Training is progressing well despite a nagging summer cold, I am getting out for a good long weekend ride and then trying to get one or two rides in after work during the week. Pleasingly I am getting and bettering a few hill PBs so fitness is getting there with only 8 weeks to go. Good news is that I will be being joined at Zaragoza for the last 10 days by two of my Hadlow cycling pals Nick and Chris, especially handy as Nick is a bit Peruvian and can converse with the locals, so should help us communicate, although he has promised not to navigate. This will be a great help to me as I expect to be a bit worn out by then so some peloton riding and encouragement will be great. 

Welcome to my first post. I had not intended to set one up but for some reason more than one person was interested in following my progress and encouraged me to start this off.

I am hopeful that Internet connections dependant I will be able to keep this up over the 7 weeks of this most epic of European journeys.

the oft asked question is why, my reply is always why not whilst I am still able. In reality it was fellow Hadlow cyclist Chris Goulder who started the idea just over two years ago. Ever up for a real challenge I managed to get agreement from work to take a sabbatical and even more importantly permission from Caroline to leave her and the kids for 7 weeks.

All therefore set to go, but a very important ingredient was ensuring that I had full support for the trip. We thought of only one person who could fit the bill, Nigel Stevens, Caroline’s cousin and as luck had it he just left the police force and being up for a challenge agreed to act as support driver and crew in his camper. Just to make things even better his wife Monica, a GP, decided to take some time off work too, so I am off fully supported with security and medical support. Happy Days

The site is in development at the moment- they always say that don’t they and I hopefully I can add some more interesting background pages on the route, charities supported and thanks to all those that have helped this mad idea get off the ground over the coming weeks to get used to the idea of blogging and making it something that you actually want to read.