Sore feet, sore bum but a great sense of satisfaction.

The final day was a huge success and I feel we were able to raise decent levels of awareness and get our message across to the right people.

Outside Wembley before the start of Day 7

15 of us set off from Wembley stadium in the morning under fairly clear skies. Being England this didn’t last very long and, after about 15 minutes, the showers came and we were all drenched. Our spirits remained high, helped by Lucy and Tola from Choice FM who you’d expect to have smiles on their faces whatever the weather. Read more

Monday’s stage started with a visit to Vodafone HQ in Newbury.  I was joined by fellow Laureus World Sports Academy members Sebastian Coe, Sean Fitzpatrick and (of course!) Hugo Porta, as well as Vodafone Foundation advisor Matthew Pinsent. Vodafone have provided their full backing to my campaign and I was more than happy to have a Q&A session at their offices.

Q&As at Vodafone HQ

However, at the back of my mind I was always thinking forward to what would be the longest stage of the journey – 75 miles from Newbury to Brent over countless gruelling hills. Read more

What a memorable day. We had our largest peloton (18 riders) which included 2 outstanding sportsmen from past and present – Steve Waugh (Laureus Academy member) and Butch James (Friend & Ambassador).  Both are top guys and I’m grateful to them for supporting us on the fifth stage of the ride.

The route from Oxford to Newbury took us through some awesome scenery and over a few mean hills. There is quite a range of standard among the riders but everyone has been supporting eachother and working as a team to get the pack over the top of the tough climbs. As someone who competed alone back in the day, it’s a good learning experience to watch team sportsmen like Steve Waugh, Butch James and Hugo Porta show their leadership skills on the ride. This really fits in nicely with the theme of the campaign and I was proud to take them to the Nacro project at the Riverside Youth and Community Centre near Newbury.

I’m getting quite tired now but every time we arrive at a project, it gives me a real boost and revs me up for the next day of riding. Tomorrow will be a long day – leaving the Vodafone HQ in Newbury for a 70 mile journey to Brent.

After yesterday’s ride we went to Stoke-on-Trent’s young persons community project, Streetgames.  There were loads of really enthusiastic kids, all doing their best to beat me on the cycle challenge (this involves two laps of a circuit on a static bike).  I’m afraid to say that two or three of them did get the better of me and I was given a lot of stick. It was a great project and really backed up what has been written in the report, Laureus: Breaking the Cycle of Violence - Click here to read it.

I’m also delighted that Jed Mason, who joined us on yesterday’s leg, presented a cheque for £1000 to the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. He has also pledged a further £1000 on completion of the ride, which is extremely generous and has given me even more motivation (not that I needed any!).

Today we had an even tougher route over some pretty serious hills but I’m feeling good and slowly starting to get used to that saddle. Halfway through the ride we were joined by the Laureus Head of Communications, Mal Thompson (no relation!), but his timing couldn’t have been worse - he started at the bottom of a 2 mile hill. Mal dropped back about halfway up, leaving the rest of us to wait at the top with big grins on our faces. By the time he arrived we were bombarded with excuses about the saddle, gears, handlebars and all sorts of other strange problems. To give Mal some credit, he started to motor ahead after that but there’ll be a few charity fines for him this evening.

Later this afternoon we’re visiting the Sporting Futures project just outside Coventry.

I’ve just finished the first leg of the Laureus: breaking the Cycle of Violence campaign and I can tell you that it was an incredible experience. The ride started at the Manchester United football ground, Old Trafford, where it was a great honour to have Tanni Grey-Thompson wave us off.

Daley begins the first leg of Laureus: Breaking the Cycle of Violence

All sorts of personalities including sportmen, actors, cycling enthusiasts and project leaders, decided to join me on the ride but I had no idea they were all such keen cycling enthusiasts! Read more