We now have just 40 days to go until the big trip from Paris to Nice, and I’m starting to get anxious.

It’s not my fitness. I’ve worked hard this year and shed 9kg in weight, and I’m probably as fit as I’ve ever been. We have the logistics nailed, trains and ferries booked, and a flexible itinerary that covers everything from the days’s climbs and campsites to local cheeses. Kit has been tested and packing capacity assessed. No, my anxiety is about the most fundamental of things: the bike itself.

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I’m planning to ride my late 80s Peugeot Étoile, a bike that I love but have had issues with before. It’s a proper old-school steel bike with shifters on the downtubes, and I’ve kept it as faithful as I can to its original setup. I still use the original double crankset (a 52/42 embossed with the Peugeot logo) and the old Mavic wheels. My only concession to the hard work ahead has been the addition of a Shimano megarange freewheel, because the original wouldn’t get me up Devon hills, let alone Alps. It looks gorgeous and feels even better on the road. But I can’t explain why I love it so much. The only people who will really understand are fellow steel bike lovers.

I had some minor issues with it from the start, most notably the difficulty I had sometimes in getting the rear wheel in place after a puncture. I had to push the chainstays firmly apart to get the wheel to sit correctly and this came to a a head after a tour when one of the chainstays finally snapped. Welding it back together cost more than the bike was worth, but my love was greater in value still and the frame went off to a specialist frame repairer for a fix. Geometry sorted, I just had to repaint it and although it took me two attempts to get the right paints to dry properly it was all worth it to see it back to its best.

That paint job was completed over the winter, the bike has been rebuilt, and it’s getting used to being ridden again. In Norfolk it got its first 50km ride, and on Friday it got a similar but hillier exploration closer to home. I thought I had got the gearing sorted, but it slipped in hard gears going uphill and I had a frustrating time tinkering with the barrel adjuster. I even had to push up a couple of hills because the gears slipped in lower gears and wouldn’t take the strain in higher gears – all the worse when people think you just can’t ride the hill! The new brake pads squeaked so loudly I made fellow cyclists jump and had to apologise to nearby pedestrians on occasion: this ‘new but old stock’ will be on its way back to the shop soon. The ride is still great but the niggles make me anxious. I’m happy to made adjustments as I go, but I don’t want to leave Paris with a bike functioning anything less than perfectly.

Perhaps it’s time to get a proper mechanic to take a look and make sure everything is 100% right.