I have bought my ticket, and will be sailing to Santander on Wednesday 25th August. In preparation I decided to have a quick look at the route and it seems I will have to cycle about 820 miles not 750 as I had previously thought: that will add about a day’s cycling to my trip. I also discovered the ‘terrain’ button on Google maps, which proved useful for dispersing the blissful cloud of ignorance from my mind over how hilly northern Spain is: very hilly. I thought I would be able to avoid the hills, and to a certain extent I will, but it still looks mighty hilly.
So with all this in mind, on Thursday I managed to have a trip out to Bridgnorth, and that plus a bit of cycling around Birmingham meant that I cycled about 70 miles in that day. That’s a pretty good day, but I’m going to have to do that 12 times over consecutive days in Spain and France. The thought of that and the hills irked me a little as I cycled out of Birmingham and into Shropshire, but thankfully the return journeys on these day-trips are usually more optimistic, I think because on the way out the thought that you will have to return lingers in your mind. That said, even on the way back I was worrying a bit: it’s going to be quite hard on the legs pushing on for almost two weeks in a row. I’m also thinking that time seems to be running out for training, and as I’m pretty busy at the moment the opportunities for training are quite scarce. I’m confident that I’ll do it, but it would be nice if it went as smoothly as possible!
I didn’t have much time for sightseeing in Bridgnorth, I didn’t even go on the Cliff Railway which was a bit of a shame. I did manage to find a nice theatre and have a cup of coffee before I left, and have a bit of a wander around. It’s always nice cycling out around Shropshire way, and on the way back I decided to cycle via Kidderminster just to vary the route a bit. Couldn’t really get the thought of the reality of all those miles across France out of my head though. Thankfully, since the trip I think I have stopped worrying, and if I can get a couple of good training runs in I think I’ll be all set.
