Cycling

Wednesday 18 July was our longest day of the whole march; 27 miles from Glasgow to Falkirk. When we were speaking to supporters who gathered to meet us in Falkirk, it was with genuine feeling that we demanded that they join our campaign as 'we're not doing this for the fun'.

Our two great helpers on the march are Mike and Liz in the support electric vans, carrying our luggage, bringing us lunch, providing plasters and bandages and keeping us all going. But one further vital thing Mike provides is regular updates on what is happening in the Tour de France.

I love cycling, both the sport and as a mode of transport. It was great to see lots of cyclists on the Clyde-Forth canal as we were covering our 27 miles. Cycling is a genuinely carbon neutral form of transport. However, cycling has many more benefits than just tackling climate change. It lowers congestion, is cheaper, makes people healthier, does not cause hundreds of deaths each year and, certainly in many cities, is quicker than any other form of transport.

A low carbon world will be a better world for many reasons other than tackling climate change. A world with less cars and more bikes will certainly be a better one. And today I discovered one more benefit of cycling - it would have been a lot easier to cycle 27 miles than walk them.