Thanks very much for having taken the time to visit my fundraising page, this time for Cancer Research UK. Whilst they are primarily a British charity, the work they do benefits people around the globe, and goes a long way to furthering our chances of beating this horrible disease. In recent years many people dear to me, both family and friends, have been affected by, and/or succumbed to, Cancers of various types. Whilst I accept that my contribution here will likely be but a drop in the ocean of what is needed, everything helps and it's a chance for me, and you, to say; "Thanks for the hard work".

The challenge I have set for myself this time is not going to take me across borders and over mountain ranges, nor is it going to be done over a 2 or 3 week period involving battling to find hotels and the like. It is, in essence, a one day bike ride between two cities within the same country. Germany is, however, not a small country. There are 620km between Munich and Berlin, following roads that I'm hoping will turn out to be cyclable. One day, or a 24 hour period to be more precise, is also not a huge amount of time in which to cover that distance on a bicycle.

At 10am, on Saturday the 22nd of June (provisionally), I will be setting off from the City of Munich in Bavaria, attempting to reach Berlin in the North East of the country. My goal is to reach Berlin before 10am on the Sunday, having covered just over 620km, riding day and night at an overall average speed of around 26kmh. This average assumes  no stopping whatsoever, which is very unlikely to be the case.

Where my previous cycling attempts were as much more about will-power and planning, than they were about being a decent cyclist; this time I'm actually going to need to be quick (enough). That means a lot of training between now and le grande depart.

If you're interested in tracking my progress, I am keeping a blog of my training experience and general observations on my chances, here

http://munich2berlin.blogspot.co.uk/

In a week or so, a very good friend of mine will have adapted my http://www.goodwillcycling.org/ webpage to focus on this particular challenge, with more info and links to hopefully encourage more people to donate. Also hopefully inspire a few people to stand out on the route and give me a water bottle and a schnitzel as I cycle by.

The route is still yet to be 100% confirmed, but this will be included on the webpage and in my blog in good time. I will be doing a research trip in May to try and minimise the chances of me getting lost on the way. I also plan to build my own bike from scratch for this project, to be auctioned off at the completion to try and help me recover some costs, with any leftover money going to the charity. Again, this will also be kept up to date in the blog.

Thanks for reading, I need to spend less time typing and more time pedalling now I think.

Craig