Day 1: Lands End - Boscastle

At the Lands End Signpost

The Day With An Extra 51 Miles

Distance: 121 miles
Ride Time: 8h 13m 52s
Ave Speed: 14.7mph

I rode the 5 miles from the youth hostel to Lands End with a chap that was also starting that day.  I also met a guy who was doing it on a motorcycle in 3 days.  I had the official photograph done at the signpost and then took some pictures of my own.  It was a lovely day, sunny, warm and there was a favourable wind.

At 09:50 the adventure began.  Riding down to Penzance then down to Lizzard Point was easy going.

Lands End

, a harbour town that I knew very well.

  This was a little out of my way but I was feeling really good so I thought I would take a detour and have a pasty at

I then started making my way to Perranporth, which was supposed to be my destination for the day.  This is when the hills really started.  Up, down, up down, repeat.  Flat ground does not exist.  The road either goes up or down.  I was really noticing how much the extra weight of my panniers were slowing me down and made even the shallowest of hills much harder that they otherwise would be.  I was carrying the bare minimum of equipment (I didn't even have a towl - I just drip dried after a shower) and felt very sorry for people who were carrying huge, fully packed panniers.

Navigation was easy enough as I made my way through Redruth then onto Perranporth.  There was a huge climb in the final few miles to Perranporth but I just span an easy gear and slowly worked my way to the top.

Lands End

I could have just stayed in a B&B but I was still feeling fairly fresh and combined with my level of excitement from finally starting this trip and the good weather I thought I could make it to another youth hostel a way up the coast.  Before I left Perranporth I rang ahead and found that there were spaces at Boscastle youth hostel.  Off I set but it was much further than I thought.  I flew down the final descent into Boscastle and stepped of my bike to discover that I was shaking and could hardly walk.  I had planned to cover about 70miles today, which would have eased me into the ride nicely.  I had actually ridden 121mile over what is considered to be the toughest terrain of the whole ride.

Lying in bed that night I was a little worried that I might have just jeopardised my whole ride by overdoing it on the first day.  Tomorrow could be a tough day.