BIKE PACKING THE PERIMITER OF BRITAIN

I set out to bike pack the perimeter of Britain, covering around 6500km over 30 days to raise funds for Movember and mental health awareness. You can donate to Movember here: https://uk.movember.com/mospace/6408721

A massive thank you to Le Col, SunGod and Wolf Tooth for supporting by funding the film.

The following companies (that you’ll see in my content) support me either financially or with free stuff, so huge thanks to these brands for helping me with the challenges I take on:

Argon 18, Enve, Le Col, Lazer Helmets, Schwalbe Tires, Sungod Eyewear, Tailfin Cycling, Styrkr, Exposure Lights, Garmin, Wolf Tooth Components, Sturdy Cycles and products from Saddleback brands.

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I’ve ridden the widest part of Britain. I’ve ridden the narrowest part of Britain. I’ve done London to Lans’s End, Lands to Gigo, Jon Roach to Lowest, Lest to London. The thing that for me has been missing for, you know, four or five years is actually just riding the perimeter. So, my plan is to bike pack around the perimeter of Britain. [ __ ] It’s legiting [ __ ] Honestly, right. Perimeter of Britain. It’s the unluckiest in the world. I am fundraising for Movember. It’s not supposed to be aing musical instrument. What an absolute B. I was trying to think of a nice way of putting it, but there was nothing I really say about it that was that positive. This should be an amazing place to cycle and you just made it a place for people to drive metal boxes around. So yeah, anyway, started in London a lovely banky and I chose to ride anticlockwise and headed up the east coast doing sort of Norwich I guess Yorkshire coastline and heading up towards Newcastle. So that was up to Newcastle was 5 days. We got some squashies. Thank you very much. You’re very welcome. You’re all right. Yes. Good to catch up with you again on another challenge somewhere around in your part of the town again. It’s my neck of the woods. Yeah, I started in a heat wave. Definitely been warm. I guess it’s a heat training for bad lands. That’s how I’m thinking about it. But probably quite good to just get started and get into the momentum of things like not starting in terrible weather probably was a good thing. Back on route going towards Lurstoff which is the most eastern point of Britain. The flip side is that because it was incredibly warm for the first couple of days. I probably put myself into a little bit of a hole sooner than I should have done just from wanting to stick to this pretty rigorous schedule about getting to Newcastle in 5 days. And I I had this kind of want to get there because I knew I was going to be seeing some of my mates that I don’t see that often. You know, Jimmy and Emily, two of my best friends. And I wanted to try and get there in a reasonable time and be able to tackle the big loop up into Scotland. This is Nest Point, which is the most eastern point of the UK. So, one of the bits that was really nice was getting to this place called Wood Cycles, which is in Norwich. It’s a tiny little bike shop. And the I think the guys called Graeme had messaged me saying if you need anything like come in. We’ve got coffee, we’ve got cakes. Maybe I should do on that. What a nice little shop. Thanks, man. You’re killing it as well. You’re doing amazing. Look at these. Yeah, proper cakes. Norol. How long have you been here? 3 years. It’s a good shop. Thanks, man. Thanks. Yeah, it’s cool. And you got a gravel ride that goes out. Yeah. Yeah, we got a great gravel ride today. A lot of the guys that ride out with this shop are guys that have tried to be in different clubs around the area and they’ve just not managed to make it work. And most of them, I would probably argue like, you know, late 30s to 60s in age. And you can see that all these folks are just really excited to go out and ride together. And it’s really just nice to see. They they’ve created this little community of people who are strangers that have become friends and maybe don’t have a lot of opportunities to interact outside of that group. I said, “We just want this club where everyone’s welcome, and we’re going to ride at a pace that suits everybody.” Our last road ride, we’ve got a guy who races locally at Lotus, who’s 21, who’s a cat 3 rider, riding up front with a chap who’s 82. Amazing. And they’re chatting about life. And everyone everyone told me it wouldn’t work. Everyone said, “Oh, you can’t mix all these people together.” Of course. And we now have we’re a little club that’s new in a tiny little North coastal town at a tiny little bike shop. We have 20 people turning up regularly. And I know that’s might be low numbers for some people. I think that’s good. But it’s really really good. And most of these people, they didn’t know each other three 3 months ago and they’re all chums. Look how happy they are. So that that that is like proof that creating these safe spaces for men to talk works. It was amazing to see. We have a group of people from Wood Cycle Rey behind. I think you might be able to see some. That’s pretty cool. Riding up through Norwich and everything is it’s like those first couple of days as well, it’s not that hilly, but you do tend to deal with quite a lot of winds. Have a good gravel ride. And my theory as well was actually having a few easier days to start with is going to help me sort of ride into it a bit better. I I know what my body’s like and it kind of it kind of shouts and argues and puts up a fight for like four or five days and then if I give it a day to rest, it then just has a sigh of breath of relief and then it knows that this is what we’re doing for a while. So, I’ve had it in my mind to try and get to Edinburgh