We are the SAD. Which sounds worse than it is.

Stefano, Aurelio, Domenico — three Italian Londoners who one day decided that the best way to spend a May bank holiday was to get on bikes and suffer for charity. Every year since.

This is not a race. Nobody is winning. The only real competition is who complains the most — and that race, we are all equally qualified for. It is more about roadside cafe stops that take far longer than planned, headwinds that were definitely not in the forecast, and coastal roads that make every kilometre worth it.

Every year, in May, we ride. And every year, we raise money for a charity that matters. This year we are riding Marseille to Genoa — several hundred kilometres down the French and Italian Riviera — to support Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Because suffering is more bearable when it means something.