Lawrence Dallaglio takes to his bike for charity Cycle Slam

By Will Greenwood Published: 7:51AM GMT 02 March 2010

Royal approval: Lawrence Dallaglio is assimilated by Prince Harry on the representation at Twickenham Photo: GETTY IMAGES

While Lawrence Dallaglio led the approach bellowing out Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, my lungs, that had been blazing flattering most since we had left Maidstone 5 hours earlier, demanded silence. There was additionally the make a difference of the stroke suffering from my backside.

All my mental and earthy appetite was being used up usually perplexing to keep gait with Lawrence, as it had been all day on this, the ultimate leg of his Cycle Slam, that aims to lift �1 million for Sport Relief and the Dallaglio Foundation.

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Lawrence"s idea is to cycle to all of the Six Nations stadiums, covering 1,740 miles in usually twenty-four days. Having proposed in Rome, he has already reached Paris and on Friday he led 70 riders, together with me, in to Twickenham similar to the Pied Piper of London after a much-needed cake and thinly slice butty at Richmond.

We were met by Prince Harry, who had comfortable difference of regard and support for Lawrence. And whilst I struggled to conjure up up flashbacks of important wins with England or noted tries, I beheld that small had changed.

England and Ireland had already accomplished the captain"s run. Keith the groundsman was there, imprinting the lines and the camera crews were contrast out their equipment.

I was tempted to head for the gym to find a much-needed ice bath, since the state my physique was in after pedalling roughly uninterrupted for 70 miles from the starting point in Maidstone.

I usually don"t know how Lawrence keeps going. I was still on foot similar to John Wayne by kick-off on Saturday. A miss of credentials didn"t help. The last bike I owned was a BMX when I was about 12, and twenty mins on a cycle appurtenance in the gym 3 weeks ago was about all I could equate on.

On the Tuesday, I managed about 50 miles of the leg from Paris to Albert prior to I had to stop since Lawrence got lost and I had to catch the Eurostar behind to London. But that finished me even some-more dynamic to finish Friday"s leg.

Like a standard rugby player, I didn"t put most thought in to my gear. I incited up wearing trainers when everybody else had cleats, and finished up carrying to hang cling-film around my boots to keep them dry.

Then there was the bike. Lawrence lent me his spare, that was a critical square of kit. The complaint for me was handling the gears. It had 3 main ones, that each had a serve 10 gears. I was stranded in gears 21-30 for the initial half of the leg on Friday until a veteran cyclist called Tom Davies took empathize and sorted me out.

The day was not but incident. En route, one of the guys bumped in to a car and the motorist jumped out and offering James Cracknell a quarrel in the car play ground of a circuitously Tesco supermarket. Cracknell, being some-more of a Waitrose man, declined the suggest and we rode off.

My miss of cleats additionally saved me from a incident at trade lights when my brakes didn"t conflict as fast as I hoped, as I was means to stop myself by putting my feet up on the bars at the behind of a van.

Throughout, Lawrence was in his element. He is carrying so most fun since he is the unqualified professional. He is where he is happiest. He is in control, as he was on the rugby field. He is in good earthy shape, usually as he was on a rugby field, and he still loves a beer, as he did in his rugby days.

He is morphing rugby in to cycling and usually as he squeezed all out of his rugby career, he is removing all out of this extraordinary and daunting challenge.

In conditions of achievements, will raising �1 million for gift next to or tip winning a World Cup for England? I don"t know for sure. But as we cycled together in to Twickenham, Lawrence did discuss it me this was the biggest thing he had ever done. And that"s a flattering big statement.

For sum and report on how to donate, revisit www.dallagliocycleslam.com