Day 14: Andover - Edge
Today is the final day of our great adventure, tonight we sleep in our own beds and tomorrow the bikes will stay silent and locked in the shed. Staying overnight in Andover rather than Winchesters means we have about 15-miles less to cycle today than I originally planned, so the tough afternoon we had yesterday was very much worth it as we have a relatively easy day today and the luxury of not leaving the hotel until 9.00am. From Andover we head for Marlborough taking the direct route meaning we are cycling on the major roads but as it’s a Saturday morning the roads are not too busy. From Marlborough we head for Wootton Basett and lunch, our route takes us across the top of the Marlborough Downs, the long climb up is rewarded by the spectacular views from the top and we stop for a few minutes to take some photos. Cycling down from the top is a delight and very soon we are passing through Broad Hinton and speeding along to our lunch stop. This is our final lunch stop along the route and the backup team is a little subdued, Chris, Stuart, Malcolm, Chris and Old Bill have had great fun along the way and are going to miss each other – on behalf of the cycling team, thank you, you have been simply brilliant.
From Wootton Bassett we take the Cirencester road and once again we find the road ahead closed so we do what we’ve done many times before, pickup the bikes and carry them! Once we are through the road works we quickly make our way to our final stop at Corinium Stoves for tea and cakes. Corinum Stoves belongs to Colin (and Marie) and Matt works there as well in a Senior Management role. Every charity Bike ride that I have organized has stopped at Corinium stoves for tea and cakes, so a big thank you once again to Marie, Hannah and Teresa, and Sasha and the team for making us so very welcome. Young Paul and Edward who both cycled with us on the 1000-mile ride ten years ago join us here for the final leg of our journey, it’s good to see you guys and thanks for taking the timeout to be with us.
From Cirencester we head for home, just 16-miles of cycling to go and all the aches and pains suddenly are forgotten as we float along to our penultimate stop, the Edgemore Inn, thank you Chris for opening especially for our return – it’s a pity your pub’s at the top of a hill though! We have cycled the 66-miles from Andover in a fairly quick time so we have an hour or so before we are due at Edge Fete, enough time to enjoy a few well deserved drinks on the terrace looking over the beautiful hills of home.
At 5.00pm, with the flags flying, bells ringing and horns hooting, we leave the Edgemore and make our way along the lane to Edge Fete. As we turn the corner we are greeted by hundreds of people cheering and clapping and welcoming us home, the chequered flag is waved, Champagne sprayed and there’s perhaps a tear in the eye as we are home and our adventure is over. Thank you Edge you’ve done us proud!
View photos from our fourteenth day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bikeride2010
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