Woke up to my phone alarm at 3am. felt awful. had a shower to try and wake myself a bit - this did help a bit. had the Greggs meal deal I'd bought in Chepstow the day before and looked over the maps again marking the easiest to navigate most direct route. I eventually set odd just after 5 (I was intending on leaving at 4.30 but being so tired and having to mess around unlocking the bike/putting wheel back on bike delayed me. The first couple of hours cycling were a real chore and I was far too tired for this. I made it to my first destination of Shrewsbury by around 8.30 however which was good (I was aiming to be past Shrewsbury by 9) so I realised that the target destination of Keswick was acheiveable. The next section of the day - the A49 between Shrewsbury and Warrington was (like the first section of the day) great riding with lovely scenery, little traffic, nice road surface and relatively flat. I reached Warrington Roughly half way) by around 12.30 and after a big lunch was away just after 1pm. I'd like to thank the council in Warrington for making the city extremely easy to navigate thanks to the A49 being shown alongside the street name on the street name signs - something that would be a good idea everywhere and would have made my life much easier on the rest of the trip. By this time the temperature was getting seriously hot which didn't help matters and also added 'applying sun cream' to my already tedious routine of buying food and water, eating food whilst checking route, filling water bottles and repacking handlebar bag with wallet, camera, suncream and chocolate bars/chocolate brownies to snack on whilst riding. Anyway I made it through Wigan and Preston to the next pit stop at Lancaster by around 6, still following the A49. I'd now covered around 160-165 miles so was still on track for Keswick around 50 or 60 miles away. After a couple of Solero's and some Lucozade I set off on the final gruelling stretch. When I first entered the Lake District the cycling was phenominal with a good stretch on flat smooth road with amazing scenery. However after a while whilst the views were still amazing the same could not be said for the roads - very inconsistent surface (some areas good some areas very uneven). I eventually made it to 200 miles and was instantly greeted by a mile long uphill stretch which was extremely tough but I knew I had to keep the momentum going to get to Keswick (stopping would have been game over). By this time my fingers were tingling from the constant vibration of the dodgy road surface and the palms of my hands were very sore, not to mention my triceps and lower back were majorly aching and my knees and feet were starting to ache too. These last 10 miles were simply a case of mind over matter and I eventually made it to my hotel in Keswick by 8.45 having cycled for 15 hours and 47 minutes. I then had the ordeal of having to chain the bike up and went upstairs to my room. I felt pretty dreadful so had a shower and had to have a sip of Lucozade as was feeling a bit faint. I went downstairs to try my luck with the receptionist to get my very smelly cycling gear washed and thankfully she was very nice and put it all straight into the hotel's washing machine on a quick wash so that it would be ready when I got back from my meal - result!!! I then went out to get some desperately needed dinner. Thankfully there was an Italian restaurant right near the hotel where I managed to get a big portion of tagliatele and meatballs. After almost falling asleep eating my meal I went back to the hotel and fell asleep more or less straight away.
Reviews
Hotel (The Queens Hotel, Keswick) - 9/10: Very helpful receptionist/free washing, reasonable value, nice room, cereal put out for the morning so didn't have to wait for breakfast times. Only downside was had to chain bike up.
Restaurant (Casa Bella, Keswick) 10/10: Excellent food, excellent value, big portions, good service.
Lessons Learned
Allow at least 2 hours to get ready in the mornings, stick to the A roads.
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