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A month ago, 4 of us set off to ride from Manchester to Berlin in memory of our friend/brother/boyfriend Glen Wall, who took his own life in April 2016.
It was a great long-distance trip: 720 miles over 10 days riding with 2 rest days.
The team was made up of Neil (Glen's brother), Ruth (Glen's girlfriend), Tim and Alex/me (mates of Neil and Glen) as riders.
We were supported by Ruth's parents and Neil's mum in a support car, who did an amazing job of keeping us fed, watered and generally waiting on us hand and foot.
I recorded the journey on Strava with descriptions of each day's riding and photos, which you can see here [url= https://www.strava.com/athletes/11930 ]link[/url]
but I thought I'd also put onto this thread for anyone interested in long-haul cycle trips.
We have also raised a fantastic £5,650 +gift aid for Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide - if you'd like to donate the page is still open [url= https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tourforglen ]here[/url]
Cheers,
Alex
Day 1: Manchester to Nottingham
Great send off from Mathers' Foundry where Glen worked by friends and family.
Picked up my dad in Stockport and made good time to Buxton via Long Hill, our high point of the whole trip. Quick stop for a sausage roll then back on the hills. Great boost to see the support team with a banner shouting encouragement on the way!
Hit the High Peak Trail and zipped along. Lunch stop at Parsley Hay was very welcome and picturesque. Great to be away from traffic on this disused railway line and to be able to take on the views.
Storms forecast for the afternoon and we got caught just after Ripley, last 18 miles were soggy. Featured a puncture and a cleat bolt malfunction but finally hit the Trent embankment for nice cruise in.
Hit drinks, recovery shakes and a big meal helped us get over the last 1.5hr.
A big day and we've ticked off potentially the hardest part of the tour.
Hope we don't get as wet tomorrow...
78.1mi
Distance
6:10:52
Moving Time
4,972ft
Day 2: Nottingham to St. Ives
Great hospitality in Notts saw us away just before 10, quickly turning into a lovely sunny day. We had a short stop for another puncture (probably same one from yesterday) and then tackled a succession of short but steep climbs. Everyone seemed ok even after the Peaks yesterday and we made short work of them. Another great lunch was waiting for us and we were all very grateful for the support team's efforts and organisation.
After lunch we had a series of beautiful descents, pretty villages and great views across rolling countryside. Neil and Ruth were riding like Day 1 had never happened and dispatched the last few miles with aplomb. We were all quite relieved to roll into the campsite and have a great meal waiting for us. Bring on Day 3!
81.8mi
Distance
6:13:55
Moving Time
4,158ft
Day 3: St. Ives to Harwich
A very damp start set our departure back a bit but spirits were lifted by the arrival of Neil's flat mate Helen, who had driven directly from a festival to ride out with us. The skies stayed grey and relatively dry but progress was slow due to worn out legs and persistent punctures (4 in 3 days for Ruth's back wheel!). More sausage rolls kept us going until a late lunch at Cafe Clare on Clare Road in the village of Clare. Great food, great service, atrocious geography.
We advanced steadily through Essex, passing pretty villages (who knew Essex had them?) on brilliant winding roads that allowed us to pick up the pace in the afternoon.
Helen turned off for a train mid afternoon and the main team regrouped for the final push to the coast. A second wind saw us smashing the miles to Harwich, so much so that we overshot the turn for the ferry and ended up seeing the sights of Harwich on a Monday night (brides, pubs, karaoke). Eventually found the rendezvous pub and had a well-earned pre-ferry meal and pint.
3 of the crew were competing for worst ailment but Tim won with a tropical disease picked up from an English Vampire Fly, resulting in a severe cankle. After pushing him onto the ferry and then searching out some ice he was put to bed insisting he would be fine the next day...
81.8mi
Distance
6:12:27
Moving Time
2,724ft
Day 4 - Hook of Holland to Amsterdam
Left the ferry and had a chat with a Dutch guy who had just won a Welsh 180 mile sportive, which made us all feel slightly inadequate. Tim decided his leg was aero enough to turn the pedals so the assault on Amsterdam was on. Pretty soon after this we paused for Ruth's daily morning puncture and pretty soon after that we stopped for coffee, pancakes and a quick bike repair.
The cycle path by the beach was beautiful but hard going in the wind. We soon turned off and passed through impressively bike-centric towns, where beautifully maintained and separated bike lanes took us away from traffic and along windmill-dotted canals.
It was very pleasant to be given respect and consideration whilst cycling but we were still relieved to make it to our rest day pit stop at the eco-lodges outside Amsterdam.
Our first rest day was sorely needed, with sore being the operative word. A few rounds of beers and bastard brag followed by a big lie-in saw us feeling refreshed again. A few chores needed doing to get bikes and kit back to full working order, then we turned our attention to our ailments. Tim's ankle needed some medical attention so we headed in to Amsterdam on the tram to find he doctors at the central train station. We had a few hours to kill before his appointment so had a beer by the canal whilst we looked up a decent tour. Unfortunately my phone then locked with a fake email address on the lock screen - it had been hacked. The canal tour then turned into a 3 hour trip to the Apple Store and eventually I regained access to a pretty important piece of kit!
