Westward Ho!

Setting off from Antrim at 6:15am on Good Friday, a brisk westerly kept the air blue as we pummelled our way to Derry before parting company, Tango for Portrush and Cash for Dungloe, Donegal. The pizza was going down a treat in Portrush by 1:30pm, but it was 4:45pm before a saddle-sore Cash dropped anchor on the west coast.

One From the BBC Archives

Tango & Cash, with Jake, on bikes atop Slieve Donard in 1997 - an inspiration for any young bikers out there thinking the Transalp Challenge beyond them.

Special mention must go to Jake's 80's teen BMX outfit and pink Dawes Kickback! They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

It's About Balance

See Lyle in action in his stocking soles! Here he uses the post-bike to beat his previous trackstand personal best of 2 seconds. Seems impossible, but it looks like he will be there balancing perfectly for a long time to come!

Postman Pat... Cash

'Twas deep in mid-winter 2004 when this buckin' bronco Royal Mail bike was hauled to safety from the Sixmilewater outside Antrim. Now it forms a key part of our Transalp Challenge training plans, weighing in at a svelte 21 stone, 4 lbs (assuming a payload of about 50 letters).

Spring has Sprung

With the winter firmly behind us and the hot clammy days moving in, imagine how surprised and delighted we were to find these snowballs stuffed down in the bottom of our Camelbaks, and all 3 still in pristine condition! Oh, the fun we had...

That's the Bike for Me!

Full suspension, yet climbs like a hardtail, twitchy and responsive on the descents, eats up the singletrack - perfect for the Transalp Challenge.

18 inch feels about right, but I think I will hang on for a blue one.

And They Call This Progress

3 hours from home, and not a buffalo in sight. The silence was deafening up there. See what a difference a mere 100 years can make?!

Dulce et Decorum Est

It is sweet and right, alright, and a percentage not seen since my results in 3rd year Latin.

Read the full Wilfred Owen poem of the same name.

New Navigational Technology

In our search for hills, hills, hills, we are now piloting a number of assistive technologies for general navigation. The first of these is the "map", which can be described as a representation, usually on a plane surface, of a region of the earth or heavens. We are sticking with the earth.

Good Progress Made on Weight Loss Program

With all this training, the weight is just DROPPING off my ginger colleague - he is down from a size 16 to a size 10 in only 2 months! Click the pic to see Tango travel what was a previously inaccessible road, given his former obese form.

Damn that Dastardly Dunlop Dude!

Training with Tango gives you plenty of time to stretch, as 50% of every training ride is spent standing at the roadside watching him fix punctures. We have decided it best to start running solid rubber tyres on his bike - pneumatic just ain't cuttin' it!

We are of course hoping that freshly-slashed black-thorn hedges will be seldom seen on the Transalp Challenge.

Early Signs of Transalp Challenge Glory

Taken in late summer 1974, this photograph shows Tango and Cash on one of their first weekly excursions.

Tango's mournful look as he props up the bike for Cash is an early sign of the jealous rivalry that has driven them both to the ultimate in physical and mental challenges. However, 16-grid Sodoku was starting to affect family life, so the Transalp Challenge dream was born.