Bryony Hooper is the winner from our competition with Threshold Sports which will see her and a friend gain entry on the UK’s largest multi-day cycling sportive, the Mitie London Revolution. She will be updating us with her training progress right up to the event, so stay tuned!

Sitting down to write this blog entry got me questioning, and not for the first time, just how much of keen a cyclist am I?

I mean, I appear to exhibit those strange habits we associate with cyclists these days: regularly choosing a cycle ride over a lazy lie-in on the weekend, cycling to work regardless of the weather, and even clogging-up my work’s mailroom with my alarmingly frequent bike related purchases.

But am I the sort of keen cyclist who, with minimal flinching, would agree to do a two day 185-mile sportive around London?? Well, thanks to Total Women’s cycling, I have the chance to find out just that!

The Mitie London Revolution is the largest multi-day sportive in the UK, and will involve lots of keen cyclists  donning our best lycra to cycle around London in just two days. The organisers of the sportive have thought of everything and admission to the sportive will include a well signposted route, multiple feed stations and, even camping with hot showers for the Saturday night.

Winning the competition came as quite a surprise. I entered the competition on a whim but could not pass up the opportunity of such a challenge. While I have never completed a sportive before, I am familiar with multiple days in the saddle having completed a ride from London to Paris last year.

After months of training rides with my partner in crime Anna, not even a torrential downpour in the Parisian suburbs could not damper the huge sense of achievement we both experienced cycling down the Champs Elysees.

My first official week of training for the ride got off to worst of start possible as I promptly went and pulled a glute muscle in a spin class! After a grumpy and uncomfortable week on public transport I decided I needed to seek professional opinion.

Thankfully the Physio confirmed there is no serious damage (phew!), but that I will need to take it slowly for the next few weeks and make sure I do my prescribed exercises. Many of these stretches can be done from the comfort of my desk so I shall be expecting one or two the strange looks from my co-workers over the coming weeks!

I will keep you posted on how I get on during the build up to the big day, including my training plan.

Wish me luck!

Bryony