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As we reached the sea the smell of the salt water reminded me of home and I had a sudden and unexplained urge to pick up the pace. As I cranked out the next 25km dragging Julie protesting behind me I felt as light as a feather and immensely strong. After only an hour of spectacular riding at beach level along a marked cycle trail Barnstaple flew into view and a strange but familiar feeling started to descend on me. I found myself back in a pizza shop in Harrogate, weak and disorientated. My feeling of strength seemingly evaporated in seconds and my head felt strangely light and dizzy. I had foolishly pushed too far with too little food and was about to suffer the consequences that every cyclist (except me!) knows only too well. I was about to find out exactly how hard could this trip really be' By the time I crawled into the Pizza Hut the day's 100km were over. My legs were back to their normal numbness and I was shaking quite badly.

The first coke didn't touch the sides, and the sugar rush was spectacular! But another important lesson had been learned, and better it happened here than in Mid-Wales or Scotland where we knew we could get into real trouble if we didn't look after out nutritional needs, as well as our bikes, and our riding technique. Cornwall was proving to be tiring, but 'doable'. Exactly what we needed to teach the us the fundamentals we knew we would need over the next few weeks as the trails got ever more technical and the distance and climbs increased. My first puncture happened on the way from the Pizza place to the B&B hill, it was to be my only 'normal' puncture of the trip but it was spectacularly badly timed. The end of another 100km day, an energy crash, and real problems with the 30-degree heat were enough to leave me exhausted.

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Want to read another another multi day Epic story? The Lakeland Loop (Off Site Link).