Cripes! How did we get here?

Some background

The MOB is a drinking club with a cycling problem. A group of old friends who have been cycling together for over three decades. We’re not affiliated to anything, other than our local pub and our long suffering families. Pretty much all of us are retired. Our informal motto is ‘Nothing can go wrong’. This should probably be followed by ‘…and so can everything else!’ But it’s aspirational, which is useful at our time of life.

Some time last autumn (2024) a couple of us had returned from a 70 mile ride and were de-briefing (having a few beers in the pub - come to think of it, we ‘de-brief’ quite a lot). Andrew declared that he fancied cycling Lands End to John O’Groats. It could have all ended with that full stop, except that Pete said it had been on his bucket list for 20 years. ‘Right! We’re doing it’ replied Andrew. Now all we had to do was see if any of the others were interested. To be fair, many were interested but only to the extent that giving ‘useful’ advice to two stubborn 62 year olds can be interesting. One however, Steve, was up for it. In some ways this was splendid news. Steve loves maps and route planning, and is very organised. However most of his routes eschew anything flat when there’s a perfectly good mountain to ascend. Pete is also well organised but has been known to walk up anything steeper than 14%. He’s also been known to walk his bike down some steep slopes too. Andrew regularly organises adventurous holidays to far flung destinations but, when presented with Steve and Pete, is smart enough to sit back with a cold one and let them argue it out! It’s this ability to manage people that made him a successful businessman.

Route planning

Turns out there are no definitive routes for this trek, other than the shortest one the wannabe record breakers take. But we don’t want to spend days on A-roads arguing with trucks. Most people seem to plan their own routes. There is a CTC route called ‘The BnB route’, so we had a look at that and came up with a sort of Pub n Breakfast route that also ticked other boxes such as popping in to see Steve’s Mum, staying in as many nice pubs as we can, and not taking a flat road when there’s a perfectly good hill to climb! Steve sketched the route while Pete added to his loyalty bonus on Booking.com, then the route was tinkered with so they all synchronised. The rule is that we each get a room to ourself every night. We’ve done sharing rooms on many MOB trips and tours and everyone has been affected by someone else’s snoring. But now the Chancellor has buggered up the pension inheritance tax rules we may as well spend it. Sorry kids!

Next up….training?