Day 9: The Great Landing and Hull to Sheffield by the AA Team + Co.

After a good night's sleep brought on by the gentle rocking of the ferry across the soothing blue waters of the channel lit up by the cascading moonlight shining down, lighting up the tips of the waves like diamonds in a cave, with the sound of mermaids singing their hypnotic melodies and with dolphins swimming alongside the ship... Sorry, rambling on there a bit... So, after a good kip, we were approaching our destination: England.

As the wake up call sounded and the ship entered the Humber Estuary, it was time for the all you can eat breakfast buffet. One hour and several rounds of sausage, egg and bacon later, the team were ready to disembark the ferry. One problem though: customs.

Unlike our European counterparts, the British customs checkpoint is full of uncooperative, lazy and rude people, who take pride in delaying one's journey by around an hour. Of course with two people checking 1000 vehicles, it was never going to be straightforward, and when the person manning our lane left his cabin for 10 minutes to ask how to do something, we knew we were in it for the long haul. One hour later, and with an amusing story from the other guys in the Jaguar (They got properly checked over with police dogs and everything!) we were arriving at the car park on the non-toll, north side of the Humber Bridge (which took us around 15 minutes of circling the leafy Hull suburbs to find).

The cyclists met up and shared stories of their travels whilst attaching their Bluebell Wood Bears to their bikes. As the riders prepared to leave, the support team tucked in to a hearty meal of beans on toast from the world's slowest cafe.

As the riders were read their last rites, the bikes were assembled in the starting gate, and the race, sorry, ride could begin. Mark Edmonds came a cropper as the photos were being taken, and suffered an almighty blow to his ankle, but nothing was going to faze him, and so the race began.

After heading over the Humber Bridge, the team entered the countryside of North Lincolnshire and the land began undulating. As temperatures soared, the group of cyclists stuck together and successfully reached their first water stop in the sleepy village of Broughton. 5 minutes later and with a quarter of the journey down, they were back on the road, destination: Gainsborough.

Meanwhile the support team, who had now increased their ranks to a sizeable hareem of 4 vehicles were en route, speeding towards the checkpoints, with Liam taking a photo of everything that moved filling a memory card up in under an hour (He must be desperate for photos for this year's Christmas do!) and with the prospect of Pat's deliciously moist Yoghurt cake waiting just over the brow of the hill.

Continuing on towards the Lunch stop, the heat became more challenging and the shade of the trees at lunch and coolth of the airconditioning lured one or two of the cyclists into the support vehicles, which allowed the rest of the two-wheeled racers to speed off towards Sheffield. With now half of the journey completed, the team became more and more focussed on making the 5'o'clock deadline at The Old West Gun Works, and after a brief refuelling stop at Olcotes "Northern Garden Centre" for Northern People, it was time for the final leg of the journey. Upon crossing the South Yorkshire border and entering Yorkshire for the final time, it was now a case of who could cross the Loadhog finishing line first. Damien provided fierce competition, with Sam taking the lead at various points through his stomping ground of the Southern Rotherham Countryside.

After passing several derelict pubs and a disused airport, the support teams arrived at Loadhog to wait for the riders. Several moments later, a rather worn looking group arrived, more or less together, with David Chong taking the lead at the last minute to be crowned leg winner.

A bottle or two of beer later, and it was time to take the last jaunt of the journey. The team sped out of the Loadhog car park and headed down Brightside Lane at lightspeed. Nothing was going to stop them now (apart from red traffic lights) and with Damien, Sam and Andy speeding ahead, it was turning into a three-horse race, in need of a photo finish. Luckily, Liam was waiting at the finish line and has photographic evidence of who won the race. This shall be appearing soon on the blog!

The team arrived alive and well at The Old West Gun Works, and were welcomed back with a fantastic Champagne reception and buffet to discuss tales of the last days' achievements and toils.

With the buffet demolished, it was time to head home and within the space of a couple of hours, I am sure that a dozen hot baths were drawn and a dozen tired team members soaked away the day's / week's aches and pains and cracked open a bottle of something strong to send them to sleep!

All in all, a cracking day was had by all!

Thanks to everybody involved for putting in your time, effort and energy for making this trip a reality and making the last day truly unforgettable!

:)