CHARITY cyclist Tony Stanley has surprised himself by completing a challenge he set himself to cover almost 1,100 miles in just 16 days.

The target for Tony, 60, was to reach his son's home in Bratislava after starting out from Rotterdam, on a route through Holland, Germany, Austria and on to Slovakia.

Now back in Bingley with around £2,000 earned in charity donations for the British Heart Foundation and the Take Heart fund based in Leeds, he admitted: "I didn't think I'd be able to do 1,100 miles without catching a train or ferry.

"There were no mishaps, not even a puncture, and everything went very smoothly."

The businessman, who owns Stanley Cars on Canal Road in Bradford, completed the trip with his squash partner John Bell. Already he is planning a similar challenge for next summer, from Bratislava to the Black Sea, following the Danube.

His idea to cycle the route came out of an idea to visit his son Oliver, 28, who lives in Bratislava with his wife Renka.

He has also succeeded in doubling his original fund raising target which had been set at £1,000.

However, before his next two wheeled challenge he is preparing to walk from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean via the Pyrenees.