World Peace, Marxism, Capitalism, Human Rights, Sustainability and Training for a Cycle Tour have much common. On paper, they all sound like really good ideas. In reality, they all fall over in the implementation phase. They are all vulnerable to human foibles and frailties. They all have big gaps between theory and practice.

Nevertheless, I am not daunted by world history and the human condition and have established a rigorous training program ahead of the Lake-to-Lake Tour. This training program is multi-faceted and unrelenting. Its core requirement to date has been watching the Tour d' France highlights on TV. To show how committed I am to training, sometimes I even change the channel without using the remote.

I know for certain that some of the riders who are thinking about coming on this ride are also undertaking gruelling preparation programs. For example, one of them has been buying bananas regularly to attune his body to the staple food of all cycle tours.

Another rider has pushed his training regime to the very edge and went on a 70km tandem ride with a 90kg visually impaired stoker. This is excellent training as the blind stoker's map reading skills are probably on a par with mine, so the rider will be well used to trusting his own navigational instincts on the Lake-to-Lake Tour.

Our potential international team member has come up with the novel idea of cleaning his apartment at an aerobic pace. He supplements this exhausting workout with rapid bursts of typing on CGOAB.

Overall then, the training prior to this Lake-to-Lake Tour should produce a finely-honed team in peak condition ready to take on every demanding mental and physical challenge on the backroads between Canberra and Melbourne.