I managed to get a place in RideLondon again this year through the ballot, and was going to just enjoy the ride, however as you may or may not know my beloved godmother Wendy passed away earlier this year. She had battled through several rounds of cancer through several decades before it finally got the better of her. She was an incredible lady; so strong and so positive in the face of such an awful, prolonged battle.

In light of that I wanted to dedicate my ride this year to her. In her last weeks I managed to visit her in St. Wilfred's Hospice. They looked after her amazingly well, even letting her cat Timmy come and visit! The change in her mood and demeanour was amazing - and is something that's really stayed with me. Hospices always used to be dark, scary and depressing places in my mind, but they're absolutely not. They have such a positive effect on people's final days and operate largely on donations.

And that's where you come in... I'm going to use my RideLondon this year to raise money for the hospice that cared for her so wonderfully. There's no goal this time, no obligation to raise a certain amount so please give any amount you can spare, even if it's just a couple of pounds. These places can't keep doing what they do without our help.