Cyclists join Help for Heroes Bike Ride (From This is Hampshire)

Cyclists join Help for Heroes Bike Ride

12:37pm Saturday 24th May 2008 in News

A TEAM of intrepid cyclists from Winchester will hop on their saddles and cycle across Northern France next week to raise money for a military charity.

Five riders from in and around the city will take part in the Halfords Help for Heroes Bike Ride, along with around 300 other cycling enthusiasts.

The bike ride will take them from HMS Victory in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, across the channel to Caen, through Northern France, back to Britain and finishing in London between Monday, May 26 and Sunday, June 1.

Throughout the 340-mile journey they will visit various battlefields and memorials from both the 1st and 2nd World Wars, such as Pegasus Bridge, St Valery-en-Caux, Grandcourt and The Somme Valley.

Once they have completed the French leg of the journey, they will cross the channel back to Dover on HMS Bulwark by landing craft. Then they will travel to London on June 1 to meet up with the Great British Hero Ride and cycle down Whitehall past the Cenotaph and into Horse Guards' parade.

The five Winchester riders, John Spiers from St Cross and who works in The Rifles RHQ in Winchester, David Griffiths from Chilbolton, Richard Perkins from St Cross, Charlie Corbett of Cheriton and Simon James from Alresford, have already raised more than £15,000 between them in sponsorship.

They hope to raise as much as they can for the Help for Heroes Charity, whose target is £6m to provide a swimming pool and gym facilities at Headley Court, the Armed Forces main Rehabilitation Centre, where all the most seriously wounded of our service men and women, and their families, learn to live with disabilities that will be with them for the rest of their lives.

Anyone who would like to sponsor the team can do so through the Help for Heroes website at www.helpforheroes.org.uk.