A GROUP of dads are getting ready to get on their bikes and cover 500 miles to raise money for charity.

Alasdair Langlands, Richard Dowsett, Ewan Mitchell, all of Gullane, and Steve Bisset, previously of the village, are getting ready to take on the North Coast 500.

The route, which links Inverness, Gairloch, Ullapool, Durness and John O’Groats, will see the cyclists cover roughly 100 miles each day.

Thirty-four-year-old Alasdair, of Gullane’s Muirfield Station, is raising money for the East Lothian Cardiac Rehab Group. Steve is collecting money for Headway.

Alasdair told the Courier: “Basically, we are a group of friends from Gullane whose kids are all the same age.

“Steve moved down to London and has not been able to train with us in the run-up to the event but the other three of us are still up here.

“Richard and I decided that we wanted to do something challenging.

“We are both keen cyclists and we saw Mark Beaumont [record-breaking long-distance cyclist, broadcaster and documentary maker] made a video when they were promoting the NC500 and we thought that looks like a good challenge.”

Steve, who played rugby for Dunbar, Musselburgh and Haddington, and Ewan, dad to Hamish, seven, and four-year-old Sally, then heard about the challenge and signed up as well.

Forty-one-year-old Steve, dad to seven-year-old Aiden and four-year-old Ivy, said: “I’ve decided to raise money for Headway – the brain injury association in memory of a very good friend.

“My friend – Craig McGeary – was not lost to a brain injury but Headway is a charity he supported tirelessly to support a colleague who did and this is my tribute to Craig to continue fundraising on his behalf and show support for a charity that he believed in.”

The quartet have split the route into five legs, which will see them cover 100 miles from Inverness to Shieldaig on day one.

From there, it is on to Ullapool, with day three seeing the cyclists continue north to Durness.

Then, they will head east to Wick before, finally, returning to Inverness.

Alasdair, who runs a mobile personal training and physiotherapy company, created a training programme for each man ahead of the challenge, which gets under way on September 5.

Already, Alasdair, 49-year-old Richard, who is dad to Remy, seven, and Drew, four, and Ewan, 37, have taken part in the Etape Caledonia, which sees cyclists cover more than 80 miles around the Scottish Highlands.

Alasdair, who is a dad to Finlay, seven, and Ellis, five, was expecting the first three days to prove especially challenging due to the terrain.

He said: “The first day has the biggest climb, which is Bealach Na Ba, which is from sea level to 600 metres over 10 kilometres. I have ridden it before and I think Richard has well. We will be hitting it after 75 miles already and we will be a bit tired so that will be tough.

“Potentially, the third day will be the hardest day because we have done two days and there is a lot of climbing.”

The dad-of-two explained his reasoning for picking the East Lothian Cardio-Pulmonary Rehabilitation Group. He added: “I have decided to use the opportunity to raise money for the East Lothian CPRG, a local charity I am heavily involved in, coordinating stroke rehabilitation classes across East Lothian and taking a cardiac rehab class in North Berwick.

“It is a very worthwhile cause, providing ongoing exercise therapy for survivors of stroke and cardiac events after NHS provision has been exhausted.

“The finances of running such an operation are always a challenge and the charity only exists through collecting member donations and holding fundraising events and challenges such as this.”

To make a donation to the team, go to justgiving.com/fundraising/Al-Langlands or justgiving.com/fundrais ing/Steve-Bisset