Today promised to be the hardest day of the ride and it certainly lived up to expectations!
After a "hearty" breakfast of eggs and bacon to "carbo-load" for the day ahead and our briefing from John, Chris and I set off on the ride.
Well the first hill out of Perranporth was a real "doosy" and after thinking the weather might be cool and getting our spray jackets and arm warmers on at the start of the ride, we soon "stripped off" all this additional gear for the ride ahead.
Many people have said that riding in Cornwell is as hard as it gets and I can really concur. Just to give you all an idea with all the climbs and descents of the day ( and there were many!) we climbed a total of 1950 metres during the day and many of the climbs were greater than 15% ( I reckon on average we were climbing at 8-10% during the day).
The roads we used were mainly country lanes with "hedgerows" and were extremely narrow. Often we had to stop to let cars and farming tractors go by. The English drivers in the main were very courteous and seemed to understand the need to allows us to share the road.
We passed some very pretty villages in Cornwell with most of them being at the bottom of the valleys. I presume this is so the town can get water.
Probably the pick of the towns were Belowda and St Neot.
Lunch was at Bodmin where Chris has lunched on his ride from London to Penzance. We went to the local Sainsbury store and bought rolls and ham and cheese and made our own lunch. This together with some fruit made a terrific lunch under a tree in the Sainsbury carpark. We managed to speak to a few locals who gave us some background on Bodmin as the Cornish "capital" and its rich history in having a prison which is now closed.
The afternoon ride took us through part of the Bodmin Moor near Minions and then in to Devon as we crossed the Tamar River. I left Cornwell with mixed emotions as the countryside was very pretty, the people we met have been friendly BUT there is so many hills.
The towns on the border with Devon and Cornwell have some interesting names....Bray Shop & Chip Shop....makes you wonder how this was decided!
Finally....after more than 90 kms we reached Tavistock for the night.
The hotel we are staying at seems excellent but there will be no partying as we are all pretty tired after a big day.
Interesting that we had to store our bikes on the roof deck for the night...great to climb stairs after 92kms!
Lunch at Bodmin...Great choice!!
Typical road we travelled on...narrow with hedges...quite safe really
The pub at St Neot...several of our group had lunch there.
Very pretty
The Tamar River..Goodbye to Cornwell!
Devon here we come!
Where are the Devonshire teas I wonder?
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