Our summer holiday plans are to cycle as much as we can along Eurovelo routes from Berlin, via Dresden, Prague, Ceske Budejovice and Linz to Vienna. That’s about 500 miles, and we want a few days enjoying Vienna before we return to Berlin (by train!). So we’ll need to average 60 miles a day, and be prepared to do 100-mile days if we have days off to explore the places we pass through.

We’ll be carrying our spare (and used) kit, arse-unguents, tools, waterproofs and anything else we’ll need en route. (We won’t be camping, so we should get away with 2 full panniers each). Despite all the spinning we do, we still need to train up to long distances with loaded bikes. So we’ve started gently today by cycling to Linlithgow and back. It’s reasonably hilly, and there was a headwind on the way out. But it was fun to get out of Edinburgh onto fairly decent tarmac and enjoy the sunshine and pretty countryside. Even better, it was warm enough to wear just one layer of leggings and a cycle-jersey over a thin base layer.