Day 2 - Berga to Andorra

Planned Mileage: 62.97 miles
Actual Mileage: 79.86 miles
Temperature: 30C
Top Speed: 48mph
Start Time: 08:12am
End Time: 17:40pm
Total Saddle Time: 9hr 28mins

What an amazing day. That was without a doubt, one of the best rides the lads have ever experienced and probably one of the toughest. Relentless climbs, awesome downhill stretches and stunning views. This is what the team signed up for!

Those followers of Luke, will be pleased and probably surprised to hear that he had no mechanical difficulties today. In fact the day started with a comedy fall of Rik. He was too busy playing with his Garmin to notice a huge drain in front of him and managed to stick his wheel inside it and fall on his backside - this was about 200 yards into the journey! One replaced damaged wheel later, and the group were on there way.

A steady climb out of Berga saw Gavin leave the group for dust, hence why he is missing out of the photo below, which was taken at the top of the climb. The other side of the tunnel was the first of an excellent descent.

What became obvious on the descent, was that Paul & Spike are as slow down the hills as they are up them!! Once the descent was complete, the group then embarked on a killer of a climb, going up some 5000ft. Lunch was taken at the top of the hill, and the views were immense.

Gavin then proceeded to have an arguement with a car - the car won and he is now sporting a bloodied elbow! 45 miles in, the back marker - Dave - decided to find his own short cut only for the outrider to have to call the van to come and pick him up! The relentless climbs became too much for Luke and Simon - they sensibly took a seat in the van and had a breather for a few miles. 50 miles in and the hills claimed another victim in the shape of Russell. Moments later, Luke had to have another break - a combination of the heat, lack of shade and never-ending stretches of steep climbs was simply too much.

The climb, then gave way to a good stretch of descent. However, Luke was held 'prisoner' in the van and had to just watch his colleagues charge down some 3000ft - and witnessing Russell career into a ditch and nearly lose control at 40mph!

As we neared Andorra, we had out first puncture of the day - Spike being the unlucky rider. We then crossed the border, leaving Spain behind. For the last few miles, the team had a good peleton going and then tackled one final killer of a climb, finally reaching the comforts of the hotel. In total, we climbed over 11200ft today - a truly remarkable effort by all.

Quotes of the day:

"Easy, Epic" - Gavin Mooney
"Awesome" - Rik Hawke
"The scenery JUST made up for the pain" - Russell Brown
"Painful" - Mike Crook

More photos and video footage will be added later - unfortunately the WiFi connection is very slow in the hotel at the moment.