AFTER enduring one of the most testing cycling feats there is, James Maltin ended the three week challenge with romance by proposing to his girlfriend at the Eiffel Tower.

Mr Maltin, 39, who divides his time between Albourne and his work in London, is one of ten cyclists who joined former England footballer Geoff Thomas to travel the punishing Tour de France route, cycling each of the 21 stages a day before the professionals.

The challenge called Le Tour: One Day Ahead began on July 3. The team pedalled almost 2,100 miles for 21 consecutive days from Utrecht in Holland finishing at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

It was organised by Mr Thomas, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2003 and was given three months to live. However, he received treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and has been in remission since 2005 and has vowed to raise £1m for charity Cure Leukaemia.

Mr Maltin, an investment director for company Rathbones in Mayfair, met Mr Thomas in 2014 and was touched by his story so much that, despite being an amateur cyclist, he jumped to the challenge of competing in Le Tour.

The team were pushed to the limit and had to contend with 40-plus degree heat, wall-like ascents and frightening mountain-top thunderstorms when riding an average of 110 miles a day.

Mr Maltin said: “It’s a three week event and it’s fair to say in those three weeks I experienced every emotion you are capable of experiencing.

“It puts such a physical strain on your body, but it’s not just the physical side, it’s the logistics. You are cycling for ten hours a day and have to find time to eat and rest. We would get up at 5am and do it all over again and there was no opportunity to rest.

“You get cuts and bruises and saddle sores but they don’t have time to heal. But the body adjusts and we got through it.”

Mr Maltin has raised nearly £41,000 for the charity on his JustGiving page but is still hoping people donate so he can reach his £50,000 target at justgiving.com/JamesMaltin.

Mr Maltin and his team took a rest day on Sunday and watched as Britain's Chris Froome claimed victory in the Tour de France.

While in the ‘city of romance’ Mr Maltin also took the opportunity to end the whirlwind month on a high and proposed to his girlfriend Anna-Louise Felstead, 36, who is the sister of Made in Chelsea’s Binky, at the Eiffel Tower.

He said: "We entered central Paris by cycling around the L'Arc du Triomph, up the Champs Elsysee and to the Eiffel Tower, where we finished and climbed down off our bikes for the last time. As I did so our team photographer Joolze Dymond stood nearby and asked, 'so James, what's next challenge', to which I instantly replied, 'I don't know, start a family?' - and it was then I realised that whilst cycling along and with time to think, I had made the decision to marry Anna-Louise.

“Once the excitement and celebrations of completing the Tour de France had subsided, asking her to marry me felt the most natural thing to do."