Day 9 - Kyle of Sutherland to John O'Groats

It was at the start line of this last day, 9 of 9, that I was thinking back to Bath University at the end of day 2 where I had a very sore backside and not a lot of sleep. I had been thinking that's 2 days down but still 7 to go... That's half a 2 week holiday. It seemed like a long time then but suddenly it was done and we were about to finish. I can't say at that point I wanted to roll back time but I was enjoying every moment. We woke up to One Day Like This - Elbow

We set off along a very remote, deserted single track road which went north for roughly 50 miles before hitting the coast. Route Director Andy Cook said it was his favourite road ever. I'll agree it was nice but 50 miles on the same road drags and I can think of nicer ones but perhaps that was the frame of mind I was in at the time - I just wanted to get to that finish line.

We turned east when we hit the north coast and immediately into big hills and headwinds. Since we were a group of 10 and I can go up hills fast I found myself doing a lot of waiting at the tops and was getting a bit impatient but promised myself that as we had ridden the majority of the event as a team, they had cheered me up when I was feeling grumpy, I had ridden on the front when they were having off days etc etc we would finish as a team. It was the right decision to make as they were a great group to ride with and the banter made time pass well (and slowly when the jokes were poor!).

Eventually the hills subsided and it was just flat into the headwind (the only wind on the whole trip so I shouldn't complain really) past nondescript arable farmland. Dull riding and it took an age but finally we were at 15 miles to go (out of 105) and the pace and morale picked up. I was feeling strong so did a good shift on the front to help out and we hit the finish at JOG to a heroes welcome, music and beer.

Another beer with my new found friends and we all headed our separate ways. It's a shame they mostly live down south as meeting up with them will be a challenge.

I stayed the night in Wick with Neil before we travelled home the next day but I've never been so pleased to see these in my life: