Ever heard of the Rad am Ring? I sure hadn't when a mate of mine, Henry, said he was taking part - I honestly had no idea what he was talking about.

He explained that this was a 24-hour road relay race in the style of Mountain Mayhem, but around the infamous Nurburgring in Germany. I glazed over - as you do when people start to show you their holiday photos. ‘Cool' I said, and thought there's not a chance I'd be doing that if I were you...

A couple of weeks passed and the ride started to niggling me, the challenge of four people riding all day and night, the opportunity to get to ride around not only the grand prix circuit but the ‘Nordschleife' northern loop as well, plus some genuine night racing with bike lights, all held a certain appeal to me. When I next caught up with Henry and he said someone had dropped out and did I fancy it, I was interested though not to the point of saying yes. But as I opened my mouth to say "thanks for the offer, but no" my heart said "yes" and so a "yes" came out and I was on the hook.


Porsche's test centre

As it turns out the offer got better the more I found out about it. The trip is being run by the Porsche Human Power Centre, specifically Chris Chamberlin. As part of the build-up we'd do a ramp test with blood lactate analysis - always a useful marker to understand how your riding and training is going.

Being part of Porsche's set-up also meant that we have the opportunity to borrow a couple of Porsche Cayenne 4x4s to drive over to Germany in. And as an added draw we have a star rider joining us, the Moto2 motorcycle rider Bradley Smith, a man known for his prowess on two wheels.
All in all it's shaping up well. Next part is the ramp test...

Check out: Porsche's human performance centre
Event details: www.radamring.de