and then have a day off. As I was heading towards Newcastle, the conditions actually started to turn. Good morning and welcome to day five. It’s lovely right now, but I’m pretty certain this afternoon is going to be pretty grim. And then from kind of Newcastle pretty much, to Glasgow, I would argue almost was biblical. One of the things I learned from this trip is that no matter how hard you try, you can’t wrecky everything. It’s impossible. And I started riding on uh a Schwaba road tire. Nothing wrong with the tire. Like it’s a fantastic tire. But I was doing a lot more off-road and you know commute doing commute specials and having like little secret bits which actually end up being on the cusp of mountain biking. So there appears to be way more gravel today than I have expected. A few times that happened and I, you know, I didn’t know how to divert it or change it. It’s kind of that’s the way to go and there’s no other option. And as I got towards Newcastle, I met Benny outside of Greg’s. Benny, we found you at your favorite place, I yeah, I rode into Newcastle and had a small group of guys again, which was really lovely, but my rear tire kept deflating and I was like, “Something’s not right here.” So, I had to then detour the route going into Newcastle to find a bike shop to be able to get a new tire. And I I I knew I kind of wanted to get past Newcastle that day and then be able to get to Edinburgh the next day. And in my head I was just going, well, the whole the plan that I’d already planned has now been thrown off. And that’s that was stressing me out quite a lot. So, we uh we’ve ridden into Newcastle now and we’re at Start Fitness, which is like one of the big big shops in the center of town, and the mechanic here is very luckily offered to help. And he’s swapping over the putting on some new tires, doing some new pads, so we’re going to be back in business. I basically sort of begged to the mechanic being like, “Please, can you just sort me out a new tire?” I set it up tubeless and then what have you got that’s got a bit of tread cuz I need something a bit more grally effectively. I was getting cold and wet and I spoke to Jimmy on the phone and Jimmy was like just just stop here, stay at ours for the night, chill out. I’ll get dinner in. And he’s like you’re not expected to talk to anyone but he Jimmy was like it’s probably going to be quite nice for you just to be around a bunch of mates. One of the things that Jimmy said to me that really stuck with me for the whole rest of the ride was, “What’s the point in doing this if your own mental health is suffering?” He’s like, “It’s pointless.” So, he’s like, “You need to prioritize yourself. And if that means changing the plan, tweaking stuff, editing stuff, do it. There’s no rules. You can do what you want. You don’t you’re not doing this for anyone else. It’s for It’s as much for me as it is for fundraising for Movember because he knows I’ve wanted to do this for years. And I I I hadn’t thought of it like that before. I kind of thought I have a plan. I need to stick to the plan. But in reality, the whole plan could change. Then then he said to me like, “Where do you want me to drop you off the next day?” He’s like, “I can drop you off anywhere.” And I just said to him, “Let’s just start where I was aiming to get to.” Jimmy taking me to that location meant that I was in my mind still on a schedule that I kind of was now much more loosely sticking to, but it meant that I kind of knew I was going to be getting to Edinburgh that day and then I knew I was going to have a day off in Edinburgh basically. So I rode into Edinburgh with two of my other mates. check on. It’s just nice to have friends coming into Edinburgh and I think they both realized I was having a bit of a time of things and feeling a bit just I guess overwhelmed by how massive it all was and tired understandably that’s 6 days in. Just having a some mates to vent to kind of in Newcastle and then in Edinburgh was really useful. And Sophie and Sam took me out for dinner and had the biggest pizza in the world. And it was just very kind of them to sort of go this we got this like you need we’ll wash your kit, we’ll look after you. So, I had a day off in Edinburgh where I spent a proportion of the day at Gamma basically getting the bike checked over and making sure that it was ready for the big stint which was going to be effectively Edinburgh up and round to Glasgow. I saw that as a section to try and do in one hit effectively. But then the plan from Edinburgh was to do Edinburgh to Inbaness and Inbaness to John Gros and then effectively the top of Scotland and then start working my way down the west coast of Scotland including the Isisle of Sky. Right, we’ve stopped here because it’s quite an important bit to highlight. So this bridge you can see here in the background is the fourth bridge. This bridge is one of the highest bridges for death by suicide in Europe. So we’re going to go ride across it. I just think it’s really important to show that to be honest with you because not only does it connect not only does it connect Edinburgh with F the other side of the river but it’s a place where unfortunately a lot of people have taken their own lives so yeah it’s important to highlight that bit and now we’ve got to get on it and it is quite a gradient onto it and across it but it’s not windy so that’s the positive we can give away from Thank you for bringing me some sweets. No, you’re very welcome. Good luck with the rest of the ride. Yeah, it’s going to be I definitely needed a day off. Yeah, we were watching for you yesterday. I was like, you’re not moving. I was like, get to rest day. I needed a rest day yesterday. I was I was cooked. What