Beckett and school friend Martin Wells will set off from Walton-on-Thames on 12 April. The dynamic duo will be supported by Ronnie’s brother and Ipex sales director Wayne Beckett, who will keep up with them… …by car.

“It won’t be the most stressful journey for him. He’ll wave us off in the mornings, go back to bed, drive a hundred miles a day and read a lot of books and perhaps drink a lot of beer in between,” said Dean.

“Joking aside though we wouldn’t be able to do it without Wayne’s support.”

Dean said his biggest fear is not the Pyrenees mountains, but the dreaded chafing. However, he’s taking a wide variety of “products” to ease the inevitable pain, with all three adopting a “what happens on tour, stays on tour” mentality if they’re required to help apply them to ‘hard to reach areas’.

“We don’t what to miss bits, but I just hope that won’t be the lasting memory of the trip,” said Dean.

The pair are apparently taking their arduous adventure very seriously, but judging by the number of photos sent to Overmatter, they might want to spend a little more time training and little less time posing in their Spandex for photos.

So far they have raised £15,000, to support their worthy cause and help them beat their target, visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Ronnieremembranceride

“Macmillan offers fantastic support to people suffering from cancer, and let’s be honest, with one in three us likely to get cancer at some point, all of us will need or know someone who has benefitted from their support at some time,” said Dean.