Exctract written by Jaclyn Green from the local newspapers:
Two Shropshire IT workers will be swapping bytes for bikes next month when they embark upon a 250-mile charity cycle. Richi Jenkin, 30, from Market Drayton, and Matt Lea, 20, from Hodnet, both IT support technicians at Harper Adams University College, near Newport, plan to pedal from Market Drayton to Paignton in Devon, starting on September 5th.

Newlywed Richi, a former pupil of Market Drayton’s Grove School, said: “I have family down in Devon and I have wanted to do the bike ride since I was 12. Matt said we might as well see how much money we could raise in the process and so it became a charity challenge. “We are doing it in aid of the Lingen Davies Cancer Relief Fund. We chose a cancer charity because Matt’s mother passed away due to cancer when he was six in 1994.

Every penny of the money raised will go to the charity, as Matt and Richi are funding the trip themselves. They have already bought all the equipment they need, and will be supported all the way by Richi’s wife Katie, 26, an ICU nurse at Telford, who will be carrying there speares and equipment, ahead in the car.

The pair expect to complete the distance in three days, doing about 85 miles each day. They have already clocked up approximately 2,000 miles in training since March, and have been completing a minimum of 20 miles a day, up to 100 miles at weekends, for the last few weeks. But they still have a couple of worries, such tackling the Devon hills, getting saddle sores and the bad weather.

When asked what they were looking forward to, Matt, who attended Thomas Adams Wem School, said: “Finishing! We’ll get this first long-distance ride over with first, but we have already been thinking about what to do next. Perhaps Market Drayton to John O’Groats next year. . .”

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