End to End Part 2 Starts this Saturday!

Welcome back to the blog!

Only a few days to go now before I attempt to complete my epic ride to John O Groats. For those of you that don't remember, I had to drop out at Penrith on the original trip back in June. My knee has now mostly recovered and it's time to set off again (Happy knee pic above!). Only 400 miles to go to reach my destination and I can then collect all of my pledged donations for Cancer Research! Hurrah!

Route for End to End Part 2 is as follows:

Day 1: Penrith to Moffat (62 miles) via Carlisle, Gretna, Lockerbie.

Day 2: Moffat to Edinburgh (50 miles) climbing the famous Devil's Beeftub then via Tweed Valley to Broughton and West Linton to Edinburgh.

Day 3: Edinburgh to Blair Atholl (72 miles) via Perth and Pitlochry.

Day 4: Blair Atholl to Inverness (75 miles)

Day 5: Inverness to Helmsdale (75 miles) along the east coast of Scotland

Day 6: Helmsdale to John O Groats 45 miles

Special Guest Riders during the first two days will be as follows :-)

Andrea and Gavin (Long suffering friends)

Lex and Mark (from the original trip)

Sue - (Team support manager, cyclist and lovely wife :-))

Paul and Christine (Sue's brother & partner -new to the joys of cycling!)

Paul Wedgwood (never knowingly cycled 50 miles before)

Alison Jones (Well if Paul can do it then I can too!)

Rob Ainsley (Author of 50 quirky bike rides ( http://www.bike99.com/) and not one to miss a cycling trip).

The ahem peloton (I use the term loosely) will depart Arragon cycles in Penrith 9am Saturday and head off for Carlisle to meet Rob from his train.

Tune in for daily updates throughout the trip!

And a huge thank you to all of the above for volunteering to ride over the first couple of days to support me. Mark will continue with me as far as Inverness and after that, I'll be on my own.

More news and photos as the ride begins . . .

Simon

PS. Rumour has it that we might be mistaken for the Tour of Britain riders as we speed across the Scottish countryside. The Tour stage ends in Thornhill whereas our peloton will be heading for the nearest bar in Moffat. :-) Sorry for any confusion!

PPS. And finally, our justgiving page has expired at the moment although I'm attempting to reactivate it. In the meantime, please forward any donations to me and I'll ensure that they reach Cancer Research.