Stamford Lincolnshire is a pretty market town, and apparently one of the happiest places in the UK to live. Try telling that to the peleton as they hurtle through it (or close to it anyway), reaching 186.5 kilometres in the process. Go team!

Word has just come through that Peterborough has been attained! 168.5 kilometres and going strong. However, it looks as if our heroes will be cycling after nightfall. Emergency lights have been procured. Be brave, your half-way house is not a million miles away!

The intrepid cyclists have reached St. Ives, which would at first suggest some cataclysmic error with their navigation systems (and no little superhuman pedal-power), but does in fact mean that they have arrived at St. Ives, Cambridgeshire. Phew!  

The riders have reached Bourn just outside Cambridge, 105.5k. in. Bourn aboundeth in natural springs, which is just as well as the riders are gasping (of course, we all know that Bourn means 'spring' or 'water' in Anglo-Saxon, don't we?). 

The hardy posse have reached Much Hadham in need of much refreshment. Only meagre rejoicing by this stage, 52 kilometres in.

The riders may well have reached Waltham Abbey after 28.2 kilometres in the saddle,  smatterings of rejoicing reported.

The lycra-clad band of brothers and sisters have left St Pancras; spirits and adrenaline are high.

To commemorate nine librarians and a reader cycling from the British Library south to the British Library north in commemoration of the Tour de France's Yorkshire Grand Départ, we've decided to make them into collective Indiana Joneses with this progress map. A red line will speed - or most probably creep - northwards from St. Pancras to Boston Spa, updated periodically on Twitter (@BLMaps) to reflect the group's probable location over the 200 mile, two day journey.

Note: this technology will seriously blow your mind... or at least it would if you were living at the time of the production of the map we'll be using. 

The 'Anglia Figura' or Cottonian map was probably drawn in 1536-7, and is regarded as one of the earliest accurately drawn maps of the British Isles. Subsequently owned by the Tudor statesman Sir Robert Cotton and in his collection to the British Museum in 1753, there is evidence to suggest that the map once hung on a wall in the palace of Henry VIII, protected from light and damage by a big pair of curtains.

The Anglia Figura. London, c. 1537. Cotton MS Augustus I.i.9 

Accuracy, of course, is subjective. Although startlingly modern in the mid 16th century, with an oh-so mathematical border, the map does not compare with mapping techologies used today. Even so, for it to be possible to follow a route through hundreds of named setttlements will say a great deal about this 500 year old vellum document.  

It was tempting to force the British Library cyclists to navigate their journey using the map itself - or rather a copy of it. However, as some of you may have noticed, there are no roads marked, and such cruelty seemed unwarranted. Besides, they have their work cut out as it is. So it is upon the Anglia Figura that we will witness the majestic progress of our merry band, with possibly a little rejoicing.

They depart at 0830. Onward!

Twitter hashtag #TdeBL

Follow @BLMaps