BUILDING society staff hope to complete the Tour de France from the comfort of their own office.

A team from the Durham branch of the Newcastle Building Society will take to their exercise bikes on Thursday, hoping to complete 200km in a single day.

Staff from the Elvet Bridge office will be joining colleagues from 19 other branches and two head offices as they take on the full 3,656km distance of the Tour over five days.

Each branch will raise money for a good cause in the local community, with proceeds from Durham’s cycling effort going to Durham Hospital Radio.

Branch manager David Pearson said: “We’re aiming to travel around 200km in a single day, and while we have some riders amongst our team, others are anything but regular cyclists, so it will take a lot of effort and commitment for them to reach their personal finishing lines.

“We’re hoping to get lots of people coming into the branch to cheer on as the wheels go round and support our fundraising efforts if they can, and we’ll all be doing our best to reach the finishing line on schedule.”

Natalie Falkous, head of corporate social responsibility at the Newcastle Building Society, added: “Having Le Tour’s Grand Depart in Northern England was something very special, and we wanted to do something that both marked this unique event and added to the fundraising work that our branch teams do for good causes in their various locations”.