Four workmates are hoping to raise £3,000 for cancer charities by cycling 170 miles in a day.

The friends, who all work for Deloitte LLP in Leeds, are asking the public to sponsor them on their journey from Morecambe to Bridlington which they hope to complete in less than 15 hours.

James Izzard, from Guiseley, will be undertaking the challenge on June 14 along with Ian Stephenson, Jim Bloomfield and Karen Landells.

The riders, who are all in their 30s, aim to set off from Morecambe at 5.30am, and arrive in Bridlington at 8.30pm.

They are asking people to visit their just giving page at http://www.justgiving.com/teams/170mC2Ccancer to sponsor them.

James, whose wife is driving the support vehicle, said: "We are supporting St Gemma's Hospice and Cancer Research UK. We decided to do this challenge to raise money for these charities, to raise awareness for cancer, and also in recognition of the hard times that our friends and families have been through recently with various forms of cancer.

"We are all expecting the challenge to be incredibly difficult and none of us are sure whether we will complete it. We all have different levels of cycling experience. I did the same route last summer but over three days. I have been doing a lot of training since December, clocking up 1200 miles in total, mainly at weekends as I'm busy with work during the week. I joined Otley Cycle club to help me with my training and that has been a big help being able to ride in a group for 100 miles at a time on the Sunday club rides. The furthest I've cycled in any one ride in training is 101 miles so the last 70 miles will be an unknown for me.

"Karen and Jim have both previously taken part in the Deloitte Ride Across Britain which is a nine day ride from Lands End to John O'Groats so they are used to big mileage but the furthest either of them have cycled in any one stint is 125 miles. Karen has also been clocking up a lot of training miles.

"Jim hasn't been on his bike yet this year and has been focussing on running a series of marathons so far this year.

"Ian has done all of his cycle training on a turbo trainer in his kitchen. He competed in ironman triathlons last year and will be doing so again this year. The furthest he has cycled in one ride is 120 miles in the bike leg of the last ironman he did last summer."