Day 5

I suppose after the driest first six months for about a million years it was inevitable that we would get our fair share of the wet stuff. Our ride today took us over the Quantocks to begin with and we slowly disappeared into the clouds. We emerged into light drizzle and swept down to Bridgewater, over the Somerset levels (mmmm... level) and into Cheddar. To keep with the local food theme we'd started with the cream teas we proceeded to tuck into cheddar ploughman's and cider for lunch.

Thats all very well but we couldn't put off our climb up through Cheddar Gorge forever and so we set off, in drizzle again, up the long climb through the spectacular gorge and over the Mendips.

In honour of the LEJOG ride some of the locals had even renamed a village after Dad - a tad presumptuous at this stage.

We arrived at our site just outside Bristol just after 4.00 pm with Mum and Holly safely in place and tea soon on the brew.

Its amazing how many kind and helpful people we've met along the way already. The owner of our Day 5 caravan site, Mrs Nesbitt, kindly donated all our overnight fee to the Parkinson's UK charity were riding for. Thanks to everyone who has donated, and thanks to all those who have sent comments on the blog, emails and text messages of support...they're much appreciated.

Day 4

It's not every day you meet a cycling legend, but this morning we stumbled across 77 year old Bill Best, by the road side trying to repair a puncture. Bill's cycling accolades include competing in the Milk Race, winning the London to Brighton, cycling 4500 miles across America and riding every Alpine Pass featured in the Tour de France, then riding 700 miles home with a leg broken in 3 places. He's also completed our LEJOG challenge, but also rode back the other way, all in 12 days. He really is the Yoda of cycling. He completely put us to shame and once we'd patched up his wheel, it was a pleasure to ride for a few miles with him.

The action came thick and fast with our first crash coming soon after - Greg falling foul of an awkward gear change and coming off as he was attacking a hill. Now Greg can proudly show off his very own LEJOG scar. Two other minor falls gave Greg his hat-trick! Today also saw us tick off our third county as we powered into Somerset. Our lunch break gave us the chance to sample the local Somerset brie as well as the cricket teams, who were playing in their beautifully quaint pitch in the valley bottom, surrounded by fields and complete with babbling brook.

A final push after lunch up the steepest hill we've seen gave us stunning views from the top of Exmoor over the Bristol Channel to Wales. We'll pass the 200 mile mark tomorrow as we reach Bristol and it really feels like we're getting somewhere now!

Day 3

On Day 3 the team enjoyed much better weather - a beautiful Summers day in fact. The riders left Camelford at 9.00 and had a great ride along the north Cornish coast through Boscastle, Widemouth Bay and up to Bude.

The thought of leaving Cornwall forced the riders to have one last Cornish cream tea. Both the cream tea and the setting were superb and it was difficult to leave those idyllic riverside tearooms.

Shortly after leaving Bude the riders entered Devon and had ticked off their first county.

In the meantime the support team made their way north to arrive at the next site, in Great Torrington, by early afternoon. The site is a farm with wonderful views over the Devon countryside and out to sea as far as Lundy island. The riders joined the support team by mid-afternoon after a quite hilly but very enjoyable ride. The route had been varied but mostly small country lanes where anything may turn up around the next corner (usually another hill).

At the end of Day 3 the team had completed 130 miles of the LeJog route and life on the road and in the van / tent is already starting to settle into a routine.

Day 2

The riders' route on Day 2 took them from Carnon Downs to Camelford, a ride of 47.5 miles. The morning started as yesterday had finished - wet... but it soon dried up and by the afternoon a fine range of cool-dude sunglasses were on show at last. The route took the riders through classic Cornish lanes, around Truro and up to the north coast. The riders stopped in Newquay for a brief rest and photo opp' then sped further eastward.

The visit to Newquay was slightly further north than originally planned by the team but the GPS seemed to think they should go there anyway. Next stop was Wadebridge where the ride team stopped for essential carb loading (fish and chips) and took the opportunity to rattle the Just Giving collection box. The people of Wadebridge were incredibly generous - thank you so much if you're following LeBlog (who isnt?).

Now weighed down with several hundredweight of copper Dad found the collection box strapped to his pannier a slight problem and had to improvise by moving it to the water carrier and putting his water bottle in his vest - not a good look.

The riders encountered and suffered the legendary Cornish hills on the final part of the journey, but thats good practice for the equally legendary Devon hills coming up in the next two days.

Day 1

Our journey started in earnest this morning; an occasion marked by the mandatory photo in front of the Land's End sign. Once the excitement of finally getting underway had died down, we were treated to a real Cornish delicacy for the rest of the ride: fine drizzle. We battled through the misty conditions to complete our short but important first leg!

Team Arrives at Land's End

After a long day in LeVan, the Probert race team arrives at Sennen, within striking distance of tomorrow's Land's End start point. Me and Greg have recce'd the beach and left our mark in the perfect Cornish sand. The riders have been following advice from the team's expert nutritionist and have been taking on vital carbs in the form of jam and clotted cream scones and Stella. An early start has been penned in for Le Grand Depart tomorrow in the hope we can finish Leg 1 before the rain starts!

Designing LEJOG

As a designer I felt the need to brand and package our ride, it's happened before and it'll happen again - I know it's sad but I love it!

The logo combines the iconic Battle of Britain RAF target with three cogs - reflecting our three bike gears, plus the three riders: Dad, Tom and Greg. The colour coding continues the theme as Dad in a blue jersey is the biggest cog, I'm the middle in white and Greg's the smallest in his red shirt.

For LeJog I wanted to raise the bar from previous efforts and print up some proper cycle jerseys which will keep us cool in the blistering heat, as well as the customary tshirts. Here are a few shots of our hot-off-the-press apparel:

Massive thanks to Mark and Printing Crazy for doing such a great job with the printing.