After the sunrise alarm clock and a little bit of a doze, we all headed for a seriously underwhelming breakfast and then a chilled morning before a 10am briefing and 11am start.
The clan chief gave a rousing speech and got us all hyped up for the start.
Rather than sprinting out the gate, it was a neutralised start to Pembroke for a ferry over to Ireland.
It have time to ease into it, get chatting to people and settle the nerves.
We all bundled into Asda in Pembroke and it took me 3 attempts to get everything that I wanted and I still forgot one or two things.
The ferry was nice despite being the surface temperature of the sun. I did have a prime seat to watch the Wimbledon’s mens final though.
We set off into the dusk once we departed the ferry and the road surface was more suited to a gravel bike that my road tyres.
I was losing time to everyone as I had to take things more cautiously as I passed several people with punctures.
Once I had finished emptying my bladder every 40 minutes and got into the swing of things, the scenery was stunning! Certainly lived up to the billing.
A quick stop at the chippy and I number into a mate there so we rode until 1am together where he dropped off to set up his tent whilst I went till 2:30am.
I found a spot on a latch of grass which seemed to be common land. It was freshly mown so was ideal for a quick Kip.
I set a timer for 2 and a half hours as we’d cycled 120 miles or so and felt like I wanted to get a jump start on the second day.
Sadly despite actually being quite tired, it took me quite a while to get to sleep and I’m not actually sure how much I got, if any.
A great start to the race.
My Belated Gap Year 
Well done Jacob…. scenery… You’ve not seen nothing yet, wait until you get into Kerry and get up the west coast… breathe taking….
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Great diary and detail ..keep it up
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