was a bit frustrating was I rode Edinburgh to Invenesse and then the next day was a very very bad storm arriving. So I thought I got to where I was staying that night and I thought Should I deal with riding in this storm? Is it going to be good for me? Especially because I know that road from Invenesse to Jono Gross is the you’re on the A9 and the A99. I would argue it’s some of the most dangerous roads in the UK. So, I decided to stay in Invenesse for a night to try and dodge this storm and it didn’t work. It doesn’t even look that bad on camera. It’s horrible. Because the storm was 2 days of it and I was like, I can’t stop for 2 days. I’m just going to have to deal with it and riding it and accept that it’s going to be a really day. This is the day that I’m least looking forward to on the whole trip. Just cold, wet, and miserable. Couldn’t really see that much because of the conditions being so bad and just the whole time being wet and your hands just blistering up, your feet swelling up and blistering up and everything like saddle saws really rearing ahead. Everything just got really bad that day. About 90k to go. It’s going to look like this for the rest of the day. The place I stayed in by John Gross. I was staying on the like first floor and there’s just stairs up to it. It’s the first day I’ve gone up or down stairs and thought, “Wow, okay, now my legs really hurt.” The next day was effectively riding from Jon across the top of Scotland and then down a little bit down the west coast. And this was a day where hit the fan in many different ways. I left Jono Gros and somehow managed to snap a tubeless valve. [ __ ] [ __ ] How’d you do that? This is not not how I needed today to go. I know no one that’s done that. It wasn’t the core, it was the valve. And the problem was that I was using the Schwabber click valves and you have a which is a very good system but I basically didn’t change the valve ends on my inner tubes to click valve ones. So I only had a click valve pump with you know normal uh pressa ends. So I couldn’t pump up another inner tube. So, I’m right now I’m in a taxi with a very lovely man who’s taking me to the next town where hopefully I’m going to be able to get everything fixed. I think it’s all fixable, thankfully. Right. So, the taxi shop has dropped me here, which is the only bike shop around here. We’ve got the tire back up, running a tube in it. Front one’s still set up as tubeless, but we’ve just changed it to a traditional valve now. So, I’ve got a new pump, got a spare tube, got another spare tube, and we’re just going to hope that everything’s good now from the now on basically. And I don’t think I left this shop until about 11:30 or 12:00 and I still had 180 km to ride. And as there’s no way of making it shorter, this it’s just a route. There’s no roads. There’s no option. You just have to do it. The problem was I had to kind of stick to this schedule for this north coast and the northwest coast because there’s not a lot of accommodation and you really do need to book it in advance otherwise you’re sleeping outside. So that whole day ends up being a slog. I’m not enjoying today. I think I finished half 8 9:00 that night. About 5k to go. I am well and truly [ __ ] I arrived at this place really quite late. Cold, wet, miserable. The whole routine then is of this continual washing kit every night getting ready for the next day, checking the bike over every evening. There’s so much admin. That admin is like 2 or 3 hours every evening before then being able to relax. It’s like get in, shower, wash kit, put stuff on charge, eat, check the route, check the bike, sleep, go again. But the next day when I woke up is when Jack joined. There’s points in this section from where Jack was to Glasgow where I was very close to just stopping completely pulling the pin. Hello, sir. We are in the northwest and central southerntherland highlands. That’s what it says on the weather app. I don’t know. I can’t see a thing. So, I don’t know where we are. How you feeling at this point? Not great. My head is not in a good place. Yesterday was I think one of the hardest days I’ve had on a bike in probably six years. And the day before was probably one of the hardest days I’ve had on the bike in maybe 6 years. [ __ ] stings and it’s still wet. Lots of stuff happened on the northwest coast of Scotland that shouldn’t have happened. See what happens. which is not a fault of me. It’s not a fault of the bike. It is literally bad luck. Just sods law bad luck stuff. But the amount of it was like incredibly challenging. That’s how I feel. So 4 and 1/2k climb to start. Yeah. Day and a half to go. It’s a horrible way to start a day. Another reason why I rode this route anticlockwise is cuz I wanted to get into Scotland the quickest way. And going anticlockwise actually meant I would get to the west coast of Scotland quicker. I’ve never ridden the west coast of Scotland. I’ve always wanted to. Everyone talks about how beautiful the scenery is and I could see how it going. Don’t know where though. The whole west coast of Scotland. I was genuinely quite upset about it. This was the part of the route I was the most excited about and couldn’t see anything. And that’s not just because of the rain. It was misty. It was foggy. It was setting at one point. It just I could I can understand that it would be beautiful, but you literally couldn’t see the landscape behind bog. The problem with this, mate, is I’m spending three days now soaked. And I don’t think that’s good for you, is it? Oh, Jack, my friend, I’m an idiot. That really grinded on me. And I think I think because in my head I was like, “Right, we get up into Scotland. It’s going to be beautiful scenery. I’m