Cyclists get to ride the airport runway at night

Each cyclist paid £20 for the privilege of riding there between 10pm on Saturday and 5am yesterday.

Cyclists had to ride up the runway and down the taxiway – a distance of about two miles.

‘The top riders are looking at doing 100 miles – 50 laps – but I think some, especially the children, will probably be heading for their beds by midnight,’ said Gary Hooks, who organised the event with Leon Howard.

Proceeds from the inaugural Airport Runway Sportive will be added to those from the FCG Tour de Sez in September when about 85 people will be riding to Amsterdam, again raising money for the Sarah Groves Foundation.

Some 65 of those rode the runway.

Mr Howard said some cyclists lived off-island and could not be there.

Andy James, the managing director of the tour sponsor First Central Group, was due to leave his wife’s 50th birthday celebrations in the UK on Saturday, take the last flight to Guernsey, cycle all night on the runway, and leave on yesterday’s ‘red eye.’

Gym instructor Charlene Carter, 54, was taking part with her grandson Ben Le Prevost and his friend Mason Jones, both 12.

‘I worked with Sarah [Groves] at The OGH gym and I did the first Tour de Sez [to Paris in 2014],’ said Charlene.

‘Sarah was so much in to her sport and she would have loved this.’

Ben had set his heart on completing a distance equivalent to riding around the island – 24 miles.

Senior prison officer Mark Toms was planning to ride for a couple of hours as he had work the next day.

‘I’m doing the London 100 at the end of this month so this is a chance to get the legs spinning a bit,’ he said.

‘I like the novelty factor and it’s for a good cause.’

Auxiliary nurse Sue Sarahs, 65, was there for similar reasons: ‘I want to support The Sarah Groves Foundation and I like the novelty of it – it’s something we might never get the chance to do again,’ she said.

At a briefing by airport staff beforehand, riders were told not to touch the lights or drop things on the runway. If the session had to be curtailed they would have to go home as there would not be the opportunity to restart it.

Mr Hooks was hopeful that the event would take place again: ‘All of the entities that we have been working with are very keen for it to happen again but it will really depend on how successful this is,’ he said.