I am listening to Lael Wilcox’s daily podcast on her ride around the world. Each one starts with a recap of where she started, where she gets to, how far it was and what elevation she climbed.

On day two I started in Devizes and rode to St Harmon which was just under 252km with 3,364m of climbing.

I got going just before 6am having had about 5hrs of sleep (luxury!). First stop was a garage to get breakfast – a bacon bap and coffee.

The profile to the Severn Bridge wasn’t too bad and the 80km swept by. I had to faff around when I got there as the route plotted was across a cycle path on the East side of the bridge which was closed and that was also the side the services were on where I wanted to get my second breakfast. I prioritised fuel before heading across the bridge. Ultimately I found the route across on the West side and swept onwards to Wales.

There was a bit of a climb over to Monmouth but I knew the big test was going to be Gospel Pass, the highest road pass in Wales, before the descent into Hay on Wye. As I hit the steeper section I was contemplating shanks pony when a voice rang out behind me, “You’ve got this!”. Another rider came past and claimed it eased up not far ahead (slightly, I discovered). His exhortation spurred me on to complete the climb despite the pain.

The descent to Hay on Wye had my disc brakes screaming like Banshees, something I was going to have to get used to with the descents from now on. I checked to see if they were worn out but they still had padding left.

In Hay on Wye I grabbed some resupplies, including a Red Bull. Dusk was approaching but so was the Elan valley, a loop on the route that took us through some exquisite scenery and thigh testing climbs.

Then I was in Rhayader. I popped into a couple of hotels but there was no room at the Inn – the other riders, sat having meals, looked on sympathetically as I headed back out into the night. I checked the route and realised that if I pushed on just a little further I would be at the end of this particular route segment and would have hit the half way mark.

On Instagram I had seen one rider doing All Points North bivvy in a church porch. It had started raining in the late afternoon requiring full wet weather gear. By late evening it was dry but threatened more rain. As I pulled into St harmon I spotted a church and went to investigate. It had the perfect porch: clean, large enough and far enough back from the road to be private. it also had an automatic light triggered by movement. I settled down for the night.

I felt really pleased with my progress and looked forward to cracking on the next day. I had ridden for 14.5 hours.