Astough as it gets

The soft vibration of my watch tells me it’s time to get up. I could do without the 5am start, yet I know in less than an hour I need to be pedalling. It’s not so much the 200km that concerns me, although I’m by no means taking that lightly, but rather the 4,000m of ascent and the nature of the climbs.

Back when I was in the comfort of my home, with today off in the distant future, it had seemed like a good idea to dream up a route that crossed every major pass in the Lake District, with a brief foray into the Yorkshire Dales thrown in for good measure. Yet as I sit eating my porridge, legs weary from the 1,182km I have already ridden since leaving John O’Groats a week ago, I’m left to question my sanity once again.

I’m no stranger to the roads that I will ride today, having entered ‘The Fred’ a few years back. For those who haven’t heard of the Fred Whitton Challenge it is, in my humble