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Soap stars aim to ride from Emmerdale to Eastenders in under 24 hours

and Team Sky's Ben Swift wil put a post Tour stint in from the Woolpack to Walford for cancer charity...

The easiest way to get from Emmerdale to Eastenders is using your TV remote – the hard way is by bike – in real life the distance between the two fictional locations (what you didn't know they weren't real?) is 224 miles, though of course they're worlds apart.

Next month (19 August) a team from Emmerdale aim to ride those 224 miles in under 24 hours to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support - they will be joined along the way by Team Sky's Ben Swift who'll no doubt be looking to keep his legs turning over after the Tour de France.

The five man Emmerdale team is made up of actors Kelvin Fletcher, Rik Makarem, James Thornton, and Tom Lister along with their exectuive producer, Steve November – they are doing the ride in memory of Gavin Blyth the series producer for Emmerdale who died of cancer last year aged just 41.

They are not doing it the 'easy' way either – this isn't a relay. According to the Team Emmerdale website the riders "will set off from the Emmerdale village on Friday 6pm and each rider will not leave the saddle until they arrive in Albert Square on Saturday evening." That's going for it, especially as they are novice cyclists - although judging by their Youtube channel they have been doing a fair bit of training… well, you would.

Team Emmerdale cyclist James Thornton said:
‘We are all looking forward to undertaking this challenge to raise £100,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. None of us have cycled further than the local before, but thanks to all our sponsors providing us with fantastic kit, we’re ready to take to the roads!’

We're sure the Emmerdale team will get a friendly Walford welcome on their arrival especially from those nice Mitchell boys.

To find out more about the Emmerdale to Eastenders ride visit the Team Emmerdale website at www.teamemerdale.com and you can make a donation towards their target amount via their justgiving page – they've already raised over £20,000 or you can make a £5 donation by texting ‘RIDE66 £5’ to 70070.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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Chameleon78 | 13 years ago
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What on earth is all that drivel about???

I remember my first drink too.

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handlebarcam | 13 years ago
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I heard they originally planned to go via Ambridge, but they couldn't find it in their satnav.

And that joke, based on the non-specificity of the location of The Archers, is the entirety of my knowledge of soaps. Those men pictured could be the stars, bit-part actors, or back stage staff for all I know. I am a firm believer in the saying that "nothing good lasts forever." It seems that, if anything has a shot at eternity in this country, it is the soaps. They could probably get away with even phone hacking, such is their popularity. The big two or three soaps, and possibly Tescos, will probably outlast Neil Armstrong's boot prints on the moon. Which I, personally, find depressing.

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