Day 2 "What goes down, must go up"

After a nice long sleep in the bath, it was soon 06:00 and time to get up for breakfast, surprisingly the legs felt alright and after a full english breakfast we were ready for action!!

We left the hotel at 08:00 and set off from Launceston at 09:10. A quick check of the bikes, and we were off on the A30, The A30 started off very gentle, traffic wasn't too busy and there is a lovely wide hard shoulder to ride in. Some gentle hills made the first 15 miles very easy to ride. It wasn't long before the first big hill came, and it was huge!! A quick rest at the top and we were ready to go. As the title states, a nice long downhill section was next and what goes down, must go up! and it did! This is where we discovered the magical factors of bananas and jelly babies! (Thanks Grandad!) Without these we wouldn't have been able to continue! (I think Barry is keeping tesco in business with the amount of bananas purchased!)

We rode into the Exeter Autoglass Branch and met Wayne and his team, thank you for your hospitality guys, the coffee from the machine was great! After a nice lunch break, and lots of sandwiches we set off for Honiston on the A30. It was on this stretch of road (just before Honiton) we realised it was 16:40! We had to crack on.

Just after Honiton the dual carriage becomes a very narrow single carriage way. It was this point the biggest hill so far came to light. Not only was it long and steep, it also had a wet muddy hard shoulder. I decided to ride closely to Frank and use his slip stream. A big mistake!! for it was only a couple of minutes later he decided to mount the fence. His front wheel slipped in the mud, he slammed the breaks on and catapulted himself into the fence. He has a lot of time for this fence, as this fence stopped him falling down a 20 ft cliff!!! Eventually the hill flattened out (like Frank), and there was Barry in his van! Laughing! Another Jelly baby and banana stop, and we had to do 13 miles before the sun went down!!

We had been dreading the last 13 miles, as this was our first B road, and it was called something hill, which meant he had to be steep, with anticipation we moved onto the B3170. To our amazement the next 7 miles where all down hill, it was amazing! We even overtook Barry on numerous occassions, the road takes you straight into Taunton and the day was finished!

Incidents:
Frank 1 fall (2 in total!), 1 puncture (in total)
Tim 0 falls (1 in total)

Miles completed
Launceston to Taunton, 80 miles
Total: 159 miles.

Route for tomorrow,
A38 all the way from Taunton to Gloucester!

Thank you for your continued support!