It had poured it down throughout the night and I'll admit I was nervous. We woke up early and had breakfast. A bowl of cheerios and a second one for energy. We all climbed into the van. Mum, Dad, Josh, Sophie, Arthur, Nick, Uncle Chris, Auntie Jack, Myself and Harvey the dog. With all of the food supplies, bike tools, bike spares and the large assortment of bags... it was a tight squeeze. The short journey towards Whitehaven seemed like an eternity, I was excited and nervous at the same time but finally we arrived at the beginning of the ride.

The riders assembled at the bottom of the slope with their back wheels in the sea. We all posed for a photo with the C2C sign. Josh nearly fell in - it was extremely slippery, and it didn't help having cleats on our shoes - but Mum managed to save him and the ride began safely.

The first nine or so miles out of Whitehaven wound nicely through neighbourhoods and little woods. It was a disused railway and despite the nice views it was hard work, the path sloped upward and somehow seemed to last forever.

Finally, the path turned off onto a gravel track, which led us onto the small country lanes that we were expecting for the ride. Looking back we could see the sea and I was impressed how far we had come even though it was only 9 miles.

Coming into the foothills of the Lake District we were granted the first of our spectacular views. It was amazing. We were riding along the top of a valley and were still gently climbing. Every turn of the road uncovered new views. Eventually we dropped down into the valley and rode alongside the lake. On the road down we reached some pretty impressive speeds, however it was hard work as the sun kept shining on the puddles created the night before and it was extremely bright.

However, we had to come out of the valley and this mean that we were confronted with our first proper hills. I realised how daunting the challenge really was when I had to conquer these first few. However the satisfaction that I felt at the top of each climb was worth it. We continued to drop into valleys and climb back out until we met the Whinlatter pass.

This was probably one of the steeper sections of the ride but I just got into a lower gear and kept on pedalling. Saddington hill was nothing compared to this. After each bend another climb faced us. We kept going however, because we knew that the first stop was at the top of the pass. The support crew had many bacon cobs prepared and I guess this spurred me on! Finally, we reached the car park and were welcomed by the familiar blue shirts of our support crew. Mum and Dad stood there clapping us in and we headed straight for the café. Eventually we all sat down and enjoyed a well deserved rest. It was a very hot day and I took my outer layers off. After about half an hour the team had relaxed and re-energised. We refilled our water bottles and thanked the friendly café workers.

We hopped back in the saddle and began the ascent back down from Whinlatter forest.