Day 2

Melrose to Seahouses – 68mls

Day 2 saw us leaving Melrose after a group photo outside of the Youth Hostel, Bishop Auckland Cycling Club wished us well and told us about the first climb of the day !!  It was cool and misty as we made our way towards Newton St. Boswells, but by the time we had reached a lovely bridge at Dryburgh, the sun had come out.
By now James Morgan was coming into his own and sprinting over the top of every hill he could see – at first we thought he was acting as lead out for his dad, Dave but quickly realized that there was only one King of the Mountains in this tour…. The Polka dot jersey – awarded to James Morgan.
Shortly after this we had our first casualty of the day when Andy Parker who had been struggling at the end of day one with a knee injury, decided to call it a day and joined Ken & Tom in the vans.
We continued west via Kelso / Coldstream and made it to the coast at Berwick by lunchtime – now for the flat downhill bit !!
After losing a bit of time with a tea stop, we were then setting off on the home run to Seahouses – we now faced a strong headwind which was coming straight at us off the sea and now the terrain changed completely as we went from minor roads to a coastal footpath which wound it’s way over fields.. not what we were expecting…. slow progress was made eventually arriving at Goswick Golf Club and then crossing the A1 at West Mains (The road that leads down to Holy Island)
From here, instead of going downhill, it went uphill and uphill and uphill and uphill, until we eventually met the support team at Belford, by now we were late (about 1730hrs) and absolutely ‘cream crackered’. A ride into Seahouses via Waren Mill and Bamburgh, but enroute Bob’s bike ‘gave up the ghost’ when the freewheel broke – plenty of pedalling but no movement !!
Phone calls were made and Ken came to the rescue when he came back with the van and handed over Andy’s Parkers now spare bike, for Bob & Annie to continue onto Seahouses where they arrived about 1930hrs. The Links Hotel was a welcome sight and after getting washed up and fed it was time for us all to have an early night – the home run tomorrow.