Their story, in their words…
It’s about eight o’clock on a Saturday morning, and we’re all standing around on an empty Elizabeth line train, our bikes shoved to the end of the carriage. Their frames are littered with bursting bike bags. In half an hour or so, we’ll arrive at Reading station, beginning a 400km, five-day-long cycle to Cornwall that will take us past Stonehenge, through the Blackdown hills, and into and out of Dartmoor. We will climb roughly 5 kilometres of elevation, and cycle through sun, rain, and Beer (a town on the south coast). We don’t know what to expect.
Day 1: Reading to Cholderton. We start with energy and speed. We quickly make our way out of Reading, through the University campus and cycle through many small towns. Finishing in YHA Stonehenge, we have to wait an hour before we can check in, and then we heat up some udon noodles.
Day 2: Cholderton to Street. This is the beginning of the hills, and also the longest day. Our pace is much slower. That’s when Zak gets a flat tire, and we have to take a break to replace the inner tube. We eat the apples from the many buckets outside houses, giving them away for free. The second half of the day is long, and we eventually arrive in Street at 6 pm. We cook pasta with a tomato-tuna sauce.
Day 3: Street to Beer. We start the day by cooking a gourmet English breakfast. This day’s elevation is 900m, and it truly challenges us. Zain loses a bolt on his cleats, and Zak gets another puncture. Finishing in Beer, we are given free towels in the YHA as the receptionist takes pity on us.
Day 4: Beer to Okehampton. 1400m elevation gain puts the day before to shame. We cycle through Exeter University, collect the 25 train tickets we need to get back to London, and cycle into Dartmoor. Gradients of 25% torture our legs. The dinner we cook is a shambles, but we eat it anyway.
Day 5: We start before sunrise, 6 am; We have a train to catch in Looe. We cycle through pelting rain for about 2 hours and then stop for breakfast in Tavistock. The rain continues for a while, but clears up towards the middle of the day. We have a nice lunch on top of Bodmin Moor in a small cafe. From now on, we are mainly rolling down to the coast. We make it near to Looe but are challenged by some final climbs that reach 20%. We push through and carefully roll down the steep streets of Looe onto the pier. We have made it. The sun is shining, and we promptly change and run into the sea, celebrating. We then run out as we have the train to catch. We sit on the train, exhausted, but energised. We spend the next 6 hours on the train, eating, watching Cars 2 and sleeping. We arrive in Paddington at midnight and have to cycle one last time to our houses. A good sleep follows.
Overall, our trip worked out well with only two punctures and sunny weather most of the time (except the fifth day). Not once did we become lost, and we made it to the hostels in good time most days.
The trip was exciting. We were all looking forward to making the journey by ourselves and having the evenings to rest and hang out. As the days went on, we were physically strained but never lost morale. We kept each other motivated and pushed through. As a result, we all became much more connected as a group, as we all struggled on the climbs together and freewheeled the downhills together. We all felt our bodies adapt to the high intensity of exercise, and we felt more energised.
After sitting on the saddle for about 8 hours straight, you begin to appreciate the small things in life, like a lukewarm shower and the blackberries you find on the side of the road. Mentally pushing yourself to get back on the bike despite knowing what’s still ahead of you was the hardest, but it was always complemented by looking back at what you had already done. Swimming in the Cornish sea, knowing you got there off your own steam, was the most rewarding experience. Our next trip is already being conceived.
