Ay Oop Blog fans, we have arrived in sunny Leeds after a tough day in the saddle and by heck it’s still warm.After a restless nights sleep (it was so hot I felt like boil in the bag rice) we mobilized ourselves ready for the days hectic schedule. We headed up to the Derby office in anticipation for a grand event; we had even heard a rumour that Rammie the Ram from Derby County Football Club may be there. This had raised the excitement for Chris especially. The previous evening’s conversations had been dominated by Chris and his curiosity regarding Ram meeting etiquette. He needn’t have worried Rammie was busy and we arrived at the office with it all calm and quiet. Benjamin threw a Prima Donna strop, “im a K list celebrity, where’s Rammie and the welcome committee”? All fears were put to rest when the Derby Office welcomed us in and got kettle on. We chatted away about the trip so far and what we expected for the journey ahead. Something didn’t seem right with the Midlands Staff, they looked slightly transfixed and zombie like, maybe the heat of the day before had got to me, so I ignored my instinct. We went outside for our farewell photo and suddenly the nightmares of our past returned to haunt us. The clones had mutated and travelled up to Derby. When would the nightmare end, we quickly made our escape and headed for Leeds and the North.
On paper it looked like a fairly short journey in comparisons to some of our other days but the route rose 4400ft the most climbing of any of our days. We made our way up the busy but familiar A38 and Benjamin experienced his first mechanical, a slither of metal in the rear tyre, like a child that had been stung bye a bee, I grabbed his bike, held it tightly and removed the offending sting from the rear tyre. No puncture but a fairly wrecked tyre. We made good progress towards Sheffield, taking in some of the fantastic rolling countryside that makes the quieter country roads so good for cycling. As we rolled into Sheffield, the Peak District rising on our side, this was a warning of the hills to come. Sheffield saw our pace slow considerably with its hills and endless traffic lights. The locals seemed to have a renewed interest in what we were doing, with cars and vans tooting horns and stopping at lights to talk to us about our journey, friendly bunch up here. 
Like Compo and Clegg we wrestle’s the hills that worked there way out of Sheffield and onto Leeds. The route that we had planned also caused us to lose our pace considerably. There was no direct route to Leeds only a mixture of minor roads that required tricky negotiation. Although the local are friendly they don’t suffer fools gladly as Benjamin found out when he asked directions from a little old lady….. “Badgerworth, Badgerworth, I’ll slap your legs young man, its Baderworth not Badgerworth, I’ve never heard the like”. We took our final stop feeling happy that we only had 20 miles left to complete, how premature we were. The last 20 were possibly the hardest 20 so far with Benjamin’s tyre giving up the ghost. Fortunately for us Katheryn and the support car came round the corner just as we were pondering how we could make a temporary fix. Hill after hill and countless directional difficulties continued to hamper our pace. Finally we rolled into our hotel, tired, dirty (we both managed to cover ourselves in grime) and hungry with the blog still to do.
The Days Stats:
75 miles
13 mph average
4400 ft of climbing
1 puncture
1 shreded tyre
1 angry local old lady
Lots of friendly folk
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