We had been warned that stages 8 and 9 would be the hardest days of the ride because of the number of hills we would have to climb, but I didn’t realise it would be as difficult as it turned out to be.

My morning in Bath did not start well. It took me a while to get myself sorted and by the time I got into the queue for the start line, the riders from Adecco, who I’d be riding with all week, had been waiting for me for about half an hour. Needless to say, they weren’t best pleased! Then, as we were waiting for our turn to start, Steve from Halfords noticed that my brakes were locking up. This was not good news: with so many descents scheduled for today I would need my brakes to be in top condition. Two minutes later and one of the Halfords mechanics was standing there with my Brakes in one hand, not good!!!!!, I would like to think that my fellow riders saw the funny side to this, but that would be optimistic, Luckily the guys from Halfords sorted me out quickly, but in the meantime every other rider had left the camp. Needless to say as we finally cycled out of camp I wasn’t very popular, and we was last, again!

Luckily for me Steve from Halfords, and Chris my neighbour waited, we agreed that we would catch up the Adecco riders.

The descent immediately out of Bath was truly hair-raising, a very steep hill with many junctions and I was pleased to see the back of it.

About 5 miles in, justice was done, one of the Adecco riders had a puncture and we managed to catch up.

Day 8 was enjoyable overall but I will remember it for the climbs, I never thought Devon had so many big climbs.

We got in at quarter to 8 in the evening, and then we faced a mad dash to get ourselves sorted for the following day. It was an early start and the alarm went off at half past four to give us time to get ourselves all packed up again. This time around I was ready to go on time and we set off on the final day at a bright-and-early 6am.

The last day of the ride was actually probably the darkest and most difficult one of the whole nine days for me. Coming out of pit-stop 1, I hit a really black spot in my mind and I could not concentrate at all. I remember really clearly that there were woods on either side of the road but I was so tired I was struggling to control my bike.

Next came one of my favourite and clearest memories, and one that I think will stay with me forever: just before Bodmin I was really struggling and had just about managed a big climb, then, just as I approached the top of the hill, I could see the Cadbury’s guys, who were standing by the road handing out chocolate bars. At that moment I knew all would be OK, I could have kissed them!

Between pit-stop 1 and 2 there were plenty of annoying cattle grids, but I was too tired to get off my bike as I had done in Scotland, so I just rode straight over them. Then, at pit-stop 2, we were told there were only 39 miles to go. On the ride you get so used to hearing big numbers about the mileage that 39 miles sounded like nothing at all to me, even though it was easily another three hours ride. For the last part I did what I’d done pretty much the whole way down: I rode with my neighbour Chris Spooner, and Chris Moore from Adecco, and we just plodded on, and tried to laugh our way up the hills, which is what I think most people will remember us for.  I am not sure side-splitting laughter helps you up a hill, but it sure took our minds off of it.

With 17 miles to go, we had one final stop to prepare ourselves for the biggest climb of the entire journey, a 16% incline that seemed to go on for miles. I had promised myself that I would not get off my bike and finally, eventually it seemed, I got to the top. At that point I knew I was nearly at the end.

It was an absolutely magical moment to cross the finish line as a team, and it really felt like we had achieved something amazing. Many of the riders stayed around to welcome one particular rider across the finish line: a guy called Alan, who had cycled the entire 1,000 miles in a hand-cycle.  To watch him cross the line was one of the most emotional moments of my life. He had put in such a gutsy performance and, although he is far too modest to admit it, he was an inspiration to many on the Ride.

His performance and my own experience shows that the ethos of the Ride is true: it may not be easy but it is achievable. I’d recommend the Ride to anyone, it was a genuinely a life-changing experience.

I’m feeling surprisingly good, my body is hanging in there. I’m absolutely blown away by what people are achieving here and the mix of poeple. It’s always been billed as a ride, never as a race, and you’ve got lots of young, fit people on carbon bikes racing ahead, together with those plodding along. I do not know how, but they always go past you at some point, and then you think you’re ahead but you get back to camp and they’re showered and changed already. It’s definitely the tortoise and hare scenario.

