A town centre pub became the starting block for a mammoth cycle challenge for 10 friends this week, who got in the saddle to ride from Shrewsbury to Paris in seven days.
The cyclists – also known as The Cycopaths – left The Bull In The Barne, on The Mount, yesterday, Wednesday, to embark on the 350-mile journey, ending at the Eiffel Tower next Wednesday.
It is the first time the friends, all aged 21 and 22, have taken on such a challenge which they are doing in aid of Help for Heroes – formed to help those wounded in current conflicts – St Andrew’s Hospice in Lanarkshire, and Severn Hospice.
Glyn Thomas, 22, of Castlefields, said the team’s motivation to do the challenge had been borne out of the desire to ‘do something a bit different’ and they were aiming to raise £1,000 for each charity. Around £1,600 in total has been secured so far.
Joining Glyn in the challenge are his former schoolfriends from The Priory, Greg Laux, Nelli Kim, Danny Bishton, Kate Halahan, James Pellington, Scott Ellis, Nic Greco, Shell Sanders and Duncan Moselhi.
They will stop off at different camp sites along the way, taking a ferry from Dover to Calais.
Showing their support in a car alongside the cyclists will be Kate’s dad Richard, Nic’s brother Stefan and friend Mike Parsons.
Glyn said: “We have settled on these charities as a group and we picked St Andrew’s Hospice because of the care they gave my uncle Jim Boyd who passed away from cancer in April.
“None of us have done this type of long distance bike riding before and we all had to buy bikes for the challenge. I have done 30 miles training and we will look to do 75 miles a day.
“We’ve not actually had a practice ride all together so we will have to play it by ear, but it’ll just come down to pushing that pain barrier.”
The team have had their T-shirts sponsored by the Salopian Brewery which they wore for their send-off.
Glyn added that everyone was ‘excited’ about the week ahead, despite their friend Ben Matthews having to drop out of the challenge following a cricket accident.
To make a donation visit www.justgiving.com/wheeldoitforcharity
