A GROUP of veterans have amazed the cycling community by completing one of the toughest mountain bike challenges in the world – despite some riders having severe disabilities.

The Alp d’Huez Megavalanche challenge sees cyclists hurtle down 2km of glacier at speeds of more than 60kph, manoeuvre their way through technical mountainside forest tracks in the longest downhill race in the world.

A team of injured, wounded and sick service personnel and veterans who use Help for Heroes recovery centre Phoenix House for rehabilitation took on the challenge as part of the Battle Back programme, which aims to help former soldiers in their recovery.

Colour Sergeant Roger Coates led the team of eight riders who have been training for around a year for the race.

He said: “I have done the event a couple of times before so knew what to expect. We started training around the UK, on terrain getting progressively harder until we completed a downhill at Ben Nevis.

“In France we had two days to get used to the course, and a qualifying session which put us into the third group which were the very keen amateur races.

“We broke the rules a bit and pushed for a couple of firsts with the race – we were the first group, the first disabled riders and Rachel Kipling in our team was the first woman to compete in the men’s race as we wanted to race altogether.

“The organisers allowed her to race with us which was right – we were a team and we stayed together.”

One of the riders, Simon Taylor from Redcar, said the exhilarating ride helped to prove that despite losing a leg, he was still capable of achieving anything he set his mind to.

“One of the main reasons for taking part was to show people we could do it,” he said.

“On the first morning we were in France, in the lift another cyclist looked at my prosthetic leg, saw my cycling gear and asked if I was here for Megavalanche – he was amazed when I told him I was.”

Mr Taylor lost the lower part of his right leg in Afghanistan in September 2009 when his vehicle hit an explosive.

He said: “The driver was killed instantly. I was in a coma for four weeks and basically broke everything apart from my right arm.

“I have metal work in my spine, legs and shoulder – but I have a family who need a dad and a husband. When you see 18-year-old kids who have lost both legs and an arm and are still laughing, you know you have nothing to complain about.”

Veteran Dave Evans from Darlington was meant to take part but broke his wrist in a training session.

He said: "We had ridden the top part of the course as a recce and were just going down for lunch when I misjudged a jump and crashed into the side. I wrote off the helmet but it did its job.

"Then I realised my left arm was badly bruised and sore but I was disorientated, but I started to get an unpleasant feeling on my right wrist and felt nauseous. I still didn’t think it was broken though because I had knocked it a couple of weeks previous and was wearing a wrist brace anyway so thought that would have protected it.”

Roger insisted that Dave went to hospital where an x-ray confirmed his worst fears – it was broken in two places.

"I watched team cycle past on race day and I was really pleased for them but I was quite gutted to have spent seven months training and to have got so close to taking part – but now I am looking forward to the next challenge that Roger has planned for us."