Through AJ's Eyes

Jersey Name : AJ-UK
Twitter : @allenjamesuk
So, the big day had come. I got a lift up to Blakenhale from the wife and the kids tagged along. I didnt even know where blakenhale was, but once I saw the crowd, I knew we was in the right place. I threw my bag on the van and headed into the School. TO be honest, at this stage I was pretty nervous. Loads of people I didnt know and we were the centre of attention. There were handshakes all round, loads of hello's and cameras going off everywhere. @frankmorris showed up to wave us off too - cheers Frank. After 30 mins waiting, I was getting real restless, I just wanted to get going ! The first leg to warwick was great, a nice slow pace to get us into it. Main memories from this leg for me was the send off from the school, Ricky jumping the red light at the wheatsheaf at least 5 seconds after it went red - the kid has a deathwish !, Being at the head of the pack up Hobs Moat Road was great. I made it my personal mission to get Louie and Ricky along the bypass and across the M42 junction in one piece.The only difficulty on this leg of the trip was keeping the speed down, I found that spinning round and round the roundabouts or doubling back helped for me :-) Warwick to Banbury : AKA, the hilly section. This is the difficult bit for me, hills to are a killer. Imagine blind dave on his tandem with a passenger who isnt pedalling, thats the problem I have. Extra weight is a struggle to drag up them hills with you. The dreaded 10% hill at 30 miles in , announcing to the others that this is the only bad hill on the route, only to be faced with the "church hill" another 2 miles down the road. Ooooops ! Sorry Team ! Arriving in Banbury and watching Ricky eating the tarmac was spectacular- I really thought we had a man down at this point, but Ricky just brushed himself off, bandgaged up and used it to his advantage with the ladies the sly old dog ! I didnt really hit the wall at any point, sure the hills were tough, but rather than kill myself, I take the "sod it im walking up" approach. Aylesbury : I escorted Georgie to the hotel along the final 3 miles. On the final approach I couldnt believe my eyes when the others were turning out of the hotel carpark towards us. Wrong Holiday Inn ! Ouch ! At the hotel was great, the section over - now wheres the beer, Wheres the food. The pub was great, cracking conversations about the day, a decent meal and copius amounts of lager was just what the doctor ordered ! Jimmy starting his standup with "right you *#%¥$" in front of families eating there food was a bit of a facepalm moment. Larking and Jimmy bouncing off each other was brilliant and when Jimmy said to Larkin "shut it blondie" well I nearly wet myself. The second day I woke feeling suprisingly good, no pain, no aches, and ready to roll. Again was a bit restless and just wanted to get going. We made good time on day 2, although the road was a killer, up hill, down hill all along that bloody bypass. Once inside the M25 it was nice and relaxed again, the final spin into wembley and I felt great. The last stupid hill at the stadium was a final sting but we all killed it, straight up and over, no messing. The final arrival was great, again a nice crowd to welcome us. I done a couple of laps round the car park to cool the legs down and started the handshakes. Job Well Done !