Day 6

Chester to Lancaster - 70 miles
More cake and more catastrophy! We had thought that today would be a complete washout in terms of the weather but, other than a good old soaking in St Helen's we managed to get away relatively Scott-free. Only 20 miles to our first cake stop today - a sumptuous spread laid on by Lorraine's mum and family. In answer to the unkind comments made by some of you - we are not on a cake-fest and any passing reference to the small amount of cake consumed is a factual necessity of this blog. Christine managed a piece of all 5 cakes today and for this triumph, we salute her.
And so onwards, through beautiful, flat countryside towards Preston. And near tragedy. As we cycled through the town we passed over some wet tram rails in the road and Mandy, quite literally, came off the rails as her bike skidded out from beneath her. Luckily her helmet took the brunt of the fall, cracking in two, but it was clear that we needed to get her checked over. And so......emergency prodcedure was deployed for the second time in two days. Margaret whisked Mandy and Anne off to Preston A and E and Jenny stepped up to lead support driver to escort the remaining 3 riders. Mandy was given the all clear by a Dr Valentine lookilikey and she and Anne were able to resume their ride to regroup with the others at Lancaster. Tonight she sports a splendid bruise on her thigh and a tender shoulder. What a trooper.
Tonight's visitor was Guppie who joined us for a great steak night out to boost our strength before the Lakeland hills tomorrow.