Bo'ness man cycles 666km to raise funds for NHS - and doesn't leave home

Nicolas Bleteau (43) runs electrical company NB Connect, which has had to close for now due to Covid-19, so was happy to use his time to help others.

Nic’ explained more about the challenge on his indoor training bike.

He said: “Obviously five weeks ago I had to close the business because of Covid. So I thought I need to do something that would maybe raise money for charity.

“The only challenges I could do were indoors due to lockdown. So I used the trainer. I normally do an hour three or four days a week maximum.

“I first thought about cycling the distance between Edinburgh to Paris (1100 km), as this is where I’m originally from, but then had a more sensible second thought, and decided to challenge myself to cycle the distance from Edinburgh to London (666km) in three days.

“I was going to do the same distance each day but then decided to do more first, so did 260km in eight hours on day one, then 217km, and I had 190km left on the last day.

“Mentally it was a bit better to do less last and it was OK, though the last two hours dragged on a bit, but I got through it. I was keeping an eye on my Just Giving page, so the donations going up kept me going.

“It’s something I’ve never done, it was quite interesting. I do quite a lot of road cycling, I used to race. The difference is though it’s hard to keep focus because there is nothing to see, just your screen.”

He has already raised over £2200 for NHS Charities Together.

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