The days are starting to merge into one as a hundred miles stops taking on any meaning - this is tarting to feel like groundhog day or some self-inflicted version of purgatory - oh its a Wednesday, we must be be cycling 100 miles…

Don’t get me wrong its great fun but there is that moment when you wake up when you think “Now what shall I do today?” then you remember its all been mapped out and you’ve got to get your sorry behind out of bed and onto a saddle…

Today we’re riding through the north west and its town-riding, we’ll skirt most of the town-centres but those north-west football towns came and went pretty quickly, Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, before hitting little Whalley and the unexpected pleasure of staying in the Abbey.  

Anyway today’s top ten:

1 - Rivington Pike (or Winter Hill if you prefer your geographic references to include TV masts).  Tough climb, great views and a FANTASTIC ride down the other side.  The approach also included good views of the reebox stadium looking out of place nestled below the TV towers and lower slopes of the pike.  Fizzy does this route every day on his route to work - beats Boris’ cycle path let me tell you

2 - Cycling as a group - Peely has joined us for a couple of days (knee permitting) and the 5 of us riding today stayed together ALL day - no turbo-nutter blasts from the ‘real’ cyclists on the trip - a good pace and proper navigation - won’t last though..

3 - Radio interviews - nothing for the first 4 days and then 2 turn up all at once - ok so Apple FM and BlackDiamond FM may not be household radio stations and I can’t remember seeing them when I was trying to find Atlantic 252 on my Digital radio - but from small acorns and all that…was a bit unnerving to ring up and find yourself straight on air and I managed to suppress my tendency to giggle in situations that really do NOT require a giggle…went rather well all told. Follow up interviews later in the week with Jason & Geoff respectively - DJ voice ready….

4 - Toll Bridge charges - £5 for the M6 toll, £11.50 for the Severn Bridge….none of that rubbish when we went over a railway bridge outside Bolton - a wonderful 12p, which we were let off as we were a charity!  Oh and you could buy a full day pass for 25p - I mean why wouldn’t you?

5 - Place names - today we cycled down into and then out of Salmesbury bottoms - lovely but 2 miles to the west there was a nice little flat route or ‘pootle’ as its become known amongst our close little group.  Now I’m not one to shirk a challenge but if you’re planning this trip, look at your map again and re-plan it around places-names containing: hill, tower, tops, bottoms, lower, higher, greater, gorge, trough, upper, peak, fort - you might miss a view of two but your legs will thank you…!

6 - Another great ride - Salmesbury (after the climb) down to Whalley - 45mph plus - a great reward for the climb and a great way to finish the day (means a climb out first thing tomorrow but who cares right now)

7 - Carrot cake - big chunking pieces of moist cake with dollops of creamy icing on top.  Enough said.

8 - Whalley Abbey - ok so only the foundations of the original Abbey remain but a very picturesque mansionhouse and B&B annex await the hardy traveller who turns up at their door.  Replete with booming fireplaces, priest-hole, comfy sofas and a late night bar - a bit of history and unnecessary night-cap - good combo.

9 - Surprise visits - being met at Whalley Abbey by Rachael, Charlie & Thomas - Charlie ignoring me for 2 minutes because I’ve been away for 5 days (well he only 3) - Tom getting very excited about the red balloon (well he is only 1) - me getting very excited and rolling about on the floor with them (well I am only 39) - nice end to a hard day

10 - Volunteers - Gazza, Scott, Phil, Ads, Sausage - all giving up a day of their time to raise some money for the ickle pickles - top effort!

Quote of the day:  ”What the *&%^ is a pootle?”

Mileage: 88m :  Total 472m

Max speed today:  45.2 (Andy) - not wuite up to Biagio standards…

Saddale time so far: 31 hrs 12 mins

Saddleometer:  Not too bad today - no hills I think and the 2 pairs of shorts thing is going down a treat.  I may be speaking too soon but we may have cracked it.