Firstly, you need to get on the bike and ride it. After this, you will have the confidence to ride the bike and then you can start riding long distances and train for the event in hand.

My first bit of advice for any new rider is to plan your rides carefully and stick with it. Start off with short rides and increase gradually. Try not to do the same route over and over.

If you can and time allows, commute to and from work. This will give you a good base fitness and its greener for the environment. It is also a quicker way of building up the miles in your legs, allowing you to do more structuredrides at the weekend.

Look around on the British Cycling Website and try and find your local cycling club. This will help you to find new routes to ride and also meet like minded people. It will also let you get some free advice about training and any other bike issues.

Once you have a good base layer of miles in your legs (around 1000 miles), start structuring you’re riding around the events that you planning to do. This event needs you to be able to ride over 100 miles a day over four days. That’s a lot for the body to take on if you haven’t trained for it.

Cycle sportives are not races; they are cycling events which are timed and broken down into three standards, Bronze Silver and Gold Standard. Cycle sportives are good events to use as goals. See the internet for more details or contact me on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Making time to rest is as important as making time to train. Listen to your body. You may think your fit to ride, but your body will be telling you something different.