Day five on Deloitte Ride Across Britain started off pretty urban and we were in amongst all the traffic coming out of Carlisle, but then suddenly we hit Cumbria and it opened up to an abyss of countryside and big rolling hills, including the legendary Shap which is a big, big hill climb. In keeping with our other iconic hill climb, Glenn Coe, it was pretty wet and the weather came in on us so again we didn’t get to see the famous views from the top. But one thing about Deloitte RAB is the spirit out on the Ride, and even though it gets wet sometimes (it’s British summertime, what can you expect?) I don’t think I’ve seen anybody complain about the weather like they would on other events. Everyone has invested a lot of time, money and effort to prepare for this challenge, and probably the last thing anyone wanted was bad weather. But actually it almost makes it; everybody driving up the long, steep incline of Shap, pushing their bodies to the limits, with the rain pouring down around you – it just brings out the best in everyone and that’s how I’ve got through this so far, by laughing my way up the hills. The bigger and tougher they are, the more you laugh on the way up. And there’s nothing more funny than when your riding buddy’s tyre explodes half way up a huge hill, although it does stop you in your tracks too because you can’t get any further for laughing so much.

Day five took us down through Kendal and on to our camp for the evening at Haydock Park Racecourse – another fantastic venue with the tents camped out in the middle of the race track  and brilliant food.

Next up was Haydock to Ludlow. During the first third I did a quick school visit, which was fantastic – I love going in to schools and visiting the kids to tell teach them about the Paralympics – but we’d just come through the biggest rain storm before we went in so we were stood in the hall dripping wet and looking very sorry for ourselves.

I always said that on Deloitte RAB my ambition was never to be a front runner and just sit back, enjoy the scenery and the people around me. But after the school visit I found myself right at the very back and it was a really lonely place to be. Chris, my riding buddy who had waited for me, and I made a decision not to try and catch anyone up but just to make the most of it, which seemed like a good idea but then we just had event after event – Chris had two punctures, a chain came off, and then we just stopped regularly from then on because we just couldn’t be bothered to pedal anymore! But the downside to a more leisurely approach is that nine or ten hours in to the day you start to get really sore on the backside and you realise why people try to get in a little bit quicker.

At the bottom of the very big climb coming in to Ludlow we caught up with Alan – the only hand cyclist on the Ride – and we made the decision to stick with him up the climb and be a bit of support for him up the long, steep inclines. We stuck together for about 45 minutes, grinding out up the hill, and then he did what any decent person would do at the top and sped off ahead of us in his handcycle at about 40mph! We didn’t see him for about another five miles. Then we caught him up again, up the next big hill, then off he went again. He has to make up his time going downhill though, and it was worthwhile when I heard him saying to someone back in camp that we helped him through.

Today was supposed to be the easy day, Ludlow to Bath in only 89 miles, but it was the hilliest, toughest day many people have found. I enjoy the hills, I love the challenge of them, so for me it was one of my best riding days and I had an awesome day. We touched in to Wales and went back across the Severn Bridge, which was really exciting, and then we got very wet at the end as we approached the huge hill up to the racecourse at Bath. Same as every day, everyone’s just been chugging along and having a laugh as they go. We took a new approach to motivation today and tried to demoralise people as they’re going up the big hills by telling them to give up, quit, get the bus home. WE find it amusing, and it seems to help them too!

I managed to finish further up the pack, back where I want to be in the middle of it somewhere, and the plan tomorrow is to go out and enjoy it again because we’ve only got two days left. Everyone’s in fear at the moment because the next two days have been billed as the biggest, toughest days, and if today was the easy one who knows what’s to come.

Looking forward to giving the bum a rest after Sunday, I need to get off the saddle for a few days. There’s not many conversations here on Deloitte RAB that don’t involve sudo cream or sore bums. I’ll need a week or so off the bike after this, but because of doing Deloitte RAB I’ve come to absolutely love road cycling so I’ll definitely be getting back on again.