Butchers pedal to Paris triumph

It may have all started with a bid to cut down on parking costs, but it ended in triumph in the rain-washed streets of Paris.

A year in the making, the Butchers on Bikes team, which ironically featured perhaps one butcher and a ragtag bunch of farmers, processors, lobbyists, retailers, journalists, civil servants and one vet, romped, or in some cases limped, the 187 miles to Paris and raised more than £40,000 for charity and still counting.

The scheme was the brainchild of the British Meat Processors Association's Stuart Roberts, whose frugal nature led to him buying a bike after discovering how much it would cost to park at his local train station.

"It was then a natural progression from riding the two miles to the train station to organising a ride to Paris," he says.

Having convinced, coerced, press-ganged and spiked enough drinks, he assembled a team of able and not-so-able cyclists, most of which had to rush out and buy bikes. And thus, 31 mostly ill-prepared riders assembled at Butcher's Hall on a cold, damp Friday morning, many ruing the day they'd ever met Roberts.

A quick munch of bacon and sausage butties, followed by a briefing (head south, if you hit the sea you've gone too far) and they were off. Three days later, the team arrived at the Eiffel Tower, having had to deal with psychotic drivers in both London and Paris, rain, wind and bagpipes.

The trip had seen some significant highs (courtesy of navigator-in-chief Tony Morrow who, having spent a career at sea, has no concept of hills) and some amusing lows (the NFU's Kevin Pearce inadvertently trapping himself in a French café's toilet).

Sleeping arrangements proved interesting, with our chief accommodation officer John Mercer making it his mission to seek out the most uncomfortable accommodation in northern France. A particular highlight was the Stalag Luft-style accommodation, described prior to the trip as a French château - Soviet block-style showers, missing roofs and a lack of crockery were just some of the delights.

Thanks must also go to the cyclists' intrepid support team, who kept them going through thick and thin. When the going got tough for one group, the supporters refused to allow them to admit defeat, predominantly by being unavailable to get them as they were on a 'beer run'.

The charities to benefit are: the Butchers' and Drovers' Charitable Institution; Breast Cancer Research; the Worshipful Com-pany of Butchers' charities; and the NFU's Farm Africa appeal.

The Butchers on Bikes team were: Stuart Roberts; Philip Hambling; Ed Bedington; Rob Smith; Fred A'Court; John Mercer; Terry Jones; Kevin Pearce; Richard Macdonald; Barney Kay; Tim Smith; Andrew Simpson; Anthony Saxby; Chris Wood; Malcolm Thomas; Steve Thompson; Stuart Lendrum; Natalie Smith; Romilly Edelmann; Rick Bourne; Jim Viggars; Darren Jones; Nick Finnemore; Richard Hoskins; Martin Evans; David Lowe; Charles Boyd; Kim Sobolewski; Lisa Brooke; Amy Austin; Jason Aldiss

Support was: Richard Cracknell (chief photographer and beer/wine-run co-ordinator); David Clarke (top route finder); Tony Morrow (hill hunter); Trish Cracknell & Lindy Stocker (morale masters) and finally the patient drivers Mike and Daryl.

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