On the 7th June 2019 John McGonagle completed a month long Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle ride. We spent a wonderful ten days touring through Cornwall and Devon using mainly ‘B’ roads. Very lumpy. During this section I suffered recurring bouts of dizziness and balance problems necessitating a visit to an ear specialist and two hospitals in Cornwall and taking a course of antibiotics.
John meanwhile rode on and I ended up playing catch-up by taxi. This put paid to my ride being an E to E attempt. Because of the effects of the antibiotics I abandoned the ride at Newport, South Wales. John carried on up through Wales to home in Blackburn, where he was just in time to plant his spuds and sort out a rebellious swarm of bees in one of his allotment hives! On the whole the weather during the ride up to then had been good, particularly in the south west.
From here going north it took on a different complexion. John battled on, day after day in unrelenting driving, cold rain. He never gave up. He had a day of 88 miles and one of over 90 miles arriving at the booked B & B after sunset. At Fort William on a wet day he reckoned he had the ride ‘in the bag’! In a rain storm he made John O’ Groats feeling “Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed”. I never doubted he would do it. Mick Mcgovern.