Charity cyclist who rode to Euros beaten up upon arrival by would-be bike thieves

A Dublin man who rode almost 600km for charity on his way to Euro 2016 was punched and kicked by would-be bike thieves on his arrival in Paris. Fortunately, a group of market traders came to his aid and saw off his attackers.

The Irish Independent reports that Alan Maxwell decided to ride from Dublin to Paris to raise money for Breast Cancer Ireland and ARC Cancer Support after his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Maxwell got the ferry to Holyhead on June 9 and cycled 200km from Anglesey to Shrewsbury the following day. He then cycled another 200km from Shrewsbury to Oxford before a final 170km ride to London, at which point he took the train to Paris.

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He raised more than €5,000 through his efforts, but his arrival in the French capital on June 13 – the day of Ireland’s match against Sweden – was marred when he was attacked at the Gare du Nord.

"When I arrived in Paris, two lads jumped me at the Gare du Nord and tried to rob my bike off me, after all that. I was cycling along, smiley, I'd had a few beers on the train. Next of all, a punch in the side of the face."

Maxwell said that he was saved by a group of local women.

"The locals who were running the market stalls around there all came flooding to save me. They grabbed my bike for me. Another lad came running up behind and said 'Hey man, you dropped your phone'. It had fallen out of my pocket when I was getting kicked on the ground.”

Maxwell says he plans to fly home. "I cycled all that distance and that was the reward that I got."

Reflecting on the ride, he told the Belfast Telegraph: "If I'm honest it was too big an undertaking. The distances were too much. My legs have never felt as bad, and as well as the physical side of it, because I was on my own the mental strength is what really I found tough, just to motivate myself to keep going. But my mantra was 'it's time to earn the money that people donated'."