Surrey Comet sports editor Tim Ashton, pictured, has been hard in training for the RideLondon 100, and time is running out for those final preparations.

With a little more than two weeks before RideLondon 100 starts, it would be churlish of me to suggest the nerves are not building.

This is my first RideLondon 100, and although I’ve completed other endurance challenges I’ve never had to wear a cycle helmet for one – and trust me, when I am wearing a cycle helmet, I look like an idiot.

But moreover, I am nervous about getting to the starting line on time.

To get 25,000 cyclists into, and out of, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in a three-hour slot in the early hours of Sunday, August 2, is an organisational feat of huge magnitude.

I’ve worked out I need to leave home at 4.30am to ensure reaching the Blackwall Lane drop-off zone in time to cycle the five miles to Stratford, and reach my start area by 6.45am.

That’s five miles before the ride even starts.

Not that the miles is an issue – I’ve done (and am still doing) the training. One thing the London marathon taught me is respect for the challenge ahead.

I’ve cycled approaching 1,000 miles in the past couple of months – including a 100-mile stretch that, to be honest, left me a broken man.

At 50 miles all was well, at 70 miles my legs were waving the white flag, at 80 miles my whole body was screaming and at 90 miles I did not care how much of an idiot I looked in my helmet – I just wanted to stop.

Funnily enough, one thing that kept me going to the doorstep of my home was the thought of a cup of tea – and my wife duly brought one out as I lay prostrate on the floor of our boot room.

But at least I know it can be done. More next week.

I am cycling for Children with Cancer, to sponsor me go to justgiving.com/Tim-Ashton2.