Le Val des Terres challenge is simple for Chris

So he upped the stakes by deciding to climb Le Val des Terres 30 times on Sunday morning.

But even that proved to be no mountain to climb – he completed it nearly half an hour ahead of what he had expected, finishing in two hours 36 minutes.

‘I ride my bike every day anyway so I didn’t really see an hour a day as much of a challenge,’ he said.

Setting off at about 6.45am he timed his efforts in blocks of three, with most of them taking about 15 minutes.

‘I started out relatively quick because I wanted to get ahead of schedule in case I got held up by traffic later,’ he said.

Fortunately, he was only held up on three occasions on his rides back down. He surprised himself at how his legs coped with the challenge.

‘In the last half I just kept pushing up the pace. I think my fastest legs were probably about two to three minutes. My back was a bit sore afterwards.’

Several friends and fellow bike racers joined him for some of the legs and he said there was a nice group of supporters to see him through.

Among them was Ian Beattie, who had undertaken a similar challenge several years ago.

‘He was at the finish as well, which was nice,’ said Mr Earles.