going to be knackered by this point.” but the being in this incredible epic scenery is going to be a huge boost. And uh it wasn’t. It just wasn’t. And I couldn’t enjoy it. And I couldn’t enjoy the parts of it that were the parts I was so so excited by cuz I I did know this whole section was going to be really isolated. You know, chances of riding with anyone else was pretty slim. So I was kind of bagging on the fact that I was going to be able to see stuff and then couldn’t. But the positive that came from a big section of that is getting to ride with a guy called Jake. So this is a 63.2 Brickladi. I can smell it from here. Was that the weed that the car? That might be the weed. We first rode together in Dundee. And he was just good company. Good person. Good company. who just, you know, very openly talked to me about the stuff going on in their life, but also meant I could very openly talk about the stuff going on in my life as well. And I think for me and maybe for him as well, it was actually quite good to have had that. I would say I stumbled across a whole bunch of people, including Chris, on on YouTube. And what attracted me more to sort of Chris’s stuff and a bunch of other people is it was less that kind of more typically masculine sort of thing that people do where they where they get very technical and describe the what it is they’re doing, right? Which is, you know, important and that’s useful and everything, but I’m more more captured by the the how it feels and the why. And the why is important. That’s what that’s what gets you through when you’re in your low moments. You know, it’s really important on these things to have a a purpose and to be really clear about that because that’s what in the darkest of darkest little dips that you get into and that’s what pulls you through. One of the hotels we stayed in, which was in Lo Marie, I booked the cheapest room possible in this hotel, which is basically how I was doing it every night. I was just like, the cheapest room I could get will do. And uh he he’d had everything on his bike to camp. And we got to the hotel and he was like, I’m going to see if they got a room. on a chance if they got a room. And the only room they had was the Victoria suite. Queen Victoria suite, not just random Victoria, the old queen. It was expensive. And he was like, “Yeah, go on. I’ll have it.” And he just gave me the key. And he’s like, “Give me your key.” And he didn’t have to do that. But it’s just such a kind gesture from someone who was effectively a stranger a week ago who I would now class as a good friend. Incredibly good human being. Doing this again apparently. So, how was that? Horrible. Words fail. Can’t do easier than the 340 W of that. That sucks. It’s different with the weight, doesn’t it? Loaded bike. Yeah. As somebody who’s not day 12, I think it’s mighty impressive. Well, thank you for saying that and boost and feeding my ego a little bit. Does need it sometimes. [ __ ] it out. So yeah, Chris’s stuff really really appealed to me and he was really like unashamedly open and and and it felt raw and felt very real, right? And and I could draw, you know, I recognized it in in my experiences. So one of the things I think is really good about cycling is I believe that it naturally allows conversation to flow. And I think it’s to do with that motion, you know, the momentum of it, the pedaling. And also, I think it’s with men, especially, men are not very good with eye contact. And riding next to someone is very non-confrontational. You’re not you’re not staring someone in the eye. So, I think a lot of guys especially find it easier to talk and then easier to open up because of the momentum and the motion of it. just such a simple thing that just enabled I suppose I suppose it’s equivalent it’s almost like a confessional right it’s the principle behind the confession books right I had no idea how powerful that was and it totally is he’s bang on um but I do think cycling just as an activity is so accessible and you don’t need to be doing to have that non-confrontational conversation you don’t need to be doing 100 miles you can do five you can do two you know you can just toot down you know the cycle path for 20 minutes and have a chat And I’d love to get that to be out there to be out there more. Yeah. 5 years or just over 5 years ago now, I I lost a really good friend and colleague. He he took his own life um during co which is yeah I used to cycle with him uh all the time and uh for me it was out of the blue and you know he like everybody you know had a lot of things going on and mental health particularly men’s mental health it’s changing but it’s just such an important issue cuz that moment has not even ripples massive huge tsunamis of impact on everyone around him, whatever aside, relationship aside, his family, his friends, and and we all came together month ago or so to sort of celebrate his the the fifth anniversary. And it was it was wonderful. And his mom and dad were there. Um it was great just to talk about and talk out. Might meet Russell. Yeah. You come back for more not so glorious weather. You seemed you toiled through some pretty dismal stuff the last couple of days. I need it. I really do appreciate it. So this this that Chris is doing um the what the how it’s clearly been feeling for him and and and recently I found out a bit more about the why he does it. It’s so easy to be inspired by like proximity to passion. Uh it doesn’t matter what what that passion’s about, right? Um, but when it’s something that’s close to you, it’s like, wow, that’s that’s So, yeah, I’ve I’ve like I say, I feel a bit selfish about it, but I’ve got so much out of just being being around, you know, uh it’s it’s uh