FOUR Penarth lads are set to cycle nearly 1,000miles non-stop in aid of charity.

Ultra runner Rhys Jenkins and his friends Adam Steed, Nick Louch and Michael Keenan will complete the gruelling challenge from Paris to Rome in aid of the For Luca charity over the Easter bank holiday weekend

The charity fundraisers had been planning on cycling from Kiev to Paris, but have been forced to change their route after the recent political troubles in Ukraine.

Adam Steed, who took part in the Carten 100 mile cycle from Tenby to Cardiff last year, said: "It's going to be a 24 hour relay, with one of us cycling at all times over the space of four days.

"We will be cycling around 250 miles a day and nearly 1000 miles in total."

He added: "Each of us will cycle for between two and a half and three hours at a time.

"If anything goes wrong and someone gets tired we'll drop it down a bit."

Adam, 26, added: "The only thing I'm worried about is food and eating cold Clarke’s pies as you only eat when you can!”

Nick Louch, 26, said that he had been training hard for the charity challenge.

"I have never done anything like this in my life before,” he said.

"I've done the Taff Trail a few times and cycled from Brecon to Cardiff, which is about 50 to 60 miles, but never anything like this."

Adam, who cycles to work in Cardiff as well as working at Penarth Library, added that they would be looking to do speeds of between 10 and 20 miles per hour on average.

"We are probably fit enough to do about 20 miles per hour on the flats," he said.

Rhys, who ran 2000 miles from Boston to Austin in 2010 and in 2012 cycled 1000 miles from Turin to Cardiff, added that they were desperately appealing for someone to lend them a minibus for the weekend.

“We have a driver, Toby Rattray, but we need a support vehicle that would be a seven seater,” he said.

“We would need it from April 18 until about around April 25, as it should take us four days to complete the cycle from April 19.”

If you can help with a minibus or seven seater contact Rhys on Rhys@red-recruitment.com

You can sponsor them online at www.justgiving.com/rome2parisforluca or by texting ROPA88 followed by the amount (£1, £2, £3, etc) to 70070