Sunday 17th July 2022, 96.06km, 1,510m

An early breakfast followed by a short taxi ride to Land’s End to collect our bikes and have the obligatory photo with the famous signpost. Last check of tyres, make sure the course was loaded onto the Garmin and we were off.

The road to Penzance was described as undulating. This seems to be code for “never flat”! The first few miles sped by and we were soon back in Penzance and cycling along a lovely coastal path to the first brew stop. The brew stop is a marvellous thing, good cups of tea and so much food. Fruit, nuts, crisps, jelly babies, malt loaf, fig rolls, biscuits, oat bars, everything a cyclist might need to keep the pedals turning. I was one of the last to leave and set off into the headwind at a comfortable pace. I soon caught some of the others up and rode for a while with a couple from Florida just having a chat about riding on ”the wrong side of the road”. Sticking with anyone was quite hard as everyone rides at their own pace on the hills and there were a lot of hills. Given the headwind and the heat the choice seemed to be a) up hill into block headwind or b) up a hedge lined hill in a sauna.

As we approached the lunch spot I was starting to feel it as I’d run out of water a few kms earlier despite leaving the brew stop with 2 full bottles. Lunch was at Linden Hey Garden Tea Rooms. This is a lovely little place with the most wonderful hosts, nothing was too much trouble. By lunch we’d travelled just over 60km but already climbed 850m. I was starting to be less enthusiastic about descents than normal, they just meant I’d be facing another climb.

From lunch another hill and then down to the King Harry Ferry, one of only 5 chain operated ferries in the UK. Straight after the ferry is a steep climb, the first of many scattered across the afternoon. Coming off the ferry I missed my pedal and knocked my saddle nose down. Despite multiple attempts to get it level again I couldn’t quite get it right. The afternoon was a pretty much solo session, riding at my own pace and spinning up the hills. The sting in the tail was the 2km 6% climb to the hotel, it had a couple of ramps just to add to the fun and I have never been happier to see a Premier Inn.

An amazing first day. I can’t quite believe I’ve started this adventure.