yeah, fantastic. Really, really cool. But Jake very bluntly said to me, “Oh, when we get to Sky, I’m going to turn back.” And I I didn’t think anything of it at the time. And in now in hindsight, I totally understand why he did that. I just wanted to ride around Isa Sky because I’ve never been there. And everyone has told me how beautiful it is. And I was really excited about that. And in reality, I lost my [ __ ] several times because I was scared. I I genuinely think the Isisle Sky is in the top three most dangerous places I’ve ever cycled. Oh. It’s legit [ __ ] [ __ ] Honestly, Chris, [Applause] I’m going to punch a car at some point. Not mine, please. No, your car’s fine. You’re not the one driving like a plunge bucket. Not fun for riding bikes. Like, I sky tourism board. Sort it out. It’s [ __ ] bollocks. This should be an amazing place to cycle. And you’ve just made it a place for people to drive [ __ ] metal boxes around. It’s not fun. This guy would agree with me. The amount ofinging close parties in this island is ridiculous. I’ll give it I’ll give it 10k. I genuinely I’ll give it 10k. I don’t mean to sound miserable, but I am. Hopefully it gets quieter. I don’t think it will, but hopefully it will. Yeah. Unlike your oxy. So, with the sky, I decided to cut it short because I just thought this is too dangerous. It’s not safe to ride. Elliot came and found me sitting by the side of the ride look looking really unhappy and uh I am not riding on this island anymore to be totally honest with you. It’s dangerous. It’s not It could be incredible. Yeah, we’re going to drive up to the hotel cuz it like the amount of close passes. It’s just this is this is dangerous. This is like I’m getting angry and it’s not anger for the sake of being angry. It’s angry because I’m scared. What’s the fundamental error that Chris has made? Uh, it’s peak season. It’s really busy. Um, yeah. Roads are full. It’s not even safe driving it. Jesus Christ. I suppose it doesn’t What are you doing, idiot? What is it with What is it with people that when they’re tourists where their just brains go to mush? It’s all lefthand drive massive motor homes from mainland Europe and people. No, there’s not. It’s aing road. Why do you think you could just step out in front of the car? Oh my god. So, thank you so much for staying with us and um have a safe journey. Thank you very much. Cheers. See you. Uhhuh. So, we’re at the north of Sky and the plan after yesterday’s experiences. I don’t really want to ride much in sky. It’s quite early still. So, we’re going to ride up the Kurang like the magazine, right? So, we’re going to ride that climb which everyone says is one of the most beautiful climbs in sky. Descend down it and hopefully ride then part of the western side of the island. then jumping back in the car because it joins back on the nasty nasty a road and effectively drive a big chunk of that and then hopefully if it’s quieter get out again ride towards the ferry get the ferry and then ride to Fort William past Harry Potter bridge and Dumbledore’s graveyard [Music] So, you got 4 hours 45 to get to the ferry and we’re going to stop and have a coffee at Elliot’s place cuz he very kindly offered. Thanks, Elliot. Thank you, Elliot. You’re a good egg. We’re going to drive the bit of road that was really sketchy yesterday until the turning for the bridge and then ride about 30k to the ferry. That’s the plan. From Armadale to Mala. Two passengers. One, two. Vehicle and bicycles. One car. What? The product car is not available on this route. Car isn’t available. What do you mean? We’re going to get in the car, drive round to join back on the route in the port on the other side, and then ride the last bit. Drove off the island. As soon as we got off Sky, we got away from some of the terrible traffic which was going onto Sky. Uh, so yeah, 110k, thousand meters of elevation, so it’s not too bad. Um, but we’ll see what this road’s like because unfortunately there’s not many options in terms of roads up here. So, you just end up on quite busy roads. This is the problem with this whole route is you end up on the busy roads. Now, what I’m hoping to do going forward as much as I can is try and stick on the euro routes. So EV1, EV12, which are these roads which are designated as cycle routes around the UK, and they do generally sit pretty close to the perimeter of Britain. But like, especially when I’m on my own, it’s just so much safer than some of the I’ve had to deal with the last couple of days. So, all right. [Applause] All right. See you see you at some point on the road. Yeah, see you in a bit. And I think I must have ridden 20 km, maybe 30 km, not really that far. And then I heard this weird noise which was like a It’s not supposed to be aing musical instrument. Oops. H how? Why? I don’t It’s Sod’s law again. Like the Nothing The road The road surface is fine. Pretty smooth. It literally I was riding along and a big truck came was waiting to come past and I was like cool like I’ll move over as soon as there’s some room and literally it just went and then this was hanging off and then the the nipple you can hear it my brain was thinking how do I ride 80 km 50 mi from Gleno to Fort William on a broken spoke which which is probably going to mean that the rear wheel is just going to start going more and more out of true, which then means it’s a bigger job to repair. Trying me, is it? Thising stupid idea of mine. At least it’s trying you when I’m here, though. Yeah, let’s get all this [ __ ] out the way while you’re around because I can’t I would be if I’m on my own. It’s a frustration because I missed out that section, but also my emotions are very surface and the tiniest things was was just throwing