Day 2- Brecon to Stratford-Upon-Avon - projected distance 88 miles.

What a difference a day makes. Challenges of a different sort for me today.

First of all, after I spent most of yesterday's diary whining about the weather, I was delighted to set off on a glorious sunny morning in Brecon. It makes such a difference. Although I skirted around the north side of the National Park, I nevertheless glimpsed some views of the mighty Brecon Beacons, and the scenery all looked much better than yesterday.

After 12 miles I passed through Glasbury, where you can hire canoes to paddle down the River Wye. I have a great memory from several years ago of this exact place, where we duped our friend Harry Potter into a canoe trip, when he thought he was all set for a literary day in Hay-on-Wye. Lots of people were enjoying themselves today, splashing about in the water.

Then, 25 miles from Hereford, my day changed. As I was cruising along in top gear I felt a 'ping' as I tried to change gear. Not good. My gear cable had snapped, which meant I was restricted to just two gears - 10th and 20th (top gear). All I could do was to give it a go and hope there were no big hills. There was no way I could climb up a big hill in tenth gear, and no way I was going to start walking.

I decided all I could do was to keep the bike moving along as quickly as I could, hoping that my momentum would help to carry me up any smaller climbs. I hammered along, changing between my two gears (my gear shift on the front derailleur was still working), determined to make it to Hereford and then to hunt for a friendly bike shop to take pity on me.

Fortunately - very fortunately - this is a flattish part of Britain, and I made it to Hereford, with only a couple of major strains for my legs on some minor hills. My average speed was also 20 mph at this stage, as I had been barelling along. I asked some local people the whereabouts of a bike shop, and eventually found one tucked away down a back street. I looked in the window and noticed it was really a specialist in mountain bikes, but I ventured in.

Climb-On Bikes - the name of the shop - could not have been more helpful. I was directed immediately to the service department at the back of the shop, where the technician put it on a bike stand right away and started work. Ten minutes later it was all fitted with a new cable, and the shop charged me the princely sum of £3.50. That's what I call service. I was very grateful, and made sure I told them before I left.

Delighted to have 20 gears again, all working more smoothly than before, I was relieved to be on my way out of Hereford, and along some pretty country lanes. My GPS took me away from the main roads at this point, and I found myself in a very agricultural area, with lots of working tractors and combine harvesters busy in the fields. The landscape was dotted with haybales and other crops - including rows of vines.

After 55 miles I stopped at Ledbury for some water, feeling a bit tired and foot-sore. Ledbury is quite an attractive market town, with timber-framed buildings and a central clock tower. After that came the climb to Malvern Wells, when I was especially grateful my gears had been fixed. After Malvern Wells, I passed through Upton on Severn, which looked charming by the river.

I had a reminder of my east-west traverse after 72 miles, when I crossed the M5. I suppose at some point tomorrow I'll cross the M1 as well. Pressing on, I reached Pershore, where I stopped for a break by the river and checked my figures on the GPS. 21 miles to go, which seemed like a lot. Somewhere along the route today I must have taken a long way around, as the total was going to be more like 98 miles instead of the projected 88 miles.

The last section felt like a slog, and I was glad to reach Stratford-Upon-Avon at about 5pm, to be greeted by an unhelpful receptionist at the hotel. She suggested I park my bike overnight in the car park around the corner, and took some persuading to find a quiet corner for it in the hotel.

Big day coming up tomorrow - 106 miles to Cambridge. I could do with an early night, but I've been wrestling with technology issues instead. This laptop refuses to read the data from the GPS today, so no maps or graphs until I get home. I'll be able to upload them at the weekend, from my main computer.

Postscript, 16th August - I have now added the map and data below. My Garmin unit records each data point every 5 seconds of the ride. In more than five and a half hours that's a lot of data points, and the problem was that two data points were corrupt. It took me some time to find them.