Five novice cyclists have completed the 360-mile journey from St Ives, Cornwall, to St Ives in Cambridgeshire.

Steve Poore, 37, Tom Dockerill, 23, Chris Parker, also 37, Adam King, 24, and Graham George, 38, set off from the Cornish seaside town on Thursday with mayor Ron Tulley sending them off.

Four days later, Councillor Nick Dibben, the Cambridgeshire town’s mayor, welcomed them as they rode into the town centre after the arduous journey.

The quintet were raising money for Magpas, Sue Ryder Care and the Woodlands Cancer Centre and managed to get around £8,000.

Mr Poore, a postman and on-call firefighter, said: “It was really hard. We had a nice surprise on the second day for Graham’s birthday as my wife drove Graham’s wife down with Adam and Tom’s girlfriends. Unfortunately for Chris his wife couldn’t make it.

“We didn’t see much of them as the heat was so bad on the first day we decided to get up at 5am and crack on with it. We all had our injuries, I got cramp at the end of the first day and it stuck with me throughout, and also my little finger’s still numb. Chris had the same problem and our neck and shoulders had pins and needles. It must have been the position we were in.”

? Magpas received a further £700 boost at its charity football match at Jubilee Park, Huntingdon, on Sunday. The celebrity/pro team won the match 6-2 and the man of the match was Magpas’s Neil Parker.