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9 Sep 2010 10:36:38
Three saddle-sore students have already raised more than £2,000 for Help for Heroes.
Paul Wakelin, Joe O’Connor and Ali Tucker are BA (Hons) QTS Physical Education students who are just starting their third year at the Bedford campus.
The trio cycled from London to Paris, starting on the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend and finishing, tired but contented, five days later.
The 250-mile route saw them leave London to cycle to Newhaven near Brighton, then cross the Channel on the ferry before continuing their journey to base camp in Northern France and then on to the capital itself.
Joe and Ali’s parents were waiting for them with Champagne by the Eiffel Tower at the end of their journey, and a number of intrigued onlookers rushed to have their photograph taken with the shocked students.
Paul said: “The sight of the Eiffel Tower was amazing. I’d hurt my knee on the penultimate day and it was really painful, so I was glad to finish.
“But the whole thing was good fun, although we struggled at first because we’re not cyclists. It was also hard to know where we were and we constantly had to check the route. This meant we were on the road for about eight hours a day. But we didn’t get lost once and our map reading has improved a lot!”
Their mammoth cycle ride with a Gallic twist was to support Help for Heroes, an organisation founded to help those injured in Britain’s current conflicts.
Paul said: “Students get a lot of bad press and we wanted to do our own little bit for our troops and to give something back.
“We’ve raised around £2,000 at the moment but we want to do even more, so please dig deep and support the cause.
“We had a major sponsor on board, AJ Cycles, who gave us some top bikes at a great discount and we’ve like to thank them for their help and support and obviously everybody else who has sponsored us.”
For any donations or sponsorship, visit www.justgiving.com/StudentCycle or you can email londontoparis2010@hotmail.co.uk
The photo shows, left to right: Paul, Joe and Ali outside the Bedford campus
Latest news» 2010» September» Cycling students raise cash for our Heroes
