Rose Green man's cycle marathon

Jeff Tidiman's tour of the South Downs Way pushed him to his physical limit.

He completed the entire route from Winchester to Eastbourne non-stop with a friend, Peter Hawker.

Their efforts in their saddles has brought in a confirmed 1,100 for St Wilfrid's Hospice. The final total is expected to reach 1,300 once all the sponsorship from his customers at the Nyton Road post office is collected.

Mr Tidiman (65), of Grosvenor Gardens in Rose Green, said: "This was the longest ride I have ever done. I will never do it again. I almost thought of finishing after 85 miles but I thought I might as well keep going.

"I did a triathlon for the hospice last year but that was a walk in the park compared to this bike ride."

He and Winchester resident Mr Hawker set off at 3am last Saturdayusing head torches to light their way and reached Eastbourne 100.14 miles later in blazing sunshine at 7pm.

Along the way, Mr Tidiman came off his bike three times while Mr Hawker took a tumble on eight occasions.

The roughness of the track as well as the constant undulating nature of the journey takes its toll on even experienced mountain bikers.

Mr Tidiman increased his three times a week gym visits to five times to train for the gruelling journey.