TOUR de France? Not quite, but mid-Norfolk cyclist Alison Gibb is heading across the Channel next month to fulfil her own personal biking challenge.Alison, 60, from Harding-ham, has just retired as a chartered physiotherapist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

TOUR de France? Not quite, but mid-Norfolk cyclist Alison Gibb is heading across the Channel next month to fulfil her own personal biking challenge.

Alison, 60, from Harding-ham, has just retired as a chartered physiotherapist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

And to keep herself occupied in her new-found leisure time she is joining a charity ride from London to Paris.

Mother-of-four Alison will set off from the English capital on July 23 and cycle down to Newhaven to catch the ferry to Dieppe. Then she will make for the French capital - a total distance of some 300 miles.

She has funded the adventure herself and has been busy totting up £1,100 in sponsorship for the organisation, Action Medical Research.

Her wish is that the money she raises will go towards research that the charity supports at the University of East Anglia and the Norfolk and Norwich.

Alison has taken part in the annual Norfolk Churches Trust bike rides in the past and enjoyed a cycling trip around the Scottish island of Mull.

But the distance of the London-Paris trip is new to her, so she has been putting in plenty of 20 to 30-mile training rides on the roads around her home village.

“Having reached retirement, I thought I needed a fresh challenge,” she said.

“Action Medical Research supports research into various worthwhile projects. It has done work on hip replacements and a lot to do with neonatal care.”

By chance, the ride is scheduled to end in Paris just in time for the grand finale of the 2008 Tour, so she and her husband Michael are hoping to catch the spectacle while they are there.

Anyone interested in sponsoring Alison can contact her on 01953 850606 or visit www.action.org.uk/amg13