Team-Work.

You may like to see yesterday's posting before reading this one, it's the first half of the story.

After getting up at mid-night and downing a couple of cups of coffee I was ready to face the day. The first ten hours or so were spent checking riders in; it was fairly quiet for the first few hours then the pace became rather hectic. It was simple arithmetic really, nearly a thousand riders passing through in total, but most of them (about 800) in the course of twelve hours.

As I went for some food I noticed this couple; I didn't get their names or numbers but did give them a Blip card so they may see this posting. (Sorry, I couldn't check on your progress but I hope it all went well, at least you looked comfortable when I saw you.) They posed for a picture but a little later I sneaked back for a similar candid shot that worked much better, I think they're studying a map here but please note the unconventional place that they've stuck the route sheet. It is extremely practical, particularly if they are riding a tandem with the lady on the back. I do hope they did well.

I did a stint of a few hours in the cycle maintenance department, it was amazing how inappropriate some of the bikes were (designed for short distance racing), and how inept some of the riders were when it came to mechanics (it took me five minutes each to true several wheels so that they cleared the brake blocks, they'd probably started from London with rubbing brakes).

A little later my nephew Malcolm, a recent Blipfoto recruit (yet to do his first posting) arrived looking very comfortable. He went for a wash and some food then came an sat chatting to me for over an hour while I was marshalling. He had the right attitude, he had paid for a five day holiday so he was going to take five days. As I write this he's about half way home and spending the night in a comfortable bed and has plenty of time to reach the finish before his deadline.