Saddleworth brothers gear up for the ultimate Aussie cycle challenge

Two brothers from Saddleworth are to tackle the biggest challenge of their lives as they embark on a charity cycle between Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia.

Nick Devine, aged 28, and his brother James “Jimmy” Devine, 25,will join friends Ed Watson, 27, from Kidderminster, and Miles Neilson, 26, from Gillingham – collectively known as The Fitzroy Four, the suburb of Melbourne where they became a four – to take on the 2,000km challenge along the Australian east coast for up to eight weeks.

They will be raising money for three charities – Andy’s Man Club, Muscular Dystrophy UK (both UK based) and Children’s Cancer Foundation (based in Australia).

All were chosen due to close personal reasons including deaths of friends and lifelong family struggles.

The distance covered is the equivalent of cycling from London to Rabat, Morocco – which were they to start in Europe would take them to another continent.

It’s fair to say the boys aren’t keen cyclists – none of them owned a bicycle until July of this year and they have been striving to get themselves into shape in Bundaberg, Queensland while completing their dreaded 88 days of farm work to comply with Australian working holiday visa regulations.

To make things even harder, one of their training bikes was stolen out of their back garden scuppering the four’s chance of practicing cycling as a four!

Nick – who thought of the idea back in 2016 - said: “I cycled when I was a kid but since then I’ve probably been on a bike twice.

“Since we’ve conceived the idea of this challenge we’ve picked up some bikes to get going and get training.

"We’ve got to – and now one of them has been taken it makes it that little bit harder!

“It’s going to be difficult at points – we’ve realised that when you’re cycling on the long busy roads for eight hours at a time it’s not that enjoyable.

"Then we’re also living outdoors for seven or eight weeks so that whole lifestyle might prove difficult but I think we’ll adapt and it won’t be an issue.

“It’s going to be tough but we’ll get over it.”

The three charities are close to the hearts of the four – with two particularly close to Nick and one to Miles.

Nick said: “We had a friend who passed away in 2014 from leukaemia.

"I visited the cancer ward in Leeds quite a few times while he was there and saw the work they do and how valuable it is to both the patients and their families.

“It’s going to be tough but we’ll get to Melbourne.

“Andy’s Man Club is in memory of another friend of mine and it’s good knowing that the money will mean much more than it would going to a big national charity.

"The money you’re raising will directly help someone potentially. We hope that it will help deter people from committing suicide and that’s a big thing!

“It means a lot completing the challenge in memory of friends.”

Muscle-wasting conditions are something that has affected multiple members of Miles’ family – he was even lucky not to be born with one himself – and so Muscular Dystrophy UK is the final chosen charity of the quartet.

Miles said: “Muscular Dystrophy runs in my family – my nan and my mum both have it and that’s one the reasons I decided to sponsor the charity.

“Muscular Dystrophy doesn’t affect women, they just carry it.

"But two other family members have it. I had a 50% chance of getting it and luckily for me I didn’t.

“I want to raise awareness because I don’t feel like it’s as known about as much as it should be.”

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