Day 1 Newcastle, Sunderland

For those of you who haven't followed the story as it unfolded on Twitter, Shaun set off on Good Friday starting at St. James's Park, Newcastle. The night before it started, we had loads of last minute prep to finalise, so lots of errands were run & most involved meeting various people in pubs. This led to me having, what transpired to be, a fairly heavy session before heading back to Shaun's, where he was getting picked up by a colleague who was taking the first leg of driving a support car. Upon arrival, around 4am, it became apparent that there wasn't going to be enough room for me in the car, so they had to set off for Newcastle without me.

They made great time getting up there, & Shaun was chomping at the bit to get out on the bike. I had published an itinerary on this very blog to give approximate times, but Shaun set off early,such was Shaun's enthusiasm. Unfortunately, we learned through Twitter that several people had turned up to see Shaun off, only to learn that he'd already gone. One guy had even travelled down from Scotland during the night, so we can't apologise enough for that. Thanks again for your support throughout, though.

Shaun then made the short cycle down to Sunderland, & the Stadium of Light, & following a few pictures, headed onwards to Leeds, where he'd be bedding down for the night, leaving him with a fairly straightforward 40m cycle across the Pennines the next morning back into Manchester. Or so he thought.