Riding 220 miles from Manchester to London made me a right cow

Helen Pidd took on Rapha's Manchester-London ride for Ambitious About Autism on Sunday. Here are the (very painful) lessons she learned about long distance cycling after 17 hours and 19 minutes in the saddle

I always knew riding all the way from Manchester to London in one day was going to be a struggle. It was designed that way. Simon Mottram, Rapha's dapper founder, put on the event to raise money for Ambitious About Autism, a brilliant little charity which helps his profoundly autistic son, Oscar. "Having autism is hard. So the event had to be hard too. We weren't going to just ride to Brighton or have a nice jaunt to Paris to look at the Eiffel Tower," he said at the pasta party on Saturday night.

Before signing up, the furthest I'd ever pedalled was the 114-mile Dunwich Dynamo, and that was five years ago. Setting off from the velodrome in Manchester on Sunday morning, that was still the furthest I'd ever ridden. I had quite a few more centuries under my belt, including the tough Etape du Dales and the very enjoyable Ride London. But I still went into the event having really only cycled half the distance.