This has been the hardest blog to write so far, but unfortunately the ride was over before we had left Belgium yesterday.

I know some of you have been contacting me to see if everything is OK and I am sorry for not having responded so far but I will explain all.

As you will know from reading this blog for the last few days the ride has not been without incident, and it is one such of these that has ended the ride early.

Late on Friday (Day 1) my fellow Roly hit a rather large pothole which sent his saddle into his nether regions at an angle that could lead to a natural vasectomy (luckily he already has two children!). This led to a cut that then continued to worsen as the next two days wore on. Certainly the cobbles of Day 3 where I flew down the road channeling my inner Fabian Cancellara was not met with the same joy by Roly number 2 who suffered excruciating pain.

We set off early yesterday morning, delayed slightly by me losing one of my gloves (not for the first time, seriously ask my ride partner) with the main goal being a 40 mile ride to the border of the Netherlands, followed by a further 30 miles that would take us into Germany.

By about 3km in however I realised that my colleague had a big problem, now I always climb faster than he does (my nickname for the cycle tour was Froome Dog) but yesterday I had to wait for minutes at a time. When he had to walk a fairly innocuous climb (at least by the standards of what we had already ridden) I knew that the saddle sores and blisters had taken their toll and that it was all over.

The pain was simply too much for him to continue riding, so it was with very heavy hearts that we headed to the train station in the Belgian town of Diest. A short transfer to Hasselt and an excruciatingly expensive quote for a rental car later (€550 seriously Europcar for 1 day??) we thought we had an exit plan to Germany. This was blown to smithereens however when we found out that bikes were not allowed on ICE trains in Germany. So 7 trains later we arrived at my incredible Auntie Rouleurs house when on no notice at all she put us up for the night and lets us store our bikes.

I set off at 5am this morning via 3 more trains to Mrs Rouleurs parents house (my Rouleur-in laws if you will), whilst my fellow team member made his way to the airport and a desperately needed Doctors appointment tomorrow.

I considered taking my bike with me on the trains today so I could try and give you back some of the miles I feel I owe you but again the ICE rules meant a long delay to arrive and feeling very guilty and upset for having ‘failed’ I just wanted to be in the comfort of family.

I also considered continuing alone but it just didn’t feel right abandoning a fellow Roly in distress in the middle of nowhere, plus with my cartography skills I would probably end up back in Dunkirk!!

Fear not though I have already sourced a possible bike to use for a few rides here (and if all else fails I will suffer my Father-in-Rouleurs dreadful excuse for a bike), though these obviously wont be as epic, nor what I described to you.

I truly am very sorry to all who have felt that this challenge was worthy of sponsoring me but I would also like to say remember the cause you donated to because that is far more important. Your money will have a huge impact on the children and families looked after by Shooting Star Chase.

For any doubters who thought we wouldn’t do it I can only say I guess you were right but this situation just could not have been predicted. I am sitting with almost 300 miles in my legs and I know without a doubt that I could have made it to the end but friendship came first this time, and always.

Finally, and I know this has already been a very long post but please do remember, this was a three part challenge and RideLondon is just over a week away so bring on Newlands, bring on Leith, and bring on Box, I have got frustration and energy to burn!!

Thank you for reading and sorry for disappointing.