Three Aon employees are among a group of 20 cyclists tackling a massive challenge as they cycle from Bordeaux to Barcelona to raise funds for The Children’s Centre.

The 514-mile route snakes over the Pyrenees and it’s so precipitous - it includes eight of the world’s top road cycling climbs, many stretches are included in the Tour de France - it’s the equivalent of pedaling up Everest twice.

Insurance company Aon approached the centre about doing the challenge as a fundraiser.

They’ll drive the minibus - with bicycles on board - over two days to France and meet the cyclists on September 13 and support them on the nine-day ride to Barcelona.

Keen cyclist Nick Watterson from Aon has already used pedal power to raise funds for the centre when he cycled the length of Britain.

’Three years on from riding from Land’s End to John O’Groats I’ve recovered enough to try something tougher,’ he said.

He is joined by fellow Aon employees Matt Hills and Dave Hogg.

Each cyclist must raise £1,000 to take part and they cover all the costs of flights etc themselves, meaning the whole venture gives the centre a very welcome cash injection of £20,000 to help in their valuable work improving the lives of children and  families who need support.

Nick, who is a commissioner in Port Erin, has a bike at work in Douglas so that he train during his lunch breaks.

He said that finding suitably hilly terrain near his home in Port Erin has been difficult.

’There is a noticeable lack of mountains in Port Erin so I’ll be looking for areas that the local authority could possibly annex!’ he joked.

’On a more serious note, even though we have all trained exceptionally hard for the event, we’re still going into it with some trepidation.

’No matter how we get on, however, the real winners will be The Children’s Centre.’  

To sponsor them and help motivate them up what Nick said are ’eight terrifying looking cycle climbs’ see at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/aoniom