In an attempt to keep fit and do my bit for the environment I began cycling to work. My current commute is just under 27 miles per day and takes me from Bristol to Bath and back, mainly along the first Sustrans Cycle Route: the Bristol-Bath Railway Path. I cycled 2,350 commuter miles in 2007.

To make the journey a bit more interesting/challenging this year, and to put something back into the mix, I thought I would take a virtual trek accross North America, transposing my commuter miles (red line) onto my virtual route (blue line) on the attached map.

In January I started this virtual journey close to the area where John Cabot landed on his first voyage from Bristol to Newfoundland. I am currently making my virtual way down to towards Chicago, where I aim to follow Route 66; travelling all the way to LA.

The trip, according to the Google route planner, is 4,145 miles long and I aim to reach the Los Angeles before breaking up for the Christmas holidays (this year). In doing so I should be at least 15kg lighter, healthier and will have saved about 1.5 tonnes of CO2 (compared with driving the same distance to and from work for a year); nevermind the CO2 I have saved by not flying to America.

Blog: I'm only 24 hours from Tulsa... Following my recent training camp in the French/Swiss Alps I'm back on course and only slightly below target miles. To date I have managed 2,400 commuter miles that leaves 1750 to go... I've just bought a new saddle, which is making the journey more enjoyable, although at £75 it wants to... Thanks for your continued support and sponsorship!

Please help me to reach my goals and give a couple of quid to a worthy cause...