GREENOCK building society staff got on their bike for their own ‘Tour de France’ to raise money for a cancer charity.

Five staff at the Yorkshire Building Society in West Blackhall Street took turns on a static bike to cover the 190 kilometre distance of the first stage of the legendary cycle race.

This will be from Leeds to Harrogate in Yorkshire today, before competitors head down to France and finish in Paris on 27 July.

The building society is an official supporter of the Tour de France, and Marie Curie Cancer Care is its charity partner.

Each of the five staff had to do 38 kilometres on Friday to clock up the distance, spending about an hour at a time on the bike while big-hearted customers put money in a collection hat.

Greenock manager Lee Simpson led by example by being first in the saddle, and said he and his colleagues were glad to be involved in the challenge, which is being supported by all of the society’s branches.

He said: “The society is giving £1 for every kilometre we cycle, and £20 pays for an hour’s worth of care by Marie Curie, so that was a great incentive for us.” The other branch cyclists taking part were David Nolan, Joan McKechnie, Nicola Bowie and Myra King.

Lee added: “Friday is our busiest day, so we had lots of customers in the branch.

“We’ve done fundraising for charity here before and, as always, our customers were very generous.” The sponsored bike ride is in aid of ‘Hour of Need’ — a new fundraising campaign by the society and Marie Curie Cancer Care to raise £500,000 by December 2016, which equates to funding an hour of care by a Marie Curie nurse for every hour of the campaign.

If you would like to sponsor the team in their challenge go to www.justgiving.com/companyteams/YBSGroupStaticBikeChallenge2014