Moody, who was diagnosed after noticing a weakness in his shoulder while training in the gym, says the progression of his disease seems gradual.
“I’m good at the moment,” he said.
“The only sort of significant noticeable change is still in my hand. The shoulder strength is diminished, but not significantly reduced since diagnosis.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, the hardest thing is noticing little things every day. The other day I noticed a slight difference in my finger strength – whether it was opening a bottle top, holding a fork, cutting your food.
“Those little things mentally are a challenge when they present themselves, but I think within a day you can move past it and just focus on functional things I can do, rather than things that I’m less able to.”
Moody, who set up his own charitable foundation shortly after he retired and raised millions of pounds to fund research into brain tumours,, external says recruiting for June’s cycle and a new cause was straightforward.
Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall, Martin Corry, Ben Kay, Phil Vickery and Andy Gomarsall – all fellow members of the squad that won England’s only Rugby World Cup – will take part in the ride, along with the ex-Leicester and Bath flanker’s former team-mates Tom Croft, Geordan Murphy, Leon Lloyd, Ben Youngs, Tom Youngs, Lee Mears, Danny Care, Dan Hipkiss and Louis Deacon.
Moody’s teenage sons Dylan and Ethan will also be part of the peloton.
“I have done a challenge every year since retiring, some years more than one,” said Moody.
“I really wanted to make sure that I got another one in. I don’t know how many I have got left to do so that was the reason for it being so soon, to make sure that physically I feel like I can contribute.
“I couldn’t be more grateful of my former colleagues. I chatted to Vicks [Vickery] the other day, he said ‘mate, I absolutely hate cycling, but I am 100% going to do this with you’.
“I’ve never seen Wilko [Wilkinson] on a bike. He’s probably hired a group of people to get him ready for the conditioning side of it. I dread to think how he’s going to turn up looking. He’s in unbelievable nick anyway.”
