Day 1 Penzance to Land's End to Launceston. Friday 24th June 2011

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

97.3 miles
7hrs 30mins in the saddle


The day began bright and early with a wee 10 mile jaunt to Land's End from Bill & Liz's house. We passed a few LEJOG'ers on the way who were just starting their adventure and they must have thought 'these boys are looking fresh and fit for cycling all the way from John O'Groat's.' We knew we would have to hit the ground running today as it was 100 miles to our youth hostel in Okehampton.

Photo call done at the famous sign we were back on the same road to Penzance. You don't really realise how high you are climbing until you go back on the same road and freewheel down the other side! We nearly had our first casualty at Penzance when Andris came round the corner into the Tesco and smashed his pedal off the tarmac. Luckily it was only superficial damage and it still spun without a problem.

After a quick burst on the A30 dual carriageway we were on the 'Atlantic Highway' from Redruth to Newquay which was a very pleasant road. There was lots of climbs but included a 16% downhill where I touched 41mph! We had done 58 miles before lunch at Newquay which was a fair achievement for the 1st day.

We had our first puncture here where Bruce's rear tyre had picked up a slow puncture. We had problems where his 2 spare tubes tore while inflating. What a pain in the arse but nothing we could do about it. The 3rd tube was reinforced with gaffer tape and held enough pressure to get him to our evening stop.

The rain came at Wadebridge and never let up for the remaining 40 miles and I remember the hills to Camelford were particularly tough in these conditions. (I have described it in my diary as an "absolute b***h.") There were big climbs with little down before going up again. We started to realise at this point we would be pushing it to reach Okehampton for the night as it would involve another 35 miles on top of the 95 we had already done and we were fast losing light for the 20 mile stretch of dual carriageway which was starting to look like a bad idea. We knew the first day would be the longest and one of the toughest but I was beginning to feel I had let the boys down by being over-ambitious.

The end of the day was into rain and a strong headwind so we decided to get to Launceston and find somewhere to crash for the evening. Nick was beginning to really struggle at this point and I'm sure he was wondering if he would ever make John O'Groats.

Fraz, Andris and myself made Launceston by 8pm and found us rooms at the White Heart Hotel in the town centre which did the job. The other 3 were five miles down the road as Bruce's rear tyre had finally given in and they walked the remaining 2 miles along the A30.

A cheeky take-away burger and a pint in the hotel bar which was clearly full of the local underagers having a drink on a Friday night!

Tom Hark by The Piranhas has been in our heads all afternoon after having our lunch outside an arcade in Newquay. It was slowly driving us mad.

Even as I sit here in front of Google Maps it is telling me that our day to Okehampton is 110 miles on our route. Nae chance! We did 97 to Launceston and were still 30 miles short! Google Maps has a lot to answer for.