STAFF at the Village Hotel in Leeds are used to providing early morning calls and breakfast at the crack of dawn but when Andover cyclist Simon Foster asked for his at 2am they must have known something special was about to take place.

Simon achieved the rare feat of cycling 220 miles from Leeds to Andover in just 13 hours and 35 minutes. His efforts raised more that £4,500 in aid of Leukaemia Research - in memory of Colin Clark, a colleague at HSA in Andover who died from the disease earlier this year. But it proved to be a tough ordeal even for fit cyclist.

"I ached all over last night and found it very difficult to sleep," said Simon. "The journey was made worse because I was cycling into a constant headwind. I also took a wrong turning in Derby which added a few miles to the journey."

The experience hasn't put off the 31-year-old of Cornfields, Andover from cycling. "But it's going to be a while yet before I do it again," he said.