Kit list

For those of you wondering what one takes for 3 weeks of cycle touring, our choices are as follows...

1. The bikes - Meet Rapha and Brailsford, our hopefully trusty steads for the next 3 weeks. Two entry level Ridgeback touring bikes, with rear racks and vaguely comfortable looking saddles (to be confirmed how comfortable they are in reality):

 

2. The clothing - Team Rose kit, love it! (no we didn't have our names added - there's an awesome German company called Rose bikes who do great and very good value cycling kit and we thought it would be funny):

And most importantly, the padding on the shorts looks good.
3. The most amusing thing in our kit bag - "if it's good enough for Pippa Middleton's bottom, it's good enough for my wife's!"

4. The rest of the kit - as little as possible. With the late inclusion of our trainers, we have just fitted everything into 4 dry bags (two XL, two L), plus two saddle bags:

This includes: a range of clothing which will hopefully protect us sufficiently from blizzards over mountain passes, torrential rain and burning sun and make us just about passable for dining out; small washbag with lots of suncream; minimal bike repair kit (fingers crossed nothing major goes wrong); emergency rations; paper maps for whole route which take up a surprising amount of space and our ipad so we can keep you updated!