A team meeting at last...

Left to right: Davidson, Dean, Pemberton, Gimson, Doble, Pearson

Doble and Gimson admire the website

So finally we were all able to get together last night for a team meeting, the first time all six of us have managed to get together since we started, and probably the last time for another few months... Thanks to Pearso for hosting and Dobson and Hugh coming up from London.

After an excellent Risotto crafted by Pearso and baked goods from the F-dog we settled down to a productive few hours...

First on the agenda was setting our departure date, which is now officially Saturday July 17th, just 3 months and 17 days away! In terms of setting an end date its hard to be precise until we do some more riding as a group, but for the moment we're thinking of aiming for 28 days which would see us arriving in Casablanca around August 15th. Though we stressed the need for a realistic target at the meeting, there was unanimous support (I think) for being ambitious and looking to push ourselves hard along the way.

Aside from dates we talked about the other tasks we need to do before we leave, the most pressing of which was launching our website next week (top work thus far from Pearso) and then beginning to search for a corporate sponosor... more of which to come soon. We also made plans to research camping equipment, stash and the route in finer detail, if anyone has any knowledge or advice then please do get in touch...

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First training ride on new bike

So I finally managed to get out of Oxford and cover a few miles on the new Trek, 17.7 miles to be exact, measured thanks to the cycle pedometer that Alice (above - hopefully Rory is not too excited by the picture) gave me for my 22nd birthday... which also told me my average speed, top speed and a variety of other interesting things which will be very useful in assessing training rides and preparing for the ride itself.

The route took me south of Oxford to Kennington then Radley (soon to be home of teammate Pearson) then north-westerly to Boars Hill, a reasonably testing climb, before back into the West of Oxford down Botley road. Though still a pretty tame ride in mild conditions it is at least a start, but more importantly allowed me to see how good the bike is, felt noticeably lighter and quicker than anything I'd used before and the gears are a dream. The team at Ben Hayward really have done us well, can't wait to get for a training ride with some of the other 'lads', except Hugh, "I don't like that Hugh".

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