Leaving Carnforth I felt ok, legs seemed to have got into the right mode to tackle some hills.
The weather though hadn’t got the message and horrendous winds and rain blowing directly into my face weren’t helping my mood.
Worse was to follow when about 10 miles out of carnforth I felt the bike wobbling all over the place. The front felt very unsteady. I redistributed some weight and tightened everything up but that didn’t seem to help. A further few miles down the road and the rear tyre popped off. The spokes on the new build wheel had worked themselves loose and the wheel was all over the shop.
I spent some time at the side of the road, tightening spokes and fitting a tube into the rear. This gave me enough stability to get into Warrington.
After a quick steak I retired to a cheap hotel and slept like a log.
The next morning I cycled 13 miles on the wobbly but tightened wheel to a bike shop in Northwich and asked them to take a look. The expression on the guys face when he put it on the truing clamp said it all. It was a mess! I left it with him and went for coffee and cake at Waitrose. So middle class.
I left there with a good sense of stability. The guy doing my wheel really knew his onions and the bike felt great. It did take some time out of my day but I pushed on for Much Wenlock passing through some beautiful parts of Cheshire and Shropshire. By about 7pm it was time to find a campsite for the night.
I got really lucky with this one – a fire pit and a bag of logs whilst I had dinner and sipped whiskey from my flask. A good end to the day.