Anyway, it was out onto the bike for around 45kms across the Shap Hills to the finish at Kirkby Stephen. The first part was a fun bit of farm track and a nice fast descent but the rest was road-miles along very some very hilly roads.
Halfway through I was confused to catch up with a team I had already overtaken earlier, but after studying the map it was clear I'd made a rather large faux-pas in the route planning and added a few miles and not a little bit of climbing to my (and Liam's who had a similar experience) route. Damn!
Ho hum, I plugged away admiring the scenery which was turning from steep and craggy to more rolling farm land and soon enough the signs led me into Kirkby Stephen.
I crossed the finish line in the town centre about 9 hours after the start.
The earlier finish meant it was still only mid-afternoon so there was plenty of time to sort gear out (the lovely B&B lady dried my stuff for me - handy as I only had one pair of leggings!), stock up on supplies and have a nice meal before heading for the briefing at 9pm.
I must have picked up a place as I had a much more leisurely start time of 7:28 in the morning!
Sleeping wasn't at all hard to do.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
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