Journey Summary

We cycled the 416 miles from Edinburgh to London in 31 hours 6 mins total riding time (over 6 days) averaging 13.4 mph and with a maximun speed of 42.1 mph.

Thanks for all the messages of support - if you'd like to sponsor me in support of ChildLine you still can at http://www.justgiving.com/bt-on-yer-bike

Day 6

We started at about 10am this morning and decided to ride through London via Marble Arch, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Parliament and then along the Thames to the City of London.

We arrived at our final destination, BT's Head Office, at midday!

Today's stats are:
Total Distance 13.8 miles
Total Riding Time 1 hours 9 minutes
Maximum Speed 27.1 mph
Average Speed 12..0 mph

Day 5

We left Coventry at about 9.30am and we were all making good progress up to Milton Keynes where both Matt and Chris had punctures. Matt then had further punctures in Dunstable and St. Albans. We crossed the M25 at 8pm and reached our final destination (Colindale) just after 9pm.

Today's stats are:
Total Distance 86.9 miles
Total Riding Time 5 hours 47 minutes
Maximum Speed 42.1 mph
Average Speed 15.0 mph

Day 4

This morning in Stoke we changed 2 tyres (both on the support vehicle) whilst we waited for the heavy rain to pass. We then managed to avoid the rain again at lunchtime but got soaked in a downpour about 20 miles from our final destination, Coventry.

Today's stats are:
Total Distance 60.3 miles
Total Riding Time 4 hours 09 minutes
Maximum Speed 37.8 mph
Average Speed 14.5 mph

Day 3

We left Preston at 9:30 this morning and reached Warrington for lunch at 12:15. Whilst in BT's Warrington Contact Centre the heavens opened. Luckily by the time we were ready to get going the rain had stopped - we have been so lucky with the weather so far and have not had to cycle through anything more than a light shower. Having said that, we all got wet feet riding through a flooded road in Holmes Chapel today.

We arrived at our final destination, Stoke-On-Trent, at 6:00pm.

Today's stats are:
Total Distance 66.7 miles
Total Riding Time 4 hours 58 minutes
Maximum Speed 34.1 mph
Average Speed 13.4 mph

Day 2

We left the BT building in Carlisle at 9:30 but got waylaid by a visit to Halfords to each buy some cycling gloves (to stop the blisters on our hands getting any bigger).

Outside Halfords we met a guy who was cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats in 4 days! That's over 210 miles per day!

There were a lot of hills today as we went through the Lake District. At one stage we climbed to 1400ft at Shap Pass. On the way down we did manage to get to over 41 mph!

Chris has the first puncture of the ride between Lancaster and Preston and we finally arrived in Preston at 9pm!

Today's stats are:

Total Distance 91.8 miles

Total Riding Time 7 hours 21 minutes

Maximum Speed 41.3 mph

Average Speed 12.4 mph

Day 1

We started later than planned after Matt and Chris' flight to Edinburgh was delayed and they didn't arrive at the hotel until 1:30 this morning. We met for breakfast at 8:00 (note to self: don't have a Full English Breakfast before riding a long distance on your bike - it's porridge for me tomorrow). We finally reached the start point at BT's Alexander Graham Bell House at 10:00 and left soon afterwards.

Within a few hundred yards of the start we lost the support vehicle (by going through a bike only barrier) and wasted about half an hour trying to meet up with it again. Leaving Edinburgh (in fact leaving Scotland) was hard going with some up hill sections lasting nearly 10 miles!

We finally crossed the border at 8pm and arrived in Carlisle at about 10pm.

I can honestly say that it was the hardest day's cycling I've ever done - I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow!

Today's stats are:
Total Distance 96.59 miles
Total Riding Time 7 hours 42 minutes
Maximum Speed 37.7 mph
Average Speed 12.5 mph

Last minute update

During the planning for this ride the make up of the team has changed several times. The final team is made up of three riders; myself, Chris Hiscock and Matt Reid and two support members; James Longhurst and Kevin Bradley.

I have had some great support during the planning process and would particularly like to thank James Longhurst and Richard Shoulders for their help. We have also had some very generous sponsorship from friends and colleagues as well as corporate sponsors - thanks to all of them! The main corporate sponsors' logos are listed (along with links to their websites) at the side of this page but I would also like to thank Premier Inns who have kindly provided hotel accomodation for the team along the route.

The team are all meeting in Edinburgh tomorrow night (Friday 3rd July) ready for an early start on Saturday morning. I will aim to provide regular updates on this site during the ride and will provide a full review at the end.

If you haven't sposored us yet please do so at www.justgiving.com/bt-on-yer-bike.

Thanks for all your support!

Follow our progress on Twitter

It will be easier to provide updates during our ride from Twitter rather than having to log into this blog. As a result I have added an area to the right of this page that will provde the last 5 updates from my Twitter account. -->

Alternatively you could subscribe to my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/david_m_thomas