ST HELENS Council employees are coughing up sponsorship money for cycle-mad colleague, Paul Fearon, who completed a 1,000-mile ride without so much as a puncture to raise about £1,600 for the Sefton Community Foundation.

Paul (43) a project engineer in the council's environmental protection department, was among a group of 14 cyclists who braved blistering temperatures exceeding 100 degrees fahrenheit, during their 12 day trip from Southport to Gdansk in Poland, via Holland and Germany.

Paul said: "In total, the group suffered 22 punctures, but luckily I had none! We also had a few scares along the way. One day we got split up when some riders stopped to repair punctures and the rest of us kept going but took the wrong road and got lost. Luckily, I rode off and found the others by chance."

On another occasion, four of the party fell off on a slippery railway level crossing during a downpour but were able to continue the journey.

During the journey Paul covered a total of 1,005 miles and spent almost 69 hours in the saddle.

The group returned home with their feet up on two Arriva buses, which had provided them with back-up throughout their trip, and their combined efforts are expected to raise somewhere in the region of £10,000.