37.3mi
Distance
3:21:40
Moving Time
627ft
Day 6 - Amsterdam to Bathmen
We rode out of Amsterdam along beautifully surfaced cycle paths into the countryside and set off across Holland. The land was completely flat and the paths followed pretty canals flanked by fields of cows and occasionally punctuated with windmills. After lunch our route the took us across some pretty heather- covered moorland and into some lovely enchanted-looking forest, where Ruth disturbed a wild boar foraging for his tea. Our speed was good despite the gravelly surfaces. and we made it to our next camping site in good time. The final few metres of the route brought us through some very patchy singletrack, which had us doubting the existence of our campsite but we emerged into a lovely quiet field with excellent facilities including free wifi- a bonus for getting some FaceTime with HQ. More beer and cards and another fantastic Rodgers meal- Support Team are really outdoing themselves!
76.4mi
Distance
5:51:59
Moving Time
1,374ft
Day 7 - Bathmen to Ankum
More great Dutch cycles ways brought us to the border just before lunch, whic was marked only by a couple of small signs and a kids play fort with a slide. We stopped for photos, a couple of goes on the slide and Ruth's obligatory puncture and then pressed on into Germany. Everyone was feeling pretty chuffed with getting to the country of our final destination but also the emotional significance started to build as it brought home again the reasons for this trip. We talked more about Glen and his and Ruth's plans to start a life in Berlin. This reflective mood was mirrored by our Support Team and our evening meal was slightly more low key than usual. We all retired to bed for a relatively early night to be fresh for the final day's riding of this leg and to avoid the hundreds of school kids on summer camp at the camping barn we were sharing with them.
78.0mi
Distance
5:21:03
Moving Time
1,881ft
Day 8 - Ankum to Haemelsee
Woke up feeling dog-tired and with leaden legs despite a good night's sleep- today was going to feel like hard work. We set off and maintained an even better pace than ever before, settling into a good rhythm and working together like a pro tour team. Neil and Tim announced record-breaking stats as we improved on our 5 mile split times throughout the morning, along arrow-straight flat roads. Despite the lack of Dutch-quality surfacing we did have a constant tailwind and ideal temperatures, so we whizzed along to our lunch stop. Saturday afternoons in rural Germany are pretty quiet, so we stopped by the side of the road, preceded by a quick chocolate stop at Aldi. Back on the road again after lunch and we did more good 5 mile times for the 3rd quarter. The final run-in to our rest day campsite was peppered with flying ants so we had to keep our mouths shut. The site itself was beautiful and we took victory beers down to the lakeside to toast our arrival at an idyllic spot to recover and do nothing but eat, drink and lie around.
74.1mi
Distance
4:59:59
Moving Time
1,372ft
Day 10 - Hamelsee to Beaversee
We set off after a beautiful second rest day spent swimming and doing yoga feeling refreshed and ready for the final leg of the journey. There was some slight trepidation about flooding, as we had heard that the local area had been hit badly. Our luck with the conditions held well though, as our route continued to be above water despite a lot of the area we passed through being below it. The pattern of overnight rain and dry days also continued and we could soon feel it was going to be a very warm day that would require an ice cream stop before lunch. We were also doing a great morning pace as a unit and covering the distance in good time.
The scenery remained flat as a pancake with minimal turns but we still received odd looks wherever we passed through. Recreational cycling in rural Germany would appear to only be for kids, cycling is just a means of transport around here. We even got told off by a lady for going past her house too quickly.
This obsession with rules became more apparent at the lunch stop, where another frau went out of her way to inform us that we were picnicking in a cycle way.
After lunch some of the route became a bit more bumpy and gravelly but we still smashed through to our next campsite. This was once again by a swimming lake and we dived straight in to cool off before an evening of more beer, brag and mozzy dodging.
72.1mi
Distance
5:35:55
Moving Time
1,612ft
Day 11- Beaversee to Bittkau
We left the mosquito infested hellhole of our camp for our penultimate ride day with another great breakfast in us and a questions swirling in our heads: would we maintain good form on the bikes? Would Ruth maintain her recent punctureless form? Would Neil continue to defy medical science by getting fitter whilst smoking like a chimney?
The scenery started to get more desolate and the towns seemed depopulated as we passed through. We were now in East Germany and it definitely felt slightly seedier and a little less quaint than the rest of northern Germany. We struggled to find anywhere for a proper coffee stop so settled on iced coffee and a donut from Pennys. Neil felt the part in his LAPD outfit. More good times clocked, especially on a slightly intimidated piece of road with no escape from traffic on either side - without much choice we hammered along as a peloton with Neil leading the train.
More wide open spaces after lunch, more remote fields with circling hawks overhead, more winding pine-strewn pathways. Our final camping stop was in cute wooden cabins and we enjoyed our final evening meal cooked by the support team, each one maintaining standards that Team Sky would aspire to!
Tomorrow... Berlin!!!!
71.3mi
Distance
5:14:53
Moving Time
1,616ft
Day 12 - Berlin
Made it!
73.4mi
Distance
5:47:40
Moving Time
1,838ft
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