Our valiant group of spartans departed from Gatwick this morning headed for Greece and will start their epic 1,500 mile two week cycle on Saturday. Here’s the first report from Ed Condry from up in the clouds..

At 37,000 feet over Frankfurt, flying at 490mph, the captain said that we had 1,130 miles to go to Athens. It felt like a very long way to cycle back. We left Canterbury City Council at 5.45am today with Ernie and Sarah driviing us to Gatwick. Then the dehumanising process of being loaded onto an airplane. Easyjet remarkably straightforward and unpretentious. Jerome upset there’s no free sandwiches. The Alps slipped by covered in snow. We’ll be climbing those in ten days time.