For the third year in a row Fitwise entered a team into the 47 mile Glasgow to Edinburgh cycle challenge. It’s fair to say that the team had their own individual approach to preparing for the event. Some embarked on a three month training programme to build stamina, hone their cycling skills and generally prepare for a lengthy cycle involving over 2,000 feet of climbing over 6 hours of pedalling.  Others relied on their enthusiasm and youth rather than spending time in the saddle before the event.

However all nine of us arrived in Glasgow green at 8am on a sunny Sunday morning excited at the prospect of making our way across the width of Scotland to arrive without any headwind or rain in prospect.

The first thing you realise as you pedal east is that cycling on traffic free roads is so much more pleasant than sharing the tarmac with cars and lorries.  For the majority of the journey the road is closed to normal traffic and the participants can cycle two or three abreast making it a more sociable event than cycling is normally.

The organisers provide refreshments every 10 miles or so which means you hardly have time to warm up before the next stop to refuel with bottles

of milk (the event is sponsored by Fresh and Low), Tunnocks caramel wafers, bananas  and other goodies.  It’s amazing how you can convince yourself to eat something at every stop. Let alone at the finish in Murrayfield. 

We all kept in touch and regrouped at every refuelling point and successfully completed the event within minutes of each other.
Reflecting in the hospitality suite at Murrayfield we all agreed that it had been a great day and that we would do it all again next year. I am not sure there was quite the same enthusiasm on Monday morning but I am sure some of us will be there again next year.  Blair 

at least wants to complete the ride when he is 70 and he deserves to have a full team supporting him. 

 A challenge to all of the team to get on your bike in 2015 to join us!