MARRIOTT Hotel manager, Joanne Taylor-Stagg, will be spearheading a 130-mile charity cycle ride from Swindon to Swansea tomorrow.

Six teams of 30 riders from six Marriott hotels, including Swindon, will be setting out at 5.30am tomorrow morning bound for south Wales, hoping to arrive in Swansea early tomorrow evening.

“I’m excited and a little nervous,” admitted Joanne. “Oh and little insane too!”

The Swindon team of Joanne, Craig Greason, Camille Wild, James Pierce, Andrew Fenwick, Mark Charlton, Jayesh Bhalerao, will each cycle between 25 to 30 miles on the route which sets out from Swindon to Malmesbury and on to Rudgeway, near Bristol.

Accompanied by driver Louise Davis, the Swindon team will be riding through Chepstow, Newport, Caerphilly, Pontypridd, Bridgend, Port Talbot before arriving in Swansea.

“It’s 130 miles in distance and we reckon to be cycling about 12 miles an hour,” added Joanne, who admitted to coming up with the mad-cap idea. “With changeovers, the cycle ride should take more than 11 hours.

“We chose to ride to Swansea because that is the last Marriott hotel before we hit the sea!”

The Swindon seven will be joined by riders from Marriott teams drawn from Bristol City, Bristol Royal, St Pierre, Cardiff and Swansea hotels.

She added: “We are doing this as part of our Spirit to Serve our Communities week. We did the charity ball to raise money for Swindon charities and the bike ride is to raise funds for Hospitality Action, the industry’s benevolent fund “Some have been doing more training than others since we got the sponsored bike from Mitchell Cycles this week. We’ve been doing 10 to 15 miles each evening after work.”

The Marriott team have a fund-raising website which can be found at www.justgiving.com/Swindon2SwanseaMarriottCycle