Photos to come...

We've got lots of photos courtesy of Julian, our very own "baby Pap" and will put them all online very soon so make sure you come back and check for updates!

Day 6 - The final push

Salisbury to Bognor Regis - downhill all the way!



You could smell the adrenaline (or was that Deep Heat?) this morning, we were all itching to get going and reach our final destination....

Another photo call with a TV crew this time and we were on our way. There's some big old hills between Salisbury and Bognor but after 5 days of riding together we were getting used to this and working well as a team to help each other get through the tougher parts of the day. We'd like to know what Jason had for breakfast though as he went off like a bullet and we couldn't keep up with him! Whatever it was it wore off after Petersfield though and we were all together again :-)

What a reception we got on arriving at Bognor Regis - clowns, champagne and a huge crowd with streamers and placards. It was such a relief to see them!!

I'm writing this on Monday morning and can't believe it's all over. Six fantastic days with a superb group of people - we really did work well together as a team - the 6 riders and Kalina and Julian in the support vehicles. The supprt we recieved en route was fantastic and a real boost to our motivation. It was great to be able to meet some of the team who will benefit from the much needed funds we've raised. Thanks to everyone - I can't wait to do it again!!



Tour de Butlins team 2008 - Nicky, Jason, Gary, Steve, Kathryn, Paul, Kalina and Julian

Day 5 - Across country

Minehead to Salisbury

We managed an early start today and were on the road by 8.15. We wanted to get the 25 miles on the hilly road to Taunton over and done with quickly! Surprisingly we managed a speedy pace and made it to Taunton before 10 o'clock. The route to Salisbury was very pretty taking in some beautiful villages on the way - and the famous saxon hilltop town of Shaftesbury!! That hill was evil and proved to be only the first in a number of evil hills we had to climb that day.

Again we made good speed and arrived in Salisbury by 5pm with another 98 miles done - and this was supposed to be an easier day!

Only one day to go now.....

Day 4 - 100 miles

Gloucester to Minehead - the BIG one.....

Today was the day we were all dreading - 100 long miles to Minehead with Bristol in the middle and some major hills at the end! At least the sun was out though, a welcome relief after the soaking we got yesterday!

After a photo call at the care centre in Gloucester we were on our Way with a nice straight run down the A38 to Bristol ahead of us. Check out the Balloon bike - made out of 2000 balloons by one very nice lady!

Negotiating Bristol was a challenge and the hill out even more so but once past the airport we had a fantastic run downhill clocking 36 miles per hour top speed!!

Reaching Bridgwater was a huge relief - only 25 or so miles to go and Steve assured us "it's downhill all the way to Minehead". Hmmm, ok some of it was downhill but there were some uphills too. Still, it definately looked worse going the other way!

Thanks to everyone at Minehead for our fantastic welcome - we managed a formation ride up the sea front into the gates at BlueSkies. As we'd only clocked 98.5 miles we just had to go back out and do the extra 1.5 miles to reach that 100 mile milestone - what an achievement!

Sorry for the lack of updates...

Apologies for the lack of Blog updates - in the final days of the "Tour" we had issues with getting internet access and the long days meant we were all so worn out by the time we got to the hotels that food and sleep became our priority. So here are some words about the final 3 days.....

Day 3 - Cow Poo and Rain

After a visit to the Care Centre and lots of photographs with the Mayor of Sandwell, courtesy of Lord Lichfield, we were off and it was tipping down :-( Thanks go to Ed Doolan for the no show radio show coverage, obviously something more important cropped up......

Made it safely out of suburban concrete jungle straight down cow poo lane - named by Gary as he reckoned the EU quota of cow poo was strewn along the lane. We decided to adopt this in the form of spray up our legs and backs and probably elsewhere too....

3 hours in and we were totally soggy and it still was p***ing down with no sign of Mr Sunshine. Still Kalina had found us a fab lunch spot in a farm shop complete with freshly picked strawberries and a cafe who served us tea and coffee in the car park in china cups and tea pots. Thanks to Morrisons for the great lunch, however the bread and butter DIY sandwiches weren't ideal when you're cold, wet and in a hurry. We've got that sorted for tomorrow though.

Steve has earnt a new nickname Steve "the skip" Grainger - a passing Ford Focus hurled the entire contents of their rubbish bag at him as they passed him on the A46. Thankfully no damage done to Steve or his bike.

One puncture today, note to Jason - please tell your team mates if they have a flat tyre rather than leaving them to ride along wondering why their bike feels stange. Total puncture tally = 2.

Gary, newly qualified pain management consultant is making sure everyone is taking enough drugs to see them through the day.

Anway we're all off to bed shortly (in separate rooms) for some well earned rest before our mammoth 94 mile ride to Minehead tomorrow.

Night, night from the Butlins Tour Team

:-)

Day 2, Nottingham to Birmingham

No photocall this morning, started well as we made our way out of the city centre in the rush hour traffic. Soon though we found ourselves in the wrong lane on a four-lane road with no alternative option….still better than Gary and Steve’s short run on the M1 yesterday!

Today’s first quote - “this is suicide!”

Once out of Nottingham though we picked a much quieter route through the Leicestershire countryside - phew!

Approaching the outskirts of Birmingham we had our first confrontation with a motorist…….

Motorist - “These roads aren’t made for *** bikes anymore, get off the road”

Advice he surely got from the bloke in the pub who told him it was OK to drive a 4x4 pick-up in a city centre…..

Thanks to Garmin we found the Burlington Hotel and just like flying with BA arrived 2 hours before our luggage. But what a stunning hotel, even let us park our bikes here. Thanks to delayed luggage Gary had to go to a business meeting in his lycra with Richard – surely a first!

Final note – remember to give support vehicle full details of route so they don’t drive miles in the wrong direction – sorry Kalina!