me off in a generally in a bad mood like being grumpy and pissed off or upset. So, the decision was quite quickly made to just get the bike in the back of the car, get to Fort William, get to a bike shop and we Nevice Cycles, I think is what his name was, was a really good bike shop. The guy in there was like, “We don’t have an Envy Spec spoke. We don’t have an Envy Spec nipple, but we can fix it and we can get it going again.” And I was like, that’s fine. Don’t stress about any of that. Just if we can get it working, get it true, we’re all good. We have a wheel that’s not making any noise. There’s a new spoke in the rear wheel. Um, legends. Neb cycles. What a bunch of legends. Good people. Let’s go and find some random we can buy in the shop. Good morning. Um, I’m alive. Good. Quite tired. I’m looking forward to a day off. That’s what I would say. Good morning and welcome to day 14 of bypacking the perimeter of Britain fundraising for Movember. And guess what? It’s raining again. And it’s a punchy aim. The aim is Glasgow. 210k about 2,000 meters of elevation riding to Glasgow. And then I’m having a very much well earned day off cuz I am beyond cooked at the moment. [Music] So I’ve just turned on to what feels like a much better cycle home. Here’s an old train line. B tarmac and nice and quiet away from traffic. [Music] That was a nice lake. The day started leaving Fort William on the main road, the A82. But soon after that, he went onto some cycle paths. And since he’s hit these cycle paths, I have been struggling to keep up with him. He has got some good pace on. He’s riding well. He’s getting some miles in. He’s eating the miles up, which is really good. Oh, he’s getting ahead of me, actually. I got to go. I know it’s probably going to stop raining in about 5 minutes, but I hate getting really wet feet. Oh dear, they’ve got a hole in them. Everything’s wearing out. Me kit. All right. [Music] This cycle lane has been a glorious relief after the last few days. Oh, it’s just nice to not be on a road with a car. This route big is the Sustrans cycleway 78. This I definitely recommend to ride. It’s amazing. 100k done. 107 km to go. I’m on the first of the like big spikes on the route as you can see. Pacing myself as much as I can. I went quite hard this morning cuz it was a headwind. I wanted to try and keep a good average speed. So now I’m just trying to pace it a bit, get to the next town, get some proper food, and then get ready for the next big spike. Yeah, that whole like northwest coast of Scotland just that probably took me to that point where I thought maybe I should actually stop. I think a lot of people would have probably pulled the pin. I think the only reason I didn’t was cuz I’m stubborn. starting to come back to some form of civilization. I just ran over someone’s [ __ ] sick. It’s disgusting. Don’t think it goes maybe under this bridge. Can’t really can’t really tell to be honest. Not far now. Yeah, but I think the one that came into Glasgow where I was soaking wet and cold and punchured 5k from the place I was staying that night. That was the point where I was very very very very close to just being like this. Well, it looks like I’m going to need another tire. It’s the unluckiest in the world I am. It’s [ __ ] [ __ ] mate. You want to put the bike in the car and just go back to the hotel? I just want to quit cycling right now. To be honest with you, mate, I just want to quit. [ __ ] this [ __ ] It’s [ __ ] What is going on in the world? What have I done wrong? I’m cold. I’m wet. I’m filthy. The bike again. It was still like 3 and 1 half th000k to go from that point. And I was just like, if the amount of bad luck carried on happening, there’s no point continuing. That’s what was in my head. And I couldn’t see a way of it stopping. Which sounds ridiculous, but it was just cuz it was one thing after another after another after another. I need to have some better luck. But then in Glasgow, I I decided very I think wisely to have a day off to try and you know, part of it was to think about everything that happened and sort of have a brain reset, I guess, try and give myself some confidence back and I went to a bike shop called Billy Bilsen’s. We visited it when we did the film about the World Championships and I’d messaged him on Instagram being like, “Look, I I could do with a new rear tire. I need some supplies just like you know some more chain lube, some like Sturker bars, that kind of stuff cuz I knew they stocker and he was like, “Yep, cool. Bring the bike in. We’ll sort it all out.” Has a box of stickers. Is this for Is this what he gives to you for having a good day? Pretty much. I mean, he likes all So, he helps kids pick a bike, encourages them, make it their own. That’s really sweet. Yeah, that is really sweet. Would you like a little cartoon dinosaur on your bike or That’s a great one. find a home for a moose. Yeah, just didn’t charge me for anything. And I was like, why are you not charging me? Cuz like someone’s got to pay for this. And he was just like, it’s gone. It’s done. Doesn’t matter. So like these moments of just kindness from not strangers, but not, you know, people you don’t see very often is incredibly appreciated and makes I think things like what happened at that shop made me go, okay, I should continue riding. Good morning and welcome to day 15 of bike packing. Sort of the perimeter of Britain fundraising for November. Right. So I’ve got jelly babies. You can have them. Oh and anything else you want out of this. I’ve got grace bars. You’re a legend. So this uh adjusted route today follows a lot of the EV1 route. Eurovilla one route and it’s amazing. So, what I’ve learned on this trip is these things like the Eurovllo roots and the Sustarans roots, which I knew already knew would be good, but they’ve been amazing. One of the hardest days I would say on the bike was the day where I rode out of Scotland into England again, which basically meant riding the whole of the Lake District. Today’s the day where I complete Scotland. That’s quite a nice um morale boost I will say. The Lake District is savage. 