The good things

In case it's useful to anyone in the future below are a few of the things that went well and that I'd recommend.

My bike - Giant TCR C3, only problem was a little play in the headset nearing Carlisle, tightened it up and it was all OK. Gears were fine and even made it up a short 18% hill coming in to Hamilton from Glasgow. One thing I noticed since the ride is that the second water bottle I fitted seems to have made a small dent in the carbon frame where it rubbed. I didn't realise carbon frames were that delicate, hopefully it isn't in a stressed location and won't ever give way.

The Topeak QR Beam EX Rear Rack ( I replaced the carbon seat post with an alloy one before using this) with a Topeak MTX Trunk Bag Ex worked fine and the bag seemed very waterproof unlike my old handlebar bag which gets a bit wet these days.

Punctures - None. I'd recommend my new Continental tyres.

My lightweight Montane waterproof jacket that I originally got for mountain running.

My lightweight fleece that was useful as an extra layer on the bike and for keeping warm in the evenings.

Cafes - especially their all day breakfasts and cake. Not so easy to find an open one in Tavistock and Liskeard on a Sunday morning.

Sending the bike up to Scotland by courier although the post office would have been cheaper but they say 3 to 5 working days so I'd left it too late to use them.

Setting up a blog and a just giving site. I didn't realise at the time how many people were following my progress on the blog, if I had I'd have made more detours to find internet cafes and keep it updated more frequently.

Travelling light. I wore an old pair of trainers on the journey up to JoG and then threw them away, making do with a pair of flip flops for the evenings worked well.