Cycle

120 miles.
Multiple stops, a tyre blow out that left me stranded and Garmin GPS problems - total time 9 hours.

Went up to Bolton to ride the course. The main aim was to familarise myself with the course - it's very technical in places and a fair bit of time can be saved if you know which corners need to be slowed down for etc,

I have to say a massive thank you to Tracy and Jed who very kindly rescued me. The inner tube herniated through the side wall of the tyre and burst as did the second one I tried. This left me stranded. They gave me a lift to Halfords and drove me back to their house to repair it. I am now duty bound to perform the same act of kindness to a stranger in need and pass the karma on.

I also wanted to see how the bike performed - Did the position on the indoor trainer i've worked hard on convert to riding on the road?
The night before I changed the chainset to a compact - this has less teeth; 50/34 rather than the standard 53/39 you find on most bikes. I was surprised how easy this was to do. A ten minute job. Years ago it would have required specialist equipment (crank extractors etc,) and have taken an afternoon.
Bottom line - should have done this ages ago. It was far easier on the steep climbs, shifting was better and there were far more usable gears (less overlap of ratios and a better gradation of change between adjacent gears). Contact me on line if you want to know any more about it.

There's a good site by someone who lives and breathes cycling - http://www.sheldonbrown.com/ that has more about bike gearing. In particular look at his "gear calculator"

Other things about the ride - 90% in aero position, 60g of carbohydrate an hour, 6 hour pace for the 112miles or 180km seemed about right (30km/hr).