4 and a half kilometers of absolute pain incoming for me. Look at that. I will see Ian at the top. And so that day I rode with my mate Ian who’s actually joined me on like four or five of these challenges over the years. I call him Ian the goat because he’s so good uphill. He just doesn’t change gear. He just rides everything in one gear basically. For context, I’m having to do about 400 watts. And Ian’s supported loads of things over the years, and he’s always, you know, just a good human being. That day for both of us was savage. It was like 2 and a half thousand m of climbing. The first 100 km was basically flat but into a headwind. And probably had 400 500 m climbing in that 100k. And then the last 140 odd kilometers was just up, down, up, down, up these savage, savage climbs. What is this? I got to where I was staying that night and I was really cooked. Really, really cooked. Thank you for the legs are falling off now. Yeah, mine have gone. I don’t know. We’re just two floating torsos. A 5minute sprint to the station. Safe travels. Cheers. When I woke up the next day, I just woke up in a puddle of sweat. And things are not looking great this morning. I’ve had a really bad night’s sleep. I have had hot and cold sweats all night. Could hardly eat. Tried to eat my breakfast. Couldn’t really eat it. Just couldn’t stomach it cuz I thought I was going to be sick. The last 10 days have been really, really hard. My body’s just saying stop for a bit. I planned to sort of do another like 200 plusk day and in reality I got on the bike and I just felt so weak. I could confirm that things aren’t great. I had a huge turnout of people that day. There was probably like 10 people coming and riding. Got to see my mate Toby. And Toby’s like a really old mate. Had a very very tearful 20 minutes of just crying because I was like, I feel terrible. And then we rode literally into Lancaster and I just said like I’m not going to do anymore today. I’m going to book in a cheap hotel around the corner and as soon as I can check in, I’ll just check in and go to bed. So my mate Joe Lavick then who was with me that day was like okay let’s go and get some good food you know then you can go check into the hotel and he then I’ll ride you with you the next day. I I eventually got checked into this hotel and I slept for 15 hours. So something was not right. I was definitely not very well too bad. I’m feeling better than I was. Uh Joe’s got to join me for about an hour. Then I’m trying to find a cafe, a cycling cafe called Apex Cycle Works where I believe I’ve got a little cheeky delivery from a sponsor that we share in common. Wonder what that is. Saddleback, which is the distributor for Envy. They offered to replace the wheels completely. And what they did, thanks to Jack, was kindly sends. And then Jack drove everything from Sheffield to Preston. Hello. As unwell as I was. Good. We went into the shop called Apex Cycle Works, which is like a shop and a cafe. Really, really cool space. Lovely community vibe to it. The guy that runs the workshop was had broken his elbow was trying to help us do it. All right, boys. Um, pleasure, man. Thank you very much. We’ll definitely be back. You’re always welcome here. Best of luck, mate. [Applause] the same thing of kindness of strangers who then become mates is that’s what one of the biggest takeaways from this whole ride is. So after doing the wheel change, it was then basically Wales was the big thing to tackle. I was apprehensive and excited about Wales because Wales has done me dirty quite a few times over the years in various previous challenges and things I’ve done. But I know Wales is beautiful. North Wales. I got to ride with my friend Dion, who I met when I did the Seven Everest challenge, and he’s an amazing human being who’s had a lot of really stuff happened to him. I’ve been very lucky to be joined by one of the greatest, greatest humans, greatest Welsh people I ever known, Dion. I think because I thought Wales was going to be I actually really enjoyed it cuz the weather was pretty good for most of it until I started to get towards Cardiff. This is oh my god’s corner. People drive from away come here and say oh my god look at the view and park wherever they want and take photos. Spending the time with Dion was a really good motivation boost cuz he’s a good friend. And then I felt good about things. I felt like okay things are going well and I I knew that I was going to be seeing some family around Cardiff as well. So I knew, you know, that was a good little motivation boost and then I knew I was going to be seeing the Saddleback crew at the end of Wales coming into sort of Bristol way. The ride through Cardiff coming towards Bristol. The conditions were terrible, really wet, really cold, not enjoyable riding. Made it to Carter. It’s Ming. And then uh then the crank fell off. Not great. The sods law this is going to happen. like doesn’t happen. But the thing is to tighten the crank up you need a 10 mil Allen key. I do not carry a 10 mil Allen key on a bike ride. If someone here does carry a 10 mil Allen key all the time, fair enough. But I’ve never carried a 10 mil Allen key. He’s a big boy. Right. I went into a hotel and asked the like grounds keeper and he had a 10 mil Allen key and I just was like right it tighten it up get riding again. And on