Day 7 done: Chester to Thornton Cleveleys

Today's Blog comes courtesy of the fresh legged guest bloggers Picko, Kate and Fergs. The other fresh legs of John, have already retired to the in-laws for a well deserved bath, he has another three days in the saddle whereas Pickers, Kate and Fergs have seen sense and are calling it a day.

So to today's exploits. On meeting at Chester station we were expecting to meet with a beliguered Dicky, Paul and Ian, instead we were faced with a fresh looking Cadel Evans, Mark Cavendish and Sammy Sanchez; there goes the gentle pedal we'd hoped for.

All was going well until the first stop about 5 miles into the journey when Fergs tried to dismount, but failed to remember to unclip... In one effortless move, he wiped out half the tour; this was a re-occurring theme through the day.

We then spent the next 3 hours on the most beautiful dual carriage ways, industrial estates, roundabouts, and ring roads that Runcorn, Widnes and St Helen's could throw at us.

Progress was slow in the morning reaching The Farmer's Arms south of Leyland. Ferg's wasn't impressed with the Reggae Reggae Wrap and I'll leave the beer commentary to the regular LEJOGers.

The pace was cranked up after lunch partly due to the introduction of Jev's NOS injected super tri bike. The first puncture of the journey slowed us slightly at Preston, but we were soon back on track. To try to slow the rest of the crew down especially Jev on his F1 machine Pickers with his cyclo cross bike decided to introduce some off-roading on the way out of Preston. Dick Dastardly's plan was foiled and all made it across the off road section in one piece.

Some good road side support at Woodplumpton from Papachu, Mamachu, and Grannychu provided some good energy drinks and biscuits.

The rest of the ride through the Fylde Coast was far more scenic and pedalling was strong. Only slight issue was the group being split by milking time at the farm and cows crossing. Fergs managed to unclip safely this time so no cows were hurt in the making of this journey.

Arrived at Chez Dickinson just after 5.00, Lytham Blonde and BBQ at the ready.

Stats for the day.
Falls 2 (both Fergs)
Punctures 1 (Paul drops behind in the puncture sweep)
Miles 74
Total miles 505
Peleton members 7 (8 for about an hour)