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A host of celebrities have taken part in a virtual cycle race against British champ Chris Froome to support brilliant new charity ‘Wheels For Heroes’.

Spice Girl Mel C and former Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs joined other famous faces including singers Olly Murs and Bruno Mars in the challenge.

Wheels For Heroes is a fantastic new project – launched by Brompton Bike Hire – to provide bikes to key workers.

When Brompton Bike Hire stalled during lockdown, the firm pivoted to provide hundreds of bicycles for key workers who were worried about taking public transport.

Brompton was approached by St Barts hospital, who asked if they could lend bikes to their staff so they supplied 25.

But that quickly escalated and within 10 days they’d leant out 100 for free.

CEO Will Butler-Adams explains: “So then we thought: ‘We’re in the middle of a crisis, we’ve got to do something.

“At the time, 600 of our shops had closed down, 40% of our staff were off and our business was really hurting. So we said: ‘Right, we want to see if we can get 1,000 bikes.’”

After setting up a Crowdfunder they raised £320,000 in just over two weeks and supplied 800 bikes under their Wheels For Heroes scheme.

And it was boosted when Sky Sports got in touch to say celebrities were keen to do a static sponsored bike ride to help out.

“The campaign went beyond our wildest dreams,” adds Will. “It’s become so big that there’s stuff happening way beyond us and our 800 bikes. It made us feel good and the NHS staff loved it.

“And you’ll see wonderful things on Twitter with people who jumped on their bikes, but as a company – it made us feel proud. And that’s really important, particularly when you’re working through the middle of a coronavirus lockdown, it was pretty tough and a bit lonely.”

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