Day 1 - Edinburgh to Wooler - Thursday 28th August

I cycled with Craig down from Balerno and met up with the rest of the team in Princes St Gardens underneath Edinburgh Castle.

We left at 0830 and headed to Portobello and on to Tranent where we said our goodbyes to Mike and headed to Gifford.

Just passed the village Phil became the first rider on the 3.30 at Haydock to fall at the first fence doing 2mph while he tried to select the rights gears going up a hill. He fell to the right which is not good but we all thought he was practicing for France.

Another steep hill followed which was a 17% climb – horrendous. In fact it turned out to be the steepest incline of the whole journey to MC - we just didn't know it at the time.

We met 2 other cyclists heading in the opposite direction shouting 'Lands End that way' (pointing in the opposite direction) but I responded by saying ' Monte Carlo that way' where they had perplexed looks of wtf.

Lunch at Duns and we sat outside the Borders Bagutte who kindly donated money to the charity which was excellent.

Panninies and drinks consumed we headed off towards Wooler with Phil energised, in fact so much so that he took us 4 miles on the wrong direction! I think he was using a ship satnav – direct route to North Sea.

Soon we were back on the road and with Alan getting to grips with the satnav with a 6 mile detour weeventually made Wooler at 5pm

A massive thank you to the Tankerville hotel and a chap called Norman kindly donated money to the charity. Thank you from the team!

90 miles in and Day 1 over

Monte Carlo cycle jersey

Many thanks to Dom and the design team for putting bright and cheerful look to the jersey. I would also like to thank Brian at the http://www.thecyclejersey.com/ for producing the jerseys.

Bike Ready To Rumble! Well, nearly

Bike serviced, luggage on and ready to rumble! Well that's not strictly true, I still have to fix the back light on and figure out exactly how I'm going to get all my luggage into my luggage compartments which combined only equal 14 litres capacity - not a lot for a 17 day, 1,300 miles of road.

The big question is - will my Swalble Marathon plus tyres do the job? Only time will tell.

My favourite item on the bike is the French horn - I'm gonna have fun with that annoying the rest of the group but thinking about it I'd better keep that to a minimum.

I splashed out on an Ortilieb Front carrier with a Altura Bag on the back (apparantly waterproof but just to make sure I've put a luminous waterproof cover over it from Decathlon.

I'm gonna have a hoot on this trip haha

The Famous 5

The last team meet was at the Bridge Inn at Ratho where we tried our Monte Carlo Shirts on which seemed a perfect fit for everyone including our bespoke T-Shirts.

North Berwick Training run

It's not been easy for any of the group to get out and put the miles in due to work and family commitments before we head off but Phil and I managed a 70 mile round trip to North Berwick.

However, we did manage to stop at Lucas in Musselburgh and slap back on the calories that we had just burnt down to NB - seemed the logical thing to do - there is no point in making it easy for ourselves for MC?

Sticky Cleats

Matt at Just Bike repairs in Juniper Green was kind enough to sort my cleats out because one set decided to stick to my pedal and would not unlock itself. The only issue was that I had to go into the bank and they were closing very soon which meant there was only one option left to me - take my foot out of the shoe!

I felt such an idiot walking into the bank with one shoe on and one shoe off! I got some looks in the bank as you would expect - I was waiting for the bank clerk to ask me if I wanted a loan to buy another shoe to even my feet up.

Back outside I somehow managed to unlock the shoe from the pedal but that meant pushing down on a small pedal area but it seemed to work ok... wouldn't like to do for many miles though.

So down to Matt in Juniper Green at Just Bike Repairs and within a few minutes I was up and running again. Great customer service and a sofa to sit on while you wait!

http://www.justbikerepairs.co.uk/

Extreme Training in Uganda

In early May I (Graeme) went out to Uganda to visit my daughter but before I went I arranged with a Dutch chap called Bert who does cycling tours in the Kampala area to lend me a bike for a few days on a Road trip around the country.

On day one of the Road trip we reached the Equator where I took the bike out the back of the jeep and cycled from the Northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere - all of about 5 metres - I was exhausted after that marathon cycle ha ha My daughter thought I was crazy just borrowing a bicycle for all of a few metres but, hey, why not! At least I can say I cycled over the Equator.

However, the following week we couldn't turn down the opportunity to go on one of his Cultural Cycle Tours which involved cycling down to a little harbour where long wooden boats would take us across to an island for a 16 mile cycle around the villages. Training over.