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by Graham
Tutthill

Three hundred bike riders were given a heroes welcome when
they came ashore at Dover on Sunday, May 30, at the end of a
demanding and emotional 320-mile cycle ride across Northern
France.

The fundraisers, who were joined on their journey by eight
Battle Back team members and Help For Heroes founders
Bryn and Emma Parry, arrived home aboard Royal Naval landing
craft.

They had spent the night onboard the command ship HMS Largs Bay
which brought them into Dover Harbour.

Relatives and supporters gathered on the beach to watch
them transfer to the landing craft and then come ashore, with a
musical salute from a bugler and a piper.

The riders, who set off the previous Monday
from Portsmouth, had visited some of the most poignant
memorials and towns of the First and Second World Wars,
including St Valery en Caux, where two of the riders laid the
first wreaths to pay tribute to the soldiers at the Commonwealth
War Grave Commission and Fromelles, where a private wreath laying
took place.

Last year’s bike ride went on to raise £800,000 for
initiatives that support British troops wounded in current
conflicts.

This year, the H4H cyclists are aiming to
raise at least £1 million.

On Saturday the H4H riders
joined many service men and women, past and present, to pay
tribute to those evacuated and those who lost their lives along the
way in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.

They also attended a beach memorial and a
town parade.

On Sunday, a spitfire gave a thrilling display
over Dover Harbour before the riders came ashore.

And after their landing, the Red Devils parachute team performed
a formation water jump, leaping from a plane above the waves,
before landing in the harbour.

For more information about Help For Heroes visit www.Helpforheroes.org.uk