I didn't think this part of the journey was going to be to hard, but mentally I think it was something I had not prepared myself for. My backside and the front of my thighs were in pieces and sitting on the saddle made me want to cry but we just had to deal with it and stop whining!

Feeling sapped of energy, it was probably a good thing that we didn't have to travel too far to Northampton. Traveling through the Northamptonshire countryside took our minds off the pain a bit. We were heading for a village called Thornby, where we were meeting a friend of mine John Sleighthome who used to play for Northampton and England. Since finishing playing he has taken up cycling on a fairly serious level and he is looking forward to doing a ride called the Etap du Tour which is around 175 kilometres in the mountains on part of the Tour de France course! Crazy man. He was really good to ride with though as he pulled us both along and we arrived at Franklins Gardens in fairly good time having been passed by the flowing locks of James May from Top Gear in his convertible classic sports car.

We arrived at Northampton in good time to be greeted by Anne and Terry Oldfield, Sean Lamont, John Brake and Courtney Lowes. A massive thank you to the Oldfields from Guy and I, as those sandwiches and drinks were a great help. Eating a decent lunch was far better than having a diet of wine gums, jelly babies, jaffa cakes and bananas!

Leaving was almost a heart break as we felt really good having arrived at Franklins Gardens. But with a sunny afternoon we set of towards Worcester with a feeling that we wanted to get there as soon as we could. One of the hardest things was cycling past puns in the late afternoon where it was warm and in the sun with people sitting outside having a cool beer. The people who were having BBQ's in their gardens made us feel even worse but to be fair if we had not been riding along that is what we would have been doing. I didn't realise how hungry I was going to get on this ride - every 2 hours I am absolutely starving!

Getting to Worcester was brilliant - 99 miles completed and the second longest journey of the week. Once at the hotel we sat outside looking over the golf course at the Hilton Puckrup Hall having a celebratory pint that we were now over half way there. That combined with a massive ordering of food in front of Britain's Got Talent was a great way to finish the day and look forward to the next.