Day Seven – The Long And Winding Road
I woke up bursting for a piss.
The drinks from last night were catching up with me so I had the discussion I’d had with myself most mornings about whether to get up right away and go for a piss or to hold it in until after 6am and just get up then.
I looked at my watch and it was about 5:30am. Might as well get up then.
After a long piss I made my way to the mess tent to get some Tea and I saw a familiar face who I wasn’t expecting to see – Funkmaster Red.
He’d driven through the night to get to our campsite so he could help them breakdown the camp in the morning and then make his way to the Stitithans Showground for the VW Action SouthWest show. I’d not seen him for a month or so and it was good to catch up and update him on what we’d done so far. It was also a good excuse for me to drink lots of tea and warm up. While we chatted more people woke up and the camp started to come alive.
Today was different though. You could feel it in the air that everyone was excited and nervous at the same time.
People who were having issues with their bikes were praying to the JOGLE-Gods that they could cross the finish line at Land’s End.
People who weren’t having issues wit their bikes were praying to the JOGLE-Gods that they could cross the finish line at Land’s End.
It was dry as people took down their tents and as petrol tanks were filled, jerry cans were topped up and the riders emerged in their riding gear. The aches and pains of the last 7 days were being ignored as we made the final push to the finish line.
The PUCH Maxi 2 had been fixed by Mark last night. I had the ability to pedal start the bike but if I tried to do backwards-peddling breaking I would snap the chain. Never mind, it was only 80 miles of mental hills to Land’s End. I did suggest that once I arrive I put the bike on the trailer for safety reasons to cover the 40 miles back to the show grounds but Mark/Ian were having none of it. Who needs brakes on 15% declines? 😀
Another issue regarding my chain was that I couldn’t pedal up the hills to help the engine. This meant I would have to drop to 1st gear and hope the bike doesn’t stall. My clutch control was certainly getting better, but was no means perfect. I did test the bike round the field we were in and I was ready to go.
The A30 was a bugger of a road. Long, boring and hilly. This meant that I was losing the team as we went up hills and gaining on them on the down-hill sections. In my wisdom I thought I’d overtake them and try to get ahead on the next hilly section. In principle this worked well but no-one overtook me which meant I didn’t know where I was going. I do know the A30 pretty much takes you to the bottom of Cornwall and I seemed to remember that Land’s End is signposted at the end of it anyway. So my plan was just to keep on going on my straight road until someone overtook me.
But they didn’t.
What I managed to do was miss the service station stop and have the support van chase me down the A30. They caught up with me and after about 5-10 minutes the rest of the team appeared. I can’t believe the Amazing Puch Maxi managed to build up such a lead. They probably just hung back to make me feel the speediest jogler of the day but I don’t think the Puch was a slouch, it just had its work cut out with my 17stone to haul along!
We all topped up with petrol at the layby and continued on our journey. Everyone’s bikes were performing excellently and appart from my slowness up hills we were making acceptable time.
We met Crazy Bob at a little service station and I noticed the map on his fuel tank for the first time. Although it might not actually be to scale its probably correct to the route we took! As we were drinking our teas and coffees a red bay window panel van went up the slip road and stopped at the Subway -It was Laura-Rose from VZi. We got back on our bikes to get going. It was still a good 2 hours into Land’s End from here so we had to keep on.
Once we left the A30 it started getting much more real. The places we rode through had properly Cornish names and they were all names I recognised. Then a signpost appeared saying ‘Land’s End – 12 miles’.
That was it. We pushed on and started enjoying the roads a bit more. As they got smaller the riding became faster and the bends and twists and turns all became more fun. The signs to Land’s End kept counting down until it appeared in the distance. We all sped onwards and before you knew it we were greeted by a massive round of applause with cheering!
1001 miles later (perhaps a little more) we crossed the finish line and were now at Land’s End.
Parking our bikes up we waited until the last of the JOGLE4BRADs teams arrived and we had some group photos. We all took the oppertunity to cheer in a cycyling team who crossed the line. I don’t think they were expecting anyone and to have a 100+ strong  crowd cheering them seemed to confuse them but they smiled anyway happy they completed their own personal challenge.
Everyone headed over to the famous signpost and we had a couple of group shots before the invidual team shots with the signpost. Crazy Bob managed to bring his bike down there and in a moment of his usual craziness threw it over the cliff edge. Everyone stopped. Had he really just done that?
The answer was ‘of course he had, he’s Crazy Bob!’ but what he realised is there was a walking ledge below so the bike dropped about 8 feet in total. It did look a broken mess all bent and useless. Crazy Bob was reminded he still had 40 miles to go to ride it into the showground! His trusty riding partner, Jurgen, picked the bike up, bent the handlebars back into place and managed to bend the pedals enough that it could be peddled. It wasn’t perfect and no-one thought it would roll, let alone start up. But Jurgen jumped on and started peddling and the bike ROARED into life!
Cliffs at Land’s End = 0
Crazy Bob & Jurgen = 1
The ride back to the showground was even more enjoyable than to Land’s End. Everyone had made it and so the bike were pushed to the limits. My chain had kept coming off during the ride to LE and Mark had kept fixing it. It came off again on this return leg but they said to just ignore it so I did! About 7 miles from the showground my bike came to a halt. Unfortunately I’d managed to get lost (who’d believe that!) and so was stuck in a little cornish village. I knew I’d run out of petrol but because of the chain issue I couldn’t even start peddling anywhere.
None of this was my biggest concern though. My biggest concern was that my phone had run out of power at Land’s End and I’d put it in the van. I not only had no chance of finding out where I should be heading but I also had no way of contacting Mark to get some petrol.
Like knights in shining armour an RV came over a hill infront of me. This did mean I was heading in the wrong direction but I did notice the two people up front. Justin & Claire! Saviours!
We lobbed the bike in the back of the RV (there was a special section in the rear to keep bikes and stuff) and I climbed in. Inside was John Johnstone’s wife & kids. We had some polite conversation (which is very difficult for me because every other word out of my mouth is a swear word) as Claire drove us to the hotel carpark meeting place. As we approached it I noticed it all looked very familiar. We were right next to my friend’s house. About half a mile away! I’d be back here later on.
The Puch was re-filled with petrol and we waited for the last bikes to arrive. Ian (The Darkside) had been without a Ped for a couple of days and Kevo very kindly lent him his spare one. It was great to see him back in the pack once more.
In convoy we made it to show ground. The route was pretty much straight from the carpark and we passed lots of people who waved and cheered. At one point we had to cross a busy road and a car pulled in halfway as we were crossing. 50 yards down she realised what she’d done and pulled over so we could group up again. It was the first time we’d all ridden as one group and it really did feel like it wasn’t 50 sepereate people but 1 group of Joglers.
The welcome we received at VW Action SouthWest was even greater than the one at Land’s End. Parking up our bikes there was Champaign and photographers everywhere. Knowing there would be no more ped riding I took a healthy swig of Champaign, looked around at all my fellow Joglers and felt that we had, but more importantly I had, actually achrieved something.
I had a few drinks and chatted with people into the evening before catching a taxi back to a warm bed and a hot shower.
Today wasn’t the end of something, it was the start of something….