Partridge in Tutbury where I'd just finished fully inflating my tyre after yesterday's puncture.

So it's off for showers now and to see what the beer pumps offer us before dinner. Granville and Marie are coming over to say hello as we're in their neck of the woods - it'll be the first time we've seen 'friendly' faces since last Monday morning.

NEXT STOP: Shrawley near Droitwich - 79 miles and only 1 climb! :-)

(You'll notice there is no longer a 'chafing' score on the 'Smith-o-meter' as we feel we've cracked this with the right clothing and use of anti-chafing creams.)