Bordeaux Boys cycle 600 miles for Balloons

The Bordeaux Boys, AKA Steve Bulmer, Dan Fleming, Nick Kirby, James Osbent and Chris Sayer, are leaving their busy schedules behind for seven days to raise money for the charity Balloons.

On Friday 4 April the boys will cycle a total of 600 miles, from Exeter to Bordeaux, to raise money for the local charity.

Balloons provides free community-based support for children, young people and their families living in Exeter, Mid and East Devon, following the death, or before an expected death, of a significant person in their lives, such as a parent, carer or sibling.

Steve Bulmer, who is a director and trustee for the charity, explained why funds are so desperately needed.

He said: “It’s a very good cause being children related. There is a huge need for support service which Balloons provide. There’s a huge demand for support which the charity is struggling to meet because they need more support workers. That is really what we are trying to raise the money for.”

To raise money for the charity, the Bordeaux Boys decided to challenge themselves with the 600 mile cycle, following on from Nick and Steve’s London to Paris cycle.

Steve said: “We enjoyed the bike ride we did last year but felt it wasn’t challenging enough! We felt we could make a bigger contribution to charity by doing a bigger ride so that’s why we decided to do Exeter to Bordeaux."

Despite all holding down busy jobs the boys have been training almost non-stop for next week’s ride.

“We have been doing lots of training in the gym with personal training staff. We have been taking part in local bike rides to get miles on the bike, and lots of spin classes. On Monday I did three spin classes, a Kettle Bell class and a 5k run! So we are certainly putting in the training for it," said Steve.

Even though the Bordeaux Boys have so far managed to raise £600 they are desperate to raise more funds.

“We need to raise quite a bit more. We are pushing as hard as we can to raise as much as we can over the next week or so. We are going to provide a blog and we are tweeting to get people involved.”

“This is a big challenge for us and we want as much help as we can from as many people as we can to fund a support worker which will further the needs of Balloons. There are a lot of children who need the support so the more help the better.”

To sponsor the Bordeaux Boys please visit http://www.justgiving.com/bordeauxboys