The staff from Peter Cooper Volkswagen dealers cycled 500 miles through France, from the small town of Arras, 70 miles from Calais, to the mountainous Alsace region on the border with Germany.

The Velo Vosges Challenge saw the Portsmouth team competing to raise cash for Wessex Heartbeat, a charity which funds the Wessex Cardiac Centre at Southampton General Hospital.

The team, who set out on Friday, is aiming to collect £4,000 in sponsorship for the charity.

They arrived back in Britain on Monday morning after their exhausting cross-country adventure, which took them past the battlefields of the Somme to the Vosges mountains and the wine country of Champagne, before ending in the small, cobble-street mountain village of Riquewihr.

Perry Lee, 44, company director, based at the Portsmouth branch, said he had done a lot of training before the event but that it was still an arduous trip.

He said: 'It was a challenge in as much as we weren't only riding the journey, it was sleep deprivation as well, and the early starts. We were up early in the morning, before dawn, riding in the dark, on until about half-past four or five o'clock. The whole thing was pretty gruelling, but we were quite lucky with the weather.

'The Saturday was dry, but the Sunday was really quite autumnal and very beautiful in the mountain region where we were. It was very picturesque with stunning views and great camaraderie, everyone supporting one another, and it's something we'd like to do again. We'd like to thank everybody who was involved with supporting us.'

The Wessex Cardiac Centre is one of the UK's top heart treatment centres, offering treatment to around 20,000 patients every year, including about 1,000 children.

Melody Carter, Wessex Heartbeat's fund-raising co-ordinator, said: 'Support from local companies such as Peter Cooper Volkswagen is tremendously important in enabling us to ensure that everyone affected by heart conditions receives the best possible support.'