The Raiders

DAD (Team Leader)

Dad's normally meticulous preparations have taken a series of blows this year, as injury and international espionage missions in deepest Africa have kept training to a minimum. Undeterred, Mark has turned this obstacle into an opportunity, and turned his African hotel into an elite extreme-climate training camp, where he has pushed the gym's exercise bike far beyond its intended limits.

As usual, Team Leader has used his intricate knowledge of geo-positioning technology to draw some pencil lines on a map, before feeding it through the custom engineered data analysis systems buried deep within the secretive 'Probert Race Command Bunker'. After a few days locked away in near total darkness, Mark emerged with a wild crazed stare and demented grimace. Clutching a computer printout covered in madly scribbled numbers, his finger was pressed firmly on one figure written in indelible marker at the foot of the page: 68,654. Our total ascent in feet. Weeks later we've managed to prize the paper from his clutches, but we fully expect his crazed mumbling of the number to continue throughout this year's challenge.

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GREG (Domestique)

This year Greg has once again honed his pioneering training technique, allowing for a greater co-efficient of TV and beer consumption versus time on the bike. This has allowed him to absorb tactical race details from every second of this year's tour, while still allowing time to complete two specifically focused 100 mile training rides. Greg's regime climaxed with a 4-day training camp isolated deep within the Hampshire countryside, where again cutting edge sports-science techniques were being used for the first time, exemplified by Greg's metronomic intake of an isotonic medium-dry cider over the entire 96 hour period.

As the junior rider, Greg will be acting as team domestique. A multi-tasking masterclass, Greg will be expected to construct baguettes for the team while in the saddle, his jersey stuffed with fresh drinks bottles and energy bars, making sure not to miss any of the action with his head-mounted camera set up.

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TOM (Rouleur)

Having learned from some bad experiences over the past couple of years, Tom has taken preparation for this year's challenge more seriously this time round. A 4 month programme of sportive events and Richmond park hill repeats has seen the rider log more Strava miles than ever before. To accompany the riding, Tom has attained near perfect climbing-weight via a carefully controlled diet which has stripped him of a layer of insulation gained during a spell last year in Berlin with the team's nutritionist Mike. Now living solely on SiS energy gels and isotonic sports drinks, Tom's once rotund form now resembles an aerodynamic carbon fibre wing.

Tom's pre-race duties have once again included branding and T-shirt design. A seemingly self-indulgent and pointless activity, the far-East sales of RAID merchandise have in fact funded the wind-tunnel testing and sports science rider preparation for this year's challenge.

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MIKE (Manager)

A member of the inaugural 2009 Probert Challenge, Mike returns this year as the team's dedicated support driver / mechanic / masseur / nutritionist / savant / motivator / sports psychologist / bar reconnaissance scout / camera crew / blogger / translator / accountant...most of which he is either not qualified to do or doesn't yet know he will be doing. Or both. We managed to secure his services by using a combination of trickery, deceit and blackmail, but his presence will be absolutely crucial to this year's effort.

Chief among Mike's duties on the road will be directing the mandatory Probert Challenge film, and wielding his not insubstantial knowledge of 80's movie action sequences to relay the epic feats of the Raiders to a captive audience via the blog.

In order to arrive at the start point ahead of his team mates Mike has had to plan his journey from Berlin to Biarritz with military precision, leaving no room for mishaps, so we're not expecting to see him until about a week after we start.

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