The Piccadilly Plodders are travelling in two vehicles to Friedrichroda, Germany, which is twinned with Knaresborough’s twin town Bebra, to take part in their equivalent to our Bed Race on Sunday, July 5.

The Piccadilly team is made up of the six runners that entered this year’s Knaresborough Bed Race.

Runners including Simon Watts, managing director, do not know what to expect, as it is believed the Friedrichroda Bed race has a few twists to it: sawing through a tree trunk, navigating their way through a water filled gully, working out a puzzle and climbing over a lorry before completing the race.

Furthermore all of the beds are of the same design and have to weigh exactly 100kg, including the passenger. The teams can also be made of mixed sexes.

Simon Watts said: “When members of the Lions Bed Race committee asked me if I wanted to take a team across, it immediately sounded like a good idea, so I said yes!

“If it’s half as much fun as our event, all the hard work involved in the organisation and getting there will certainly be worth it.

“The German organisers are absolutely thrilled that we are entering a team. Those involved in the event have been extremely helpful yet when it comes to trying to find out what the race involves we don’t know what to expect.”

Piccadilly will use the event to raise awareness of Candlelighters, their chosen charity.

Simon and the Lions Bed Race Committee now hope to get more teams to join them in Friedrichroda for the1 5th Bed Race in 2010.

Simon added: “Over the last 12 years that Piccadilly have sponsored the Great Knaresborough Bed Race, Bebra have had at least one team in the race, only missing 2001 due to the outbreak of foot and mouth, so we are proud to represent our town for this year’s race in Friedrichroda.

“Hopefully we can all manage to complete the course in a respectable time. To help achieve this we have continued training with the bed during the three weeks between the two races and got plenty of funny looks and comments pushing the bed through Knaresborough!

He also thanked the Lions Bed Race committee for their hard work in carrying off another extremely successful Bed Race.