Five months of Saturdays

In September, Amber and Shaheryar ride 2,026 km from London to Lisbon, raising £2,026 for Shelter and Andy's Man Club. Before any of that happens, there is the training. Here is where it stands.

Back in March they set out the principle: you build for a long distance the way you build for anything. Start, keep going, and let one day's progress make the next one possible. That principle has since turned into a fairly unglamorous routine. Amber and Shaheryar have gone out and ridden roughly 100 km, most Saturdays, for the last five months. Some of those rides were fast, most were not, and the majority were hot and sweaty. Added together, the Saturdays alone come to about the distance of the ride itself. They have already covered London to Lisbon, one weekend at a time, without leaving the south of England.

Nine laps of Richmond Park

Once a month for the last three months, they went to Richmond Park. They rode nine laps, which comes out at almost exactly 100 km, with the same climbs in the same direction. It is a dull way to spend a morning and an honest one. With every variable held still, the only thing left to measure is the rider.

Each visit they increased their speed by a kilometre an hour. Two kilometres an hour across the three months. On a 3-week ride that difference is worth close to an hour a day, which is the difference between arriving in daylight and hunting for a hotel in the dark.

Two sportives with UK Cycling Events

The sportives, ridden with hundreds of people at UK Cycling Events, did a different job. Riding in a group teaches you things a solo Saturday cannot, such as keeping on somebody’s wheel to push yourself, having an overall time limit, or pacing against people who are quicker than you and encouraging the ones who are not. Amber went into the first sportive having not ridden at all much. She came out of the second one comfortable in it.

Sea to sea, in two days

In early summer over two days, they rode Hadrian's Cycleway coast to coast, Irish Sea to the North Sea. Back-to-back long days are the closest to the real thing, because the second morning is where the ride actually starts. Legs are heavy, the saddle is unwelcoming, and the only way to find out what you have left is to get on and turn the pedals. It also gave the heritage side of the project its first proper outing, a Roman frontier ridden end to end, which is useful preparation for the eight World Heritage Sites they are planning on visiting.

The Dunwich Dynamo

Then, 200 km through the night from London to the Suffolk coast. No signs, no support, no sleep. A few thousand riders leaving the city after dark and arriving at Dunwich beach around sunrise, with the middle hours spent on unlit lanes navigating by the red lights of whoever is in front.

Night riding is a skill of its own, and the Dynamo is the fastest way to learn it. Knog kitted them out for exactly this, and the lights held up through the whole night. On the road to Lisbon there will be evenings that run late and mornings that start before dawn. Both are considerably less intimidating now.

What five months has changed

Amber started this with no long-distance riding behind her. She has now completed a coast-to-coast, an overnight double century and two sportives, and rides 100 km on a Saturday as a matter of routine. Shaheryar has ridden long before, but never with a partner learning the whole thing from zero, which turns out to be its own kind of training. Fitness was the easy part. The harder skills have been reading the route, managing food intake and getting comfortable with the ordinary discomfort of a long day.

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Their routes are plotted in Komoot, the kit list is nearly settled, and the bikes are close to their final setup. What remains is more of the same. More Saturdays, a little quicker each time.

Their JustGiving page is live: every pound is a kilometre, and every kilometre gets them closer to Lisbon. Donate at JustGiving-London2Lisbon2026, and follow the training, the route and the ride itself on Instagram and LinkedIn between now and September.

14+ days. 4 countries. 8 World Heritage Sites. 2,026 kilometres, one pedal stroke at a time.

Standing still isn't an option. See you in Lisbon.

“If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl, but by all means, keep moving forward.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.