The Ton Up Club!

When I was young,a long time ago,the Ton Up Club represented those mad (motor) bikers who rode down the motorways at over 100 mph. Nowadays of course a granny can do that in her 1.1 litre VW Polo! Well we joined another Ton Up Club today. For all of us this was the first time we had ridden 100 miles in a day. Why we decided to do this when we had to navigate through the Lake District, including riding over Shap, I don't know! We could have picked an easier 100 miles! Still it's done now, and various parts of my body are confirming that fact!

Other milestones passed were that we have successfully riden through Scotland and we have passed the half way mark, both of which we are absolutely delighted about.

We left the Auldgirth Pub a bit later than planned, after a breakfast we were originally told we could not have as they could not serve any food before 8.30am! Not good if you have to ride over 100 miles! Anyway we ate well and set off. It was of course raining and quite miserable. We had just over 40 miles to ride to get to Carlisle where friends of mine, Chris and Mandy, live. We rode hard and fast, despite the rain and spray, and arrived in Carlisle almost on time, our average speed was close to 16 mph! When you know you can enjoy Mandy's baps you get a move on!

The only stop we had on the 40 mile trip was a photo opportunity at the Scotland/England border. Remarkably as we approached Gretna was saw the four guys we have met many times before crossing the main road in front of us. The chance of that happening must be minuscule. They headed off east and we continued south to Carlisle.


Mandy did us proud and we set off full of fine food and with dry socks etc, thanks Mandy. We were joined by Chris and his two friends Andrew and Simon. These guys helped inject some pace back into our relatively tired legs and the weather started to improve. We rode down through Penrith before Andrew and Simon turned back, Andrew having a buckled rear wheel. I think they knew something I didn't, the size of the climb at Shap! By this stage we had covered over 65 miles and the weather looked like it was closing in. However we took on Shap and conquered it! The downhill ride into Kendal was great fun with speeds approaching 40mph despite a strong wind. The next milestone was achieving the 100 mile mark which we did just before arriving at Carnforth.

It was quite a day.

Now for the facts:

Stats for the day - miles covered 102!!!, with average speed of 14.5 mph, with a climb of over 5,000 feet.


Porridge report - pretty good actually but no Demerara sugar, got to lose points for that!


Ale and Arse report - three beers tried tonight, well it was a big day! Black Sheep, Everards Beacon and one whose name escapes me! It's been long day! The Black Sheep, a beer brewed in Yorkshire gets my vote. The good news is the choice and quality of beer is improving. This of course means I have to put my body on the line by trying them out! All I can say about the other part of this report is that wearing two pairs of cycling shorts was a god send. So much more comfortable and it definitely saved my arse from moving from the passed "sell by date" category into the "baboon" like category! Same again tomorrow I think! As with all great things however there is often a down side. Lets put it this way I now know why toddlers walk bowlegged!

Forecast for tomorrow - well firstly I hope my legs regain some strength! We have c90 miles to go tomorrow and Chris will be with us until Preston. The weather looks better and so its all about how we recover from what has been a big big day for us.

Sorry no photos today, will try to add some tomorrow!