Owain Wyn Evans woke up in Wales this morning with a bad back, a sore knee and the Tumble still to climb. By mid-afternoon his ride had raised more than £1.77 million.
The Ammanford-raised presenter is on day four of five, 80 miles from Welshpool to Blaenavon. It is the last full day before Friday’s finish in Cardiff.
He told Sara Cox on Radio 2 this morning, Thursday 12 November, that it was the first day he had wanted to stay off the bike.
He said: “I hate complaining, I hate moaning, but I’m just being honest with you. I’m just starting to run out of steam.”
The knee he hurt when he came off on a hill in Northern Ireland on Tuesday was “bad”, he said, and he had not slept well.
Later in the day he described trying to shut his feelings out. He said: “I went into this almost protective thing yesterday where I tried to numb everything.”
He went on: “The highs are incredible, but then the hills – which you think would be a high – are actually a low! My head’s all over the place, I’m telling you.”
‘One wrong twist of the handlebars and you’re over’
The Tumble stands between Abergavenny and the day’s finish in Blaenavon. Evans said he knew what was coming because he knows this part of Wales.
He said: “It’s on the hill the knee hurts, and it’s on a hill that I came off the bike the other day, so that’s always in the back of my mind.”
He went on: “When you travel slow on a bike as you have to do when you’re going up these steep hills, and you’re clipped into the pedals, one wrong twist of the handlebars and you’re over.”
The actor Luke Evans, reading the route on air, put the day’s climbing at 1,300 metres, “the equivalent to cycling up Ben Nevis… or 684 Vernon Kays”.
Of the Tumble he said: “This is where challenges are conquered or where they conquer you.”
Geraint Thomas’s advice: the steepest bit is at the start
Help came this afternoon from Geraint Thomas, the Tour de France winner, who talked him through the climb.
He told him: “I think the good thing is it’s the steepest at the start, so once you get over that initial sort of 500-750 metre bit, it does ease off.”
Thomas added: “It’s one of them, you just get into a nice rhythm, as I say just pedal rep after pedal rep, just keep going forward.”
Carol Vorderman: ‘You’ve become a national treasure’
Carol Vorderman, one of his closest friends, came on DJ Spoony’s show to say the two of them swap voice notes most days and that she had been listening all week.
She told him: “You’ve become a national treasure now, because everyone loves you!”
She also had the numbers. By 2.15pm he had ridden 321.5 miles, climbed 8,840ft, eaten 15 doughnuts and got through 10 pairs of cycling dungarees.
£1.77 million, and a title from Welshpool
The total at that point was more than £1,770,000 for BBC Children in Need, the BBC says. It was £1.4 million when he set off this morning and only passed £1 million yesterday.
Before he left Welshpool the mayor, Cllr Bill Rowell, made him Honorary Lord and Bailiff of the town for the day, with a scroll to prove it.
The scroll called him a “broadcaster, drummer extraordinaire, and intrepid cyclist of the four nations” and the title “entirely unofficial and magnificent”.
He had crossed the border last night to a welcome at Welshpool Rugby Club, where his husband Arran was waiting with their dog Brillo.
Harri, 22, rides alongside him
For part of today he had company from Harri Griffiths, a 22-year-old from Surrey who has lived with the effects of a brain tumour since he was six.
Harri is a young ambassador for The Brain Tumour Charity, which Children in Need helps to fund. He has nerve damage in both feet, struggles with balance and had hardly cycled before.
He told The One Show: “I had to relearn basically everything, how to eat, how to walk.”
Friday: Blaenavon to Cardiff
Tomorrow’s final leg runs from Blaenavon through Ystrad Mynach and Caerphilly to Cardiff, according to the BBC’s live tracker.
He is due to finish during Vernon Kay’s Radio 2 show, which goes out from Cardiff from 9am, after checking in with Sara Cox at breakfast.
Donations can be made through bbc.co.uk/owain, and the film of the ride is on BBC One on Friday 20 November at 7.30pm.
Discover more from Swansea Bay News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
