Edinburgh Castle to Rome Colosseum.

My name's Calum Meston and I'm a Tennis Coach from Edinburgh, Portobello. A keen cyclist, but built for the tennis court.

For the last couple of years I've been an active participant for DoddieAid (#TeamEdinburgh) and this year, 2023, I plan to expand my contribution by taking on the challenge of cycling unsupported from Edinburgh to Rome on behalf of the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation.

Since beginning in January 2021 I've met some incredibly inspirational and passionate people and they've inspired me to take on a challenge of my own so I can play my part in helping raise awareness for Motor Neuron Disease (MND) and raising funds to find meaningful treatments.

This year I plan on building up to the longest time I'll have spent sat down in my life and focus on gripping the handle bars, rather than the tennis racquet. With now less than a month to go training is almost complete and I'm feeling as ready as I can be (excl. a few injuries on the way). I regard myself as a fairly experienced cyclist having completed unsupported rides on the NC500 and Edinburgh to London, but this was also all on the correct side of the road and I hear the Alps are fairly bruising.

The ride will be approximately 1700 miles (2750KM) and will rake in close to 76,000ft of climbing over the duration of the trip (3x Mount Everest) and take in 7 countries.

Starting off in Edinburgh's Old Town the ride will take me through some of the toughest roads the UK and Europe has to offer. Including the notorious Col de l'Iseran, the highest road pass in the Alps! Other notable checkpoints include: Rotterdam, Antwerp, Ghent, Lloire Valley, Geneva, crossing the Alps into Italy, before heading through Torino and finally Rome.

The full ride itinerary and live tracking will be available on Komoot and the day by day will be confirmed here when bookings are approved.

Training begins/began in the New Year (Rome wasn't built in a day) and you can catch me representing #TeamEdinburgh at Doddie Aid. All activity will be uploaded to Strava and can be found on this page!

More details to be uploaded shortly.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.