We finally rolled into John o’ Groats just after 2pm. I’ve already been to John o’ Groats before, so knew that it couldn’t possibly reflect the magnitude of the end of such a challenge. As expected, we casually rolled up, had some photos taken, then headed back on the road to Wick.
I became slightly obsessed today with not being overtaken by any other cyclists. The entire previous 11 days, we hadn’t been passed on the road by a single cyclist. I saw this as a testament to our fitness and ability on the bikes, and would be damned if anyone would steal that statistic from me on the final few miles! Thankfully, as with the other days, we did the overtaking and retained our record.
Foolishly, today was the only dry start where I didn’t apply sun cream. Contrary to the forecasts, the weather was fantastic all the way. As you can probably guess, I’m now red all over, save for my hands and the areas of my face covered by the helmet and shades. Therefore, I now look like some sort of rare red panda! That’ll teach me...
So, yeah, we don’t have to get back on our bikes tomorrow, which is quite a difficult thing to get our heads around. It’s been pretty difficult having an appreciation for the passing of time, and the passing of miles. I’m sure the magnitude of the achievement will sink in at some point. I could do with sleeping for several days on end first! We travelled a total of 992 miles, without sustaining any injuries, and just having had one puncture each.
Many thanks to our families, friends and colleagues for their support before and during the ride.
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