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Below is a series of maps with our route etched on in yellow.  We have listed the main road used as well as anything we can remember that was mentionable about the days riding.

Day 1

Roads Used:   A30 - A394 - A39 - A390 - A38 - A390 - B3357
Observations: The A30 out to Penzance is fine, but avoid the rest of it as its dual carriageway and horrid according to other End to Enders.  The A390 out of St Austell is hard work, as is everything from there on in.  The B3357 through Dartmoor is Pork Hill, a hell of a hill if you have done all of that work before.  Take a lot of fuel to keep you going through the day.  Also, in and out of Gunnislake (A390 a few miles before Tavistock) is a huge 16% down and up, dangerously fast on the way in, leg destroying on the way out)

We underestimated just how hard Cornwall would be and we definitely suffered for it over the last 10 miles into Dartmoor. The whole day was very undulating with a number of 10, 12 and 14% climbs. We got to the point where we hated descending just because we knew we would have to climb back up. Having said that, the climbs are manageable, if tough, and with proper preparation (as in, get as much climbing done before as you can) most people will be fine. Some of the guys found it a lot easier with a triple chainset at the front which gave a really small gear to spin up the climbs (Although I made the whole trip with a double! how cool am I! -Chris)

Day 2

Roads Used:    B3357 - B3212 - B3181 - A38 - A371
Observations: Out of Dartmoor is really nice, if hilly (6 Mile Hill on the B3212 is worth the up just for the 3 miles of down through trees)  The rest of the day through Somerset is very nice and flat, we had sunshine as well but might not be fun in the rain or wind.  The B3181 follows the M5 most of the way, you will cross the M5 about 8 times, which gets frustrating after a time, but its good for making the miles!

Day 3

Roads Used: B371 - A38 - A3029 - A4 - A403 - M48(Severn Bridge) - A466 - (A40 and A4137 but we didn't mean to) - A49 - A44

Observations: The A4 around Bristol is a nice road to cycle, as you go under the Clifton Bridge.  You use the second bridge to get over the Severn, its clearly signposted from the A403.  The A466 is a bit like the Dordogne in France, we highly recommend cycling it into Monmouth for Lunch, but not the other way around as the descent out of Chepstow would be a bitch to climb.  The rest is fairly pleasant for a road biker.  You can see the dotted line on the map: this is where we shoud have gone but we went a little wrong.

 This was one of our favourite days for the variety of riding and the landmarks that we passed. The route through Chepstow to Monmouth really is a great ride.

Roads Used: A44 - A49 - A5 - A49
Observations:  A49 is a very varied road.  To start with you will be in pretty nice countryside, making huge tailbacks for the traffic as it is single carriageway and has restricted overtaking opportunities so pull in to let traffic past every now and again. Once past Shrewsbury, there's a few miles of dual carriageway but this ends fairly quickly and you start to head onto the nice roads past Oulton Park race track and up through Cheshire and into Lancashire. This was a long day for us at 116 miles but it wasn't too tough, with no major climbs encountered.

Day 5

Roads Used: A6 - A591 - A6
Observations: The route out of Preston heading towards Lancaster is fairly busy but is still a good ride. Around Lancaster the road surface becomes pretty badly broken up and does get tiring and irritating but once past Lancaster the tarmac becomes very smooth and the scenery starts to improve even more as you head towards the lakes.

The main issue of this route is the climb over Shap fell towards the village of Shap. The summit, which is 15 miles north of Kendal, is 1400 feet above sea level and the road starts to climb about 2miles outside of Kendal. The first few miles are gently climbing with a reasonable surface but about 4-5 miles before the summit the road steepens. We were worried about this climb with having had a long day before hand but with the pre-ride training we did and the hills in Cornwall, we found this to be a pretty good climb. The rest of the day is an easy descent into Penrith with a few flat miles to Carlisle.

Day 6

Roads Used: A7- A6071 - B7076 - B7078 - B7078 - A72 - A725 - A8 - A879 - A81 - A875
Observations: This is a long day.  The road from Gretna onwards (which is the old A74) is quite nice to begin with but will bore you after a while. Bear in mind that there are no shops or service stations until you get to Abington so take plenty of food with you.  It is 80 miles of nothing, and the condition of the road is awful in a few places.  Hamilton is the first major built up area you hit (don't linger here, its a horrible place!) and from there you will have to navigate through Glasgow, which is complicated.  We used the Sat Nav after a while as it can be hard work.  The roads towards Killearn were very specific to our trip and probably would not be taken by other end to enders, but are very nice to ride on!

Roads Used: B384 - A809 - A811 - A82
Observances: This was by far the best riding of the trip. The route past Loch Lomond is good, but the A82 out towards Glencoe and Ft William is spectacular. The roads were well surfaced and the climbs were long but fairly gentle. We had a route profile from the Bike Britain book (available from Amazon) which showed the climbs as steep and long but were in fact pretty easy until the climb after the bridge of Orchy. This climb was approx 2 miles but lead up to the start of the highlands. After that climb, its a flat couple of miles and then a great descent towards Glencoe where its flat for the remaining miles onto Ft William. There are only 2 routes through Scotland, this way and the A9, which we drove back on and can say with confidence that it was not a nice road to ride.  So do this route, you don't have a choice but its nice anyway!

Day 8

Roads Used: A82 - A9 - B9174
Observations: Again you do not really have a choice about this road, but it is so good you would not want to miss it anyway.  The scenery along Loch Ness and Loch Locky is amazing.  Granted there may be a head wind and it may slow your progress and making things harder (especially once across the Firth of Cromarty) but the roads a good for knocking out the miles regardless of the wind

 Chris writes: I can't add anything to Sam's description really. The headwind was a pain but the route was great and riding along Loch Ness was brilliant. I had a tough day here due to back pain but no problems from the roads!

Day 9

Roads Used: B9174 - A9 - A99
Observations: Again, no choice in the roads, you will have to take this road.  It will be windy, and after Helmsdale there is a few wicked hills that will seem hard work with only 50 miles until the finish line. The scenery out of Tain is really good though, as the route hugs the coast all the way to O' Groats. There is the fact that it becomes very very bleak from Helmsdale though, which can be draining mentally as well.  Get through it though, the buzz when you realise how far you have come and what you have done once you are finished will be worth it...we promise!

Also, be prepared to wait for the guy with the sign. He isn't always there and takes the sign with him but he is contactable via mobile. We didn't have the time to wait for him to arrive unfortunately, but there is a permanent sign on the wall by the harbour and shop.