To give ourselves the best possible chance of completing the ride, we decided that a Road Bike would allow us to travel at the fastest average speed in order to cover the large distances in a reasonable timescale. Using road bikes prevents us from carrying equipment and clothing, which is why we've decided to have a support vehicle.

We both have the same bike - the 2008 B'Twin Sport 4. The bike is not a premium brand (Decathlon's own brand), allowing us to get a much higher spec for the price than a more recognised brand. At just over £600 each, the bikes are high-spec and very light. We decided to go for a Triple for the easy gears to help with climbs through training. The Shimano 105 shifters and chainset are a much higher spec than the transmission systems on similarly priced competing brands. The frame has carbon forks and stays to help with shock absorbion, and keeps the weight below 10kg for the bike. The major trade-off of having a racing road bike will be the lack of comfort over several days.

We bought the bikes without any guidance from reviews. However, Bike Radar have since given the bike an excellent rating - check out their review here.

The B'Twin Sport 4

Rather than forking out for bike computers and/or GPS trackers, we decided to go multi-functional and use Nokia Mobile Phones with the excellent Sports Tracker software. Mike's got a 5800 XPress Music, and John's rollin' an N85. Sports tracker uses the built-in assisted GPS to track our cycling and produce useful statistics at the end. The stats (speeds, elevation, distances) can then be uploaded to the Sports Tracker site for everyone to check out. You can even attach photos to the routes and track the choons listened to on the ride.

Having trained with just 1 pair of Aldi Bib Shorts, we've finally taken the plunge and spent the necessary many hundreds of pounds to get the right kit. New saddles, tyres, chains, spares, bib shorts, jerseys and chammy cream have been purchased! We'll not list all the gear, because there's just too much of it. We mostly stuck to the cheaper stuff, though.