Watching the images today of the Tour de France passing through the London Olympic Park and Westminster, I was getting goosebumps over the fact that in under four weeks I will also be riding those London roads while they are closed to traffic... that will be me, sprinting down the Mall like Marcel Kittel (okay, maybe not, but you get the idea!)

I will be cycling the RideLondon 100 on Sunday 10th August (click here to see the 102 mile route), and in the process hope to raise some money for Mary’s Meals.

If you haven’t heard of Mary’s Meals, that’s not a surprise – it’s a fairly small charity, and that’s one of the reasons I decided to ride for it: like the London Marathon, the majority of RideLondon places are handed to major charities, with a number of additional spots being awarded by ballot; as I won a place in the ride via the ballot, I decided to ride for a charity that isn’t handed out places by the RideLondon organisers.

Anyway, it is a charity that works on a very simple premise: many children in third world countries do not go to school because they have to spend their days looking for/earning money for food. By providing one meal a day in a place of education, Mary’s Meals increases the number of children attending school, helping to break to the cycle of poverty. It is also an extremely efficient charity, with 93p out of every £1 raised going directly to those in need.

If you’d like to know more about them, I suggest visiting either the Mary’s Meals website or its youtube channel. Or you can watch this 4 minute video below:

In the meantime, if you’d like to sponsor me, please go to my fundraising page. Any contribution will be gratefully received – it costs just £12.20 for Mary’s Meals to feed one child for an entire year.