Shakedown Tour to Llangollen - Wales

It was the coldest Easter weekend in Britain for the past 25 years. It brought with it ferocious winds, relentless hailstorms and intrepid snow showers. The first day of spring would not have felt out of place in the Arctic. Well it'll be good practice for the Arctic I told myself.

Me and Lee decided to go on a weekend tour to Wales to test ourselves and our gear. We covered 40 miles each way. I can assure you it was absolutely freezing, dont think it got above 5 degrees C all day and it must have dipped below freezing at night

My bike performed faultlessly, it handled well, felt stable and just ate up the miles. I was very impressed with the ortlieb panniers. As for my body it to performed quite well, my legs felt strong and the cold didn't really bother me too much. Going up the training closer to departure just to be sure.

Lee suffered a puncture on his bike and we later found that his back wheel was buckled causing the back brake to rub along the wheel. So he did extremely well to keep up.

I have got a Coleman Avior X2 tent for the trip. It claims to be a 2 person tent but it was a very tight squeeze. It's perfect for 1 man though. So Lee will bring his own tent for the big trip.