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A phone call to Mark Fearn in the morning, a steep climb to the top of the village, a 2 hour wait, £40, and the bike was all sorted. No more wobbly wheel, a new tyre, and the new brake pads put on the right way round after Halfords had put them on wrong. He said that the new wheel was unsafe and they shouldn't have let it out of the shop like that, the wheel bearings hadn't been set up, spokes hadn't been properley tensioned, and had to true the wheel as it was 1/4 inch out. Also told me of other disasters from Halfords. Plenty of ammunition for the letter of complaint, and good to deal with someone who knows what they're doing. After all that, I was ready for the challenge of Black Hill, the highest point of the C2C, and after missing out on the cycling yesterday (and still finding walking a bit painful after the chafing!), I was happy to cycle ahead with the occasional breather, whilst the others walked most of it. Felt great to get to the top, with a good downhill in front. After a few photos we were off downhill, could have easily beat my top speed of 40.1mph, but after the blow out and having the extra weight on the bike I kept to about 35mph. Had another steep climb before another long descent down to Allenheads, Glen was unlucky to get a bee caught in his top which stung him on the neck, had to slow down for a few sheep in the road, but a great ride down into the village. A good pub lunch meant the climb out of Allenheads was hard work, had to stop every hundred yards for a breather, but the descent from the top to Rookhope has to be the highlight for me. About 4 miles of downhill along a fairly straight road through open moorland with little traffic. Fantastic. Out of Rookhope and we had a few steep hills and some great scenery before the descent into Stanhope, to our destination for the night the Bonny Moor Hen pub. Arrived early due to the short distance of only 19 miles, had a cuppa, walk around by the river, few pints and a greasey Chinese, then crashed out ready for the final day. A fine days cycling which helped to make up for the previous day!
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