the bridge, loads of the guys and girls from Saddleback were waiting. And the idea was they wanted to ride with me from the bridge to Yate where Saddleback’s office is. What are you doing on a bike? I know it’s a rarity. Normally I’m in baggy clothes in a workshop. Getting a tow back to the Saddleback office, which is very lovely. Lewis came pick me up with the bike issue. Now I tow back to the office and then that’s the day done. I thought it was really important to go there to say thanks, especially for like sending the wheels out and supporting me through this. And we got there and Charles, who is the like master wheel builder, all round lovely guy, great mechanic, good human being, looked at my bike and was like, what are you doing tomorrow? And I was like, I don’t know. You know, I was planning to start riding along the the southwestern coast to try and get towards Devon and Cornwall. And he was like, okay, can I uh can I service your bike for you? So, I had a lion and when I got there, Charles had completely dismantled the bike and was cleaning everything and slowly rebuilding it back up to make sure it was perfect. And he said to me, “I just want to make it spoton and perfect for the last bit of your ride.” So, I ended up not riding at all that day. It was a day of kind of like sorting the bike out, spending some time with the saddleback people and um you know, just trying to look look after my body and rest it as well as giving the bike the love that it needed. Then Tailin had organized a hotel for me for the night in Bristol. And the most lovely surprise I didn’t expect to happen was that my mate Molly came out who broke the record for riding the perimeter. She was riding 350 oddk a day. Like it’s crazy. It’s incredible what she did. I’ve got a world record holder out on her bike. She just looked at the track and was like, “Oh, he’s still here. I’ll go and see him.” She just came down to the tail fin office and we rode basically from Bristol to Cleveland and just chatted about this stupid idea that we both had and going this is a monster that more of a monster that people think it is and then that whole southwestern area Cornwall Devon was just a monster. 25%. It’s a lot of very punchy climbs. It’s day 25. It’s going to be a big slog today. 31 climbs apparently. One of the most lovely surprises I had on this whole section coming back towards London was that my coach and really good mate Ken appeared and I had no idea he was going to be coming. That’s uh that’s coach Ken. That’s a gravel ride. Ken has been my coach for 10 years and he knows me better than a lot of people. Ken being the the legend and the just big diesel engine that he is basically rode from Southampton to Brighton on the front so I didn’t get in the wind. Pretty much made it to Brighton. Ken has been an absolute trooper on the front. He’s going to be getting the train back to Southampton soon. And then we were joined by Zan Kre who’s the national cross champion. So that was cool. But having, you know, having Ken ride with me for that big section was just a really nice confidence boost. He also is a really good like pep talk person being like, “Look, you got two days left after this. You can do that. You can do it with your eyes closed.” You know, the roads from Brighton all the way home as well because the roads I used to ride on as a kid, so I know that area well, you know. Then the last couple of days actually were pleasantly easier. Finally made it to the rivers. The south bank of the tempames is how I came into London. Starting to feel very Londony. I’ve been through a lot of cities, but London is a different beast of a city. You know, it’s the spread on it is so big. And winding my way through into central London to Comet Garden to finish at Sunod Shop. I finished earlier than I thought I was going to finish. It felt very numb is probably the best way I can describe it because you know a month of riding and just over a month of just dealing with all of this is a huge amount of time and it becomes your whole life for quite a long period of time and when you finish you almost mourn it in a weird way. As hard as this was physically and mentally for me I think one of the biggest successes that’s come from it is that it had provided a vehicle and a space for people to talk including me. Cycling is incredibly good for people’s in my opinion for people’s mental health. It gives you that ability to think things through whether that is with other people or on your own. With this whole challenge, what became really clear to me is that like it doesn’t matter where in the country you are, who you are, what race you are, what sex you are, there’s there’s something that connects everyone, that everyone has hardships and everyone has uh incredible, you know, highs and lows in life. And that will always be the biggest success of this whole thing to me was the providing a safe space for everyone that got involved to just chat. And the most important thing that I think to come from this is that if you’ve got a friend or someone who’s been a bit distant, just please check in with them. And that can be, you know, just just a voice note, a message, you know, you could change someone’s day and their whole mindset by just checking in to see how someone is. It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but it’s done. I don’t think it has hit. And I don’t think it will for a while, to be honest. And at some point, it’s going to hit me like a barge. And I have no idea how I’m going to react. I think we’ve learned where my limits are. This just really probably wasn’t a good idea. Turns out the body doesn’t like to do a lot of hard stuff in a very short period of time, right? [Music] [Applause]