HUNDREDS of keen cyclists dusted off their Lycra for an 88-mile bike ride with an early morning start.

Yesterday saw the annual Oxford to Cambridge bike ride, which raises tens of thousands of pounds each year for the British Heart Foundation.

Among those taking part were Dr Helen Roskell, 38, who cycled on a tandem bike with her 46-year-old husband Derek.

The couple, from Weston-on-the-Green, only decided to take part earlier last week, but regularly go for bike rides with their son Thomas, nine, and daughter Alice, eight.

Dr Roskell, a GP in Woodstock, said: “It’s a bit of fun really.

“We decided to do it fairly late in the day and thought it would be a good challenge — and it was.”

She said they completed the ride in six hours and 44 minutes, stopping at Woburn Park for lunch.

Dr Roskell admitted she texted a few friends while her husband, a pathologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital , Oxford, cycled at the front.

She added: “Lots and lots of people shouted as we cycled past saying ‘she’s not pushing’ — the person at the back takes all the abuse.”