At 6am on Sunday 13th September, I'll be dragging my podgy "dad body" through the 87km London to Brighton cycle ride.

I'll be proudly riding my "sit up and beg" hybrid bike - refurbished by prisoners inside HMP Bristol, at Life Cycle's original Bikes Beyond Bars mechanic training workshop.

It should make an amusing sight set against hundreds of other riders on flash road bikes.

As my body has kindly reminded me during my (limited) training, this will be the longest cycle ride I've done since my son was born. He is 5 now. Whoops.

Donations will help support Life Cycle's charitable projects. These include Two's Company, which offers blind people days out cycling on tandems alongside sighted volunteers and Bikes Beyond Bars, which helps 150 prisoners a year qualify as an accredited cycle mechanic. Thank you!