IF I WEREN'T TALKING TO YOU, RIGHT NOW I'D BE...

Doing chores. When you're away from home a lot you have to catch up with the washing and shopping and all the rest when you can.

OTHER THAN CYCLING AND PLAYING THE VIOLIN I'M GOOD AT...

DIY. It's my second hobby.

BUT I'M BAD AT...

Putting pen to paper. It terrifies me. I have dyslexia, but at school in the Seventies I was treated as stupid.

THE CYCLING CHALLENGE STARTED...

When I said at rehearsals one day that I was thinking of cycling to the tour venues. I've done some hare-brained things before, pushing the body and brain. It snowballed from there. My daughter Laura, who's 17, is going to Nepal next summer to help build a school for disabled children. The trip is costing her £2,000 and I thought if I could find a few people to donate £1 towards her fares that would help. People have been extraordinarily generous.

THE PLYMOUTH STRETCH WILL BE...

Brutal. It's the longest: about 240 miles. I'm setting off very early on Monday and I have until late Tuesday. If time allows I'll go over Dartmoor to Plymouth instead of on the A38.

NOVEMBER ISN'T THE BEST MONTH FOR CYCLING...

I didn't think about that in September when it was warm and sunny and I had the idea.

MY TOP DESERT ISLAND TUNE WOULD BE...

Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss. It's self-indulgent and cheesy but a wonderful piece of opera.

SOME PEOPLE THINK OPERA IS ONLY FOR THE POSH...

But that's so wrong! It's an early form of the classical musical. Rodgers and Hammerstein took the likes of La Bohème and La Traviata and used slightly more up-beat numbers, and Andrew Lloyd Webber took Rodgers and Hammerstein and updated them. Just as everybody should go to a Premiership football match at least once for the excitement, they should experience the opera.

WHEN I'M NOT PLAYING FOR GLYNDEBOURNE...

I do extremely varied work. I'm a member of the English Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. I've just finished the recording of Radiohead's latest album and I played on Snow Patrol's last one.

THE BEST THING ABOUT CYCLING IS...

Having your mind free to think about other things. Albert Einstein came up with the theory of relativity while cycling.

BUT IF I COULD CHANGE ONE THING...

I'd have a permanent tailwind.

Glyndebourne On Tour calls at the Theatre Royal Plymouth from Tuesday-Saturday next week with Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Verdi's Falstaff and Janácek's Jenufa. Box office: 01752 267222 or www.theatreroyal.com