A TASTE of the Tour de France is coming to Farnworth.

There will be a French feel in the air at a local supermarket when fundraisers try to cycle 500 miles in aid of Diabetes UK.

The Tesco store, in Long Causeway, will host an event entitled Tour de Tesco next weekend, with the aim of raising £500 for the charity.

The event, which is inspired by the Tour de France, will see Tesco staff and customers tasked with the challenge of cycling a combined 500 miles on two exercise bikes — which is the approximate distance from Farnworth to Paris.

Participants are encouraged to wear French fancy dress outfits or sports gear and the theme of the challenge will be “Monsieurs v Madames”.

The challenge will run on Friday and Saturday and 60 people are taking part.

Since March, the Farnworth Tesco store has raised £3,500 for Diabetes UK.

Dave Eglinton, the store’s community champion, said: “The people of Farnworth are always a generous bunch — it’s been brilliant to get this much support and any publicity we can get for Diabetes UK is a massive help.

“Diabetes is unfortunately something which affects a lot of people. We chose Diabetes UK as our charity because what they could do with the amount of money we raise would be amazing.”

Tour de Tesco runs from about 10am until 5pm on Friday and Saturday.

The exercise bikes will be supplied by Xercise4less Bolton and team members from the gym will visit Tesco to help out.

This will be the second year in a row the Farnworth Tesco store has selected Diabetes UK as its fundraising charity.

The store raised £9,500 for the charity last year and it hopes to raise £11,500 this year. It has until March next year to raise the remaining £8,000 which is required to reach its target for the financial year.