A Stretch of the Legs from London to Suffolk, 112 miles

Pulling onto Sutherland Avenue I retraced my old work commute until joining Camden Road towards Finsbury Park, as I set off for Brundish in Suffolk. It was a joy to realise, post tour, that Camden Road no longer felt like that irritating hill that shouldn't be. pannier free, and astride my road bike after our long Atlantic separation, the incline barely registered as the traffic lights, in my favour, swept me onto Seven Sisters Road.

New territory was afoot. Not only was it my first long solo ride, but I was navigating eastwards contrary to our habitual routes through Richmond Park. After Tottenham Hale a gentle climb through suburbia culminated in some last minute manoeuvres to avoid the North Circular - neither the on-ramp nor the speeding lorries made this an appealing error to have made.

The A104 carried me into the welcome shade of Epping Forest, before becoming the B1393. Epping came and went in a blink, with its small market town character and grannies reversing blindly into the traffic. South of Harlow i joined the B181. The route was undulating at most and although my speedo was a little wayward, I was averaging somewhere between 32 and 40k.p.h. The traffic was light, the road surface conducive to high speeds and I had only just noticed I was battling a head wind. Far from debilitating, it was a confidence boost to realise the benefits of our tour were far reaching. Short climbs and head winds were still tough. I still had to work hard, but I could sustain higher levels of work for longer and a few peaks were even reached without realising I had been climbing.

Pedalling on, I crossed the M11 into the glorious rolling countryside of North Weald Bassett, through endless villages and painfully inviting public houses. As I navigated to Moreton I was thankful for my OS map as it became apparent the road names I had taken from Google maps weren't going to be presented to me. At Fyfield I turned North on the B184 to enjoy fields of wheat and barley and barely any traffic.

A brief stint on the A1060 took me to Leaden Roding where I stopped for a snack and a consult of the map. I marvelled at the pink card machine in the corner shop, which was met on the whole by silence, reminding me it may take a while to readjust to the UK stiff upper lip. The B184 took me to Great Dunmow where my navigation skills experienced a brief interlude 10m past my required right hand turn. I was sufficiently unsure enough to stand on the edge of the road looking lost as I poured over my map. No-one approached, not even when I started to looking around wildly for the neon arrow pointing 'Beth in the right direction'. Sugar levels were needing attention and having failed to attract any help with what I thought was magnetic, 'I'm lost' bike charm, I sidled back to the previous junction to notice a map of the town centre. perfect - all was not lost and least of all me.

The B1057 took me past endless farms. At one point I metaphorically patted myself on the back for dusting a tractor and it's tail of traffic, but by pretty Finchingfield I beginning to think I should slow down and eat more to prevent the dreaded bonk. It was hot and calories weren't appealing so I was painfully aware I needed to take the matter in hand. In the shade of the village sign I donned sun-tan lotion and ate another cereal bar. The sugar of the jelly beans I was eating as I pedalled were beginning to leave that sacarine sweet taste in my mouth and as a result nothing else tasted particularly great.

The B153 looked to start with a steep climb but round the corner it soon petered out, as I realised Suffolk was not a hilly county. After Weathersfield, and with Hadleigh in my sights, I tearily phoned Tim asking for a helicopter to lift me to food - a bonk was evidently nigh but adrenaline kept me going. I continued to munch on bars, and was still managing to top 20mph but the legs were beginning to wobble, hindering my stubbornness to keep going until Hadleigh.

The B1058 joined the A131 to circumnavigate Sudbury. Down to my last snack, I pushed on but as I covered the first couple of miles along the A134 I realised I had noted the distance from Sudbury to Hadleigh in km when they were in fact miles. The A1071 came soon enough, with heavier traffic and those kind of undulations that look awful as you pedal towards them only to find the up portion only lasts for a few hundred metres. Like vanishing peaks and dips, I was enjoying vanishing climbs, but I was crawling along in need of food and Hadleigh could not come soon enough.

Impressed there was a road sign for Coram Street, I turned off and into Hadleigh where I was meeting Lindsay. Unused to the stretched geometry of my trek, every sip of coke made me feel sick. Nonetheless a hearty jacket potato, one mars bar and 40 minutes of shut eye later Linds arrived having endured a 15 mile detour as a result of one wrong turn. Energised I jumped onto my bike, but by Needham Market, Lindsay was now in need of calories as he inhaled two chocolate bars. Riding on the wave of a sugar rush Linds navigated us faultlessly along the B1078, B1077, A1120 and finally the B1116 into Dennington and my Bed and Breakfast for the night.

My first trip back on the Trek had been brilliant. The more aggressive geometry wreaked havoc with my back, and the heat with my feet but the journey was the smooth and fast one I had missed whilst on my Marinoni. On the flat terrain I also found no need for my granny ring. The next test will be a long trip with far more hills - Devon perhaps for Erikas 30th.