Day Five sits in the ‘endless middle’ of the Babble Ride Across Britain route.
Riders are now far enough into the journey that body and mind are starting to struggle, not far enough to be thinking about the finish.
Here’s how Day Five panned out.
An hour or two after leaving Haydock, our riders were forced to deal with conditions that rank amongst the worst we have ever seen at this event. Simply put, the heavens opened.
The remnants of a downpour at pitstop one
Torrential rain forced many riders to stop at pitstop 1 and grab a hot drink, with a number opting to pull out of the stage entirely and take a strike.
Thankfully, as the peloton headed further north, the rain eased off somewhat. Riders who had made it to the afternoon were able to enjoy a route which traverses the kind of landscape typical of much of northern Britain -barren hills and moors, dotted with small villages and isolated farms.
At pitstop 2 in Milnthorpe, riders reached the halfway point of the entire Babble Ride Across Britain route. 490 miles down, 483 to go!
The ascent up Shap Fell – the highest point of the ride so far and one of the route’s defining climbs – was done, for the most part, in bright sunshine, albeit with a brisk northwesterly headwind.
