A TEAM of medics will be piling on the pedal power as they take on one of the toughest cycling challenges in the world to raise money for the new Ark Cancer Centre.

Hampshire hospitals orthopaedic surgeons Kevin Conn, Jonathan Hobby, and Toby Briant-Evans and colleagues anaesthetist Chris Seifert and cardiologist Jason Glover will take on the amateur race stage of the Tour de France on Sunday.

Kevin said: “We just want to raise as much money as we can. Hopefully, all the hospital staff will really get behind us – it’s all for a really good cause.”

The consultants will be joined by cycling friends and colleagues, and will be racing as the Ark Cyclists.

They have been training hard for the gruelling 128km ride across France, during which they will have to take on 3,000 metres of climbing over six categorised climbs.

Kevin added: “What’s great about it is that we will be doing exactly the same route as the professionals will a couple of weeks later.

“It’s like a football fan getting to play at Wembley, or a rugby fan getting the chance to play at Twickenham.

“We are all at very different levels – some of us have only been cycling for a year or so, so it will be tough.”

Toby Briant-Evans said: “We are all excited about getting going. I’m sure it will be very different from our experiences in training – one of the climbs lasts for an hour-and-a-half but we are excited about the challenge.”

The Ark Cancer Charity is raising £5million through fund-raising which will go towards the creation of a £13.5million cancer centre at a site to be identified near Basingstoke.

Merv Rees, a driving force behind the ambitious scheme, said he was thrilled the cyclists had agreed to take on the challenge. He added: “They are doing something really quite special. I am enormously grateful to them.”

To sponsor the Ark Cyclists visit arkcyclists.co.uk.