Cycle Challenge Makes Way to Cullompton

May 18, 2010

For Foster Care Fortnight 2010, two members of the FCA Western team are cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats. We're following their journey, which is making its way to Collumpton...

DAY 3: Another fine day!

Another short day of cycling for Chris and Morris; if you consider 40 miles to be short in the scale of their challenge to cycle the length of the UK for Foster Care Fortnight 2010.

“Monday was a fine day with south-westerly tail-wind most of the time,” explains Chris. “We belted a few more miles down the A30 for the last time before turning off at Sticklepath on the old road through Whiddon Down and Tedbury St Mary. It was good to ride side-by-side in the sunshine on a quiet and undulating road, patchwork fields, thatched cottages and all that stuff. But the flies were out in force and being up front, Morris managed to swallow a few, supplementing his energy bar quota for the day.

Surviving to the end of Foster Care Fortnight!

One slightly worrying incident: on a long but steady climb I was casting the occasional glance at the face of my Heart Rate Monitor and noticed my pulse seemed rather high. The road leveled out, but a after a few minutes the heart rate increased a little to 157. I called to Morris that we needed to slow down a bit. A minute later and it went up to 158, I was getting concerned. Must be the anxiety about the heart rate making the heart go faster I thought (or was this the end?). At 159 I realized that the HRM had somehow changed modes and was displaying the time (1.59pm). Daren’t think what would have happened if I’d reached 2.00pm before realising what was going on.

We reached Exeter, the largest built-up area we’d encountered on our journey so far. A chance to practice our urban cycling skills, dodging through traffic whist navigating our way across the city. Birmingham will be more demanding no doubt.

Anyway, we made it through to Cullompton and as usual both soaked in a cold bath (separate baths!) whilst slurping recovery drink and text messaging. This is the life! We look forward to visiting the FCA Cullompton Office and what ever they have in store for us tomorrow.

Some Statistics:
Departed Okehampton 10.45am
Arrived Collumpton 2.15pm
Distance 40 miles
Average speed 14.6 mph
Maximum speed 40 mph
Flies swallowed = 2

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