Adrian Chiles teams up with Alan Shearer

Feb 26 2008 By Tony Collins

WEST Bromwich Albion fanatic Adrian Chiles will be returning to the stadium in style next month when he embarks on a gruelling 335 mile cycle ride in aid of Sport Relief 2008.

Adrian will be joined by former Newcastle United and England striker Alan Shearer on The Sport Relief Super Cycle challenge, which aims to get from from St James's Park, Newcastle, to BBC Television Centre, London, in less than 48 hours.

The daunting bicycle journey, which takes in Albion's Hawthorns ground, sets off on March 13 and aims to end no later than 7.30pm the next evening, in time for Sport Relief's big night of TV.

Adrian, aged 40, who presents The One Show and Match of the Day 2 for BBC, confessed that he and Match of the Day pundit Alan were probably "mad" for taking on the cycle challenge.

"I can hear the sound of fear in Alan Shearer's voice when he talks about it and I am feeling the same.

"I really think we have bitten off more than we can chew and I don't know whether we can pull it off or not.

"It's just a long way to cycle - 175 miles in one day, that's one thing, but to get up and do it again and do another 150 miles the following day is a killer."

The new slimline father-of-two, who recently visited Liberia in West Africa for Sport Relief, cycles every day in London, where he now lives after moving from his native West Midlands.

Adrian, who was born in Hagley, near Kidderminster, added: "You cheat death every day, cycling around London, but I would be lost without my bike.

"I once did 80 miles from my home in Hammersmith to Stow-on-the-Wold, where my brother lives, and my extremities very nearly froze off. I didn't